Twitter

[fredr123]

Recently (this morning, actually) I opened a twitter account. Usually, I'm pretty behind on the times with these new techy things and it's taking a while to figure out this thing. I don't send texts. I thought Facebook was going to flop and resisted getting an account. Anyone think twitter is going to have staying power?

Who else is on twitter? Do you use the twitter site, SMS or some other means to stay in touch? Anyone cool you can recommend following?

Help out a twitter noob.

[Barnes]

I want to use it but we are a little ahead of the curve on this one. I signed up over a year ago and am waiting patiently for people I know to join.

And the sites down again.

Oh now it's up.

I actually found my original account today.

You know you're an early adopter when you go to sign up for something and you get mad because your usual username is taken only to find out it's taken by you.

[fredr123]

The site has been uber flaky over the past few days. I've been reading about twitter for a few weeks, really trying to figure out what it's about. My aversion to sms might be a limiting factor to my twitter experience. Maybe that'll change.

I'm trying to use twhirl to interact with twitter. Not sure what I think about that...

[llama64]

I started using Twitter, but I don't update it often I find. Just don't have much to say.

However, for following people that I find interesting, it's AWESOME. It's like a simpler version of an RSS feed aggregator.

Now if they could move the code into a decent platform that can handle a load (currently it's Ruby on Rails...), it would be much nicer.

I have my google talk account setup as a "device" on Twitter, so I can post to it merely by sending a message to the Twitter bot. Works really well. As a note, I have gTalk setup in Adium (chat client for Macs).

edit: If you guys care about my last bowel movement and other such things, you can read all about them: @llama64

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I want to use it but we are a little ahead of the curve on this one. I signed up over a year ago and am waiting patiently for people I know to join.

And the sites down again.

Oh now it's up.

I actually found my original account today.

You know you're an early adopter when you go to sign up for something and you get mad because your usual username is taken only to find out it's taken by you.

Holy ADD post. I didn't even include my name. It's @Barnes

[fredr123]

@smtorsch

[Slava]

bump...
I got sucked in and started an account. Anyone else taking the plunge?

[arsenal]

I imagine something like this would be awesome on some drunken nights.
I may open an account strictly for this reason.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Slava

bump...
I got sucked in and started an account. Anyone else taking the plunge?

This post is useless without your username.

[Slava]

^ I sent a PM instead of posting it.

[Rathji]

So what exactly is twitter? I can't figure out what this will do that facebook won't, and I dont even use anything that facebook does.

[Barnes]

you won't get it until you start using it.

[fredr123]

Twitter is similar to your facebook status in 140 characters or less. Some call it microblogging. I find it annoying and useless but I go through spurts where I update it frequently.

Similar to friends on facebook, you can follow other twitter users and see what they're saying at any given time. Upon signing up, I immediately started following some of the more prominent people in the law and technology field. Three or four of them quickly polluted my account with tons of inane nattering. Most of it seems to be notifications of new blog postings and "interesting" links. Since I already follow their blogs through RSS feeds, most of this is redundant and it drowns out the updates from people I've actually met or care about following.

A friend of mine used twitter to provide updates while he and his wife were expecting. It got a little weird when his wife went into labour.

Contractions are quick and regular. Off to the hospital.

5cm dialated

10cm

I can see the head!!!

The placenta is bigger than I expected

I used to use twhirl on my desktop to stay in touch with twitter but it kept pestering me with updates from the inane people noted above. I installed twitterberry on my blackberry in order to update my own account. It's fast, it's minimialist and it works pretty much all the time. Of course, none of the stuff in my tweets is of sufficient importance that speed becomes of the essence. And none of the people that follow me care enough about twitter (or me) to anxiously await the latest updates anyway.

In case none of this blathering sells you on twitter, here's how Steven Matthews (one of the inane twitter users described above) explains twitter: http://www.stemlegal.com/strategyblo...-with-twitter/

[Rathji]

ya, thats one more thing I just don't need. Seems like a good idea though.

[Traditional_Ale]

This just seems like another in the long line of endless ways to pollute our lives with more useless information. I especially detest the extreme level of "plugged in" one must be for this service to be of any practical use.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

This just seems like another in the long line of endless ways to pollute our lives with more useless information. I especially detest the extreme level of "plugged in" one must be for this service to be of any practical use.

Well, maybe you can update your blog and add a tweet telling those neighbor kids to get off your damn lawn. And then text it to them so they're sure to get the message.

[arsenal]

or you could always send a tweet out when your garden hose goes missing.

[fredr123]

Didn't help finding the missing extension cord, though, so I'm not holding out hope for the garden hose...

[Barnes]

I just set up facebook to send my status updates as twatted twoots.

[Barnes]

http://twitter.com/extension_cord