
How Twitter Helps Me (Specific Use Cases) - epi0Bauqu
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2009/04/how-twitter-helps-me-specific-use-cases.html
======
rarestnews
[I really regret writing this post as it started a flame war. Sorry, didn't
want to start flame.]

WTH?

8 _SPECIFIC_ USEFUL cases mentioned in article:

[1. I joined T. and started talking where I was. I was corrected. Useful!]
-incorrect, corrected to "nonrecursive" clarification below, my apologies

2\. It can repeat my Facebook status. Now I never forget what I'm doing.
Useful!

3\. I monitor twitter search about "Duck Duck Go" (the author's startup),
which tells me what customer think about it (
[http://search.twitter.com/search?q="duck+duck+go"](http://search.twitter.com/search?q=)
to spare you the time - all tweets are "Trying new search engine", one opinion
given, same opinion re-tweetted once more). Useful! (well, this might not be
as sarcasctic as others)

4\. I don't think you heard about "Duck Duck Go" enough, so here's more....

5\. "It helps me meet new people (in person).... it gives you great ice-
breakers when you meet people" Twitter?? As a _Great_ ice-breaker??..
Twitter??

(addendum) 5a. "For example, I follow a lot of people ..., but have not yet
met all of them in person. " ... Did he meet any of them?

6\. It make me feel connected.... (remember it's about _SPECIFIC_ USE CASES,
SPECIFIC! USE!)

7\. "It helps me spread news/links. You need a decent amount of followers for
this one. I don't really have that many" ..........

8\. "It helps me keep abreast of news/links" Well... I can believe this one..

Probably the article "1 specific use case Twitter helps me" wouldn't be as
popular.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w#t=151s>

~~~
epi0Bauqu
I really don't appreciate this kind of sarcasm on HN. And your sarcasm, quite
frankly, I don't get. I get asked a lot what makes Twitter useful. So I wrote
up the specific uses wherein I find it helpful. (Oh, and btw, you'll find more
useful tweets at <http://search.twitter.com/search?q=duckduckgo> )

~~~
rarestnews
So how being corrected for writing what you doing is useful to you? Or feeling
of being more connected - is that useful? Or repeating your FaceBook status -
is that useful? Or spreading links, which you admit to be not working because
of not enough followers?

~~~
epi0Bauqu
If you knew me, you'd know I don't waste my time writing stuff I don't believe
in. I don't blog very often. So yes, I obviously find all of those cases
useful, and again, I frankly don't understand why you don't see their
usefulness.

> So how being corrected for writing what you doing is useful to you?

In the specific example, it saved me hours of time.

> Or feeling of being more connected - is that useful?

Absolutely. It makes me happier and more productive.

> Or repeating your FaceBook status - is that useful?

Absolutely. For the same reason Facebook status' are useful!

> Or spreading links, which you admit to be not working because of not enough
> followers?

That's not what I said. I said you need a lot of followers to make is useful,
and I have about just enough for it to be: "I don't really have that many, but
with the amount I do have it is enough..."

~~~
rarestnews
Keep it up, good work!

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Is that more sarcasm? Seriously, I can't tell.

~~~
rarestnews
Neither sarcasm, nor direct statement. Just a way to stop argument that would
lead us both nowhere.

We have different beliefs. I'm not planning of convincing you to my point-of-
view (it would pretty much be impossible and also useless for me, I'm not
running a religion) and your arguments don't convince me.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Convince you of what? That I don't believe myself that I find Twitter useful
in those cases?

~~~
rarestnews
I'm posting this only cause you asked, not to start flame war. Like I said
don't want to convince you to my opinion (and it would be impossible).

...convince me that Twitter is more useful than harmful (especially to your
time and self-assessment), I'd rather have 1 real-life friend and 1 real-life
enemy tell me their opinion about my startup, than any sampling of random 1000
Twitter followers. I might prefer opinion of HN readers (smart guys here), but
not the ranks of people reading Kutcher's tweets or things like fart-tweeting
chairs. I tried reading the smartest folks, but even they struggle to tell
some coherent thought in 140 chars. Then it turns out, those guys aren't
really there, but rather ghostwriters. And Shaq. Who as great basketball
player as he is - isn't exactly the mastermind. So, who else are Twitting?
Oprah. Give me a break.

Twittering is just another way to passively entertain yourself, like TV. Just
like TV remote - you have to press a few buttons occasionally and show goes on
- a lot of fluff-fluff-fluff, then maybe something useful and then again 59
minutes 45 seconds of fluff. Hardly worth spending hour to go through fluff
(commercials in TV case or what your "follower" ate for breakfast or who he's
in petty war against who to reach 1M followers in case of Twitter). It's just
not worth the time spent.

In my opinion - if you want opinion on your startup.. Add UserVoice. Do you
want to promote it? Buy ads or do some smart marketing that doesn't require
money. Using Twitter you're just following the herd which spends 99% of their
time on useless reading of other peoples... let's call them.. thoughts.. or
Re-Thhooughts in many cases.

Once again I remind you that this is my BELIEF and I couldn't convince you of
that and you won't convince me of opposite using arguments you presented. So,
let's just move our own ways.

~~~
nonrecursive
First, I don't believe the article was meant to be persuasive. As the OP
mentions, he's had people ask him about how he uses twitter and he wrote the
article to answer that question. I don't understand why you've assumed a
confrontational attitude from the get-go.

Second, this comment is more useful than your first. Even though it's not
responding to anything in the actual article, you at least give your opinion
and reasons for it. As opposed to writing, "THIS ISN'T USEFUL!!! COME ON!?"
Your comment is also useful to me personally because I find twitter useful and
seeing your objections to it has caused me to think about and clarify my
reasons for appreciating twitter.

------
mr_justin
From looking at the conclusion of this post, and also the other posts that
were linked to, it seems like this person writes about twitter so that they
can get more followers.

You shouldn't have to convince anyone but yourself why you would use a service
like twitter.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Really, that's not my goal. To back that up, I removed the links. I generally
like placing links, because I think they give useful context. For example, the
link to the old post tells you when I came on twitter and why.

