Frank J. has decided to try Twitter again.
He likes it. And he’s using a plug-in to automatically pull his Twitter posts (“Tweets”? “Twits”?) into a daily wrap-up.
Many of the commenters don’t like it.
Here’s the thing.
Most of the commenters like Frank’s “Random Thought” posts. A lot. They get lots of comments and lots of 4- and 5-star ratings.
Folks hate Frank’s Twitter posts, but love his Random Thoughts. Which are essentially what Twitter updates are.
I think people just don’t like Twitter, though they like what Twitter is and does.
Imagine if Frank removed all reference to “Twitter” in those posts…
Suppose he called the daily updates “Today’s Random Thoughts”?
And put them in the “Random Thoughts” category?
And edited the “aktt_credit” class in the stylesheet to not display?
Then, it’d be not just be, but look like, a daily Random Thoughts update.
I bet most of the readers would love that.
Am I right?
And what does that say about us?
We think “Twitter” is an idiotic name and refuse to be associated with something that sounds so stupid?
The problem I have with the twitter posts is that they’re mostly replies that are completely without context.
And what does that say about us?
Not sure what it says about the rest of the people (and alteregos) here, but it says I think twitter is the new fad and I don’t do fads.
Well, except for pet rocks. But that was cool.
Well, and except for pet woks. But I’m a sucker for bad puns.
Hey, you know what’s great about Twitter?
No, really, I’m asking…
If anyone likes them, I’ll keep doing them. I just don’t like my bon mots going to waste. I can have it remove replies. If they do just seem to much like post spam, they’ll go.
BTW, blogs were once considered a fad.
The problem is the posts of twitter traffic are almost indistinguishable from an IRC log. Except it is only Frankj’s side so it is more like listening to someone talking on the telephone.
Really, Twitter is a silly thing. Might as well be idling on IRC all day. But because Twitter is shiny, new and web based everybody thinks it’s cool. But it is really just another proof that those who do not understand UNIX will be doomed to forever reinvent it… poorly. Because there isn’t very much Twitter does that IRC couldn’t have done in 1995 except get the attention of the MSM.
BTW, blogs were once considered a fad.
Not by me. By the same people who are attacking the tea parties as reich-wing, racist, astroturfed, temper-tantrums.
The problem with twitter for conservatives is that we don’t sit around waiting impatiently for our intellectual betters to post their thoughts.
Now get to posting teh funny, I’m getting sick of hitting “refresh” and not seeing new posts.
I hate Twitter, but more on an abstract level.
I also hate Frank’s Twitter-post-things, mostly for the reasons Aaron and John Morris gave. The Twitter posts are not like Frank’s Random Thoughts. They are more like the result of a marginally-retarded spambot copying Frank’s Random Thoughts and randomly inserting them into the usual spambot mumbo-jumbo.
Frank: We are lazy and easily confused. We want bon mots, but only pure bon mots, not adulterated bon mots lost in a sea of confusing formatting and out-of-context comments.
Twitter sucks and anyone who uses the word “Tweet” is gay!
If Frank must post his thoughts using Twitter, its better that he posts his daily wrap-up here so I am not even tempted to go to that Twitty site.
Twitter is for the herd. So what? Deal with it. There will be something else tomorrow. We can then all waste our time commenting on that. I love the ‘media.’ They decide what is a fad and what is useful.
Woah! What is that, Japanese? I have no I idea what that post was even about. When I was producing music on my Mac II and Mac Classic back in the day, I had the world in front of me and it looked like smooooth sailing! I think I’ve reached that point in evey adult’s life when technology officially passes them. Thank you, and goodnight.
Twitter is what pea-brained birds do. Twitter-pated is Disney animals in love. Ergo, Twitter is for Frank J.? I don’t get it.
Twitter doesn’t seem very useful.
Is that a secret twit?? Or Twa.., er never mind.
Well, I like a lot of the twitter posts for the very reason Basil points out – that they are essentially random thoughts posts, of which there can never be too many. Frank is like, the only person who knows what to do with that stupid site with the ridiculous name lol.
Though the ones that are just replies should probably be edited out before they’re posted. That might be too much work, though.
Gah – “BTW, blogs were once considered a fad.”
I still say they are, and I loathe the format to this day. I want the message boards back. Twitter is just a big chatroom, and chatrooms were pathetic, but message boards were the sh**. That’s what the net should still be full of, boards.
On the other hand, if Frank was to go all Ashton Kutcher and do the Twatter thing, I envision a more enthusiastic response.
Is that what that is? I thought he was just talking to himself. Obviously there is reason they call it a “twit”.
Seems like a bunch of namedropping to me. “Look! I got tweets from MKH and AllahPundit!” Throw in # signs all over, rendering it nearly unintelligible, and it’s “scroll down and look for something funny in another post” time for this kid. If others like it, cool. I can scroll. NBD.
“The internet? Is that thing still around?”
— Homer Simpson —
innominatus – I know, I got such a rush when Zo started “following” me. That will probably be the high point of my life – it is so far, anyway. And holy crap, James Lileks is on there – I own all his books and now I get to read his mind-droppings (I thought you originally said mind-droppings, not name-dropping.) Hehe…I’m only partly kidding, though.
I … can’t keep up … go on without me!
(clinging to cassette tapes)
I have long suspected that Frank’s Random Thoughts were a good deal more thought than random. That twitter stuff is all random without thought; that is, it’s backwards. Ergo, twitter is a step backwards. That’s a definition of ‘progress’ with which I am unfamiliar.
I just scroll past them. Yawn.
What does it say about us?
That when we share our thoughts the heavens open, and all the earth cries out in joy. Isn’t it obvious?
Let’s face it, it’s our humility which makes us perfect.
But auto-copying your twitter posts into your blog just looks to me like someone who just wants to be noticed. Tweet for the people on twitter, blog here. I’ve always considered twitter to be another way of saying “notice me! I’m relevant”.
Kind of like why Paris Hilton has a facebook page. yes, she has lots of ‘friends’, but I’m not sure ‘friends’ is the word I would use.
We like most of Basil’s posts, but hate this one (a 2.4); what does that say about us?
[That you rate my posts — including this one — higher than I do. – B]