Pages Tagged “Twitter”
Tech Tips
- What’s in Your Social Media Archive? I checked out what you get when you export your content from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, LiveJournal, Tumblr, and Mastodon, with an eye for both private archives and migrating to your own site.
Blog Posts
- Last Tweets Standing
Popped over to Twitter to delete the last handful of posts I left there when I deleted most of them back in December. Decided to leave two for now, though I might still delete them before the new TOS takes effect. Oct 2008: If only the super high-tech jet fighters had identified, clarified & classified, […]
- Privacy and Trust: Threads, Twitter and the Fediverse
Privacy has many layers. Keeping cloud files from leaking to another account is one layer. Not data-mining those files is another entirely!
- That Blue Checkmark
Twitter Blue is what happens when you start treating a tool as a status symbol, so you throw the tools away and start selling gold-plated hammers made out of thin plastic.
- Detweeting (and More)
Not that I’ve been particularly active on Twitter for quite a while now, but the way things have gotten, especially under its new owner, I decided it was finally time to go. I haven’t deleted my main account (yet), but I’ve deleted most of my tweet history, and the accounts I used for side projects, […]
- Twitter: Amp Up the Noise
Making the blue check mark mean ââ¬ÅThis person can afford $20/monthââ¬Â instead of ââ¬ÅThis person is who they say they areââ¬Â is only the latest way Twitter has downgraded its signal/noise ratio over the years.
- The 2022 Social Media Experience
The 2022 update: What it’s like to use Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Mastodon, Pixelfed and Instagram now.
- May I Have Your Attention Please. All of it. FOREVER.
One thing I like about the Fediverse is that it doesn’t constantly scream for your attention to keep you online as long as possible.
- Dear Twitter: Please Ditch the Clutter
Have you ever been to a Las Vegas casino? The main floors tend toward sprawling layouts, with lots of shiny distractions to entice you to stay and spend more time and money on the slots instead of helping you get where you’re going. That’s what Twitter’s new layout feels like. When Twitter started out, the […]
- Shouting Into the Less Exploitative Void
Sometimes you choose which social app to open based on who you want to talk to who you want to hear what you want to talk about Sometimes youâre just shouting into the void. At those times, I figure Iâll choose the void that feels less exploitative. Thatâs part of why I still have a […]
- Quick thoughts on Twitter’s prototype changes
As you’ve probably heard, Twitter is planning major changes, and is testing them in a prototype app. Threaded conversations are good, though I think the UI here still needs polish. Hiding the interaction buttons until you click on the post: Yeah, it might make people think a little more. Putting some friction into sharing can […]
- Long-Form Twitter: WHY OH WHY?
Twitter is suited for short statements and back-and-forth conversation. It’s terrible for anything long-form. Long Twitter threads* and images filled with text remind me of the old tech support days when users would paste screen shots of error messages into Microsoft Word documents and email me the document. It was a terrible tool for the […]
- Link Sharing and Source Trails
I read a lot of articles in one of two ways: Open a bunch of tabs and then read them one at a time Save a bunch of interesting-looking stories to Pocket and then read them one at a time So by the time I’ve decided to share a link to the story on Facebook […]
- Personas and Facets of Online Identity
Back in the day, @SpeedForceOrg was my comics fan persona on Twitter, as well as the newsfeed for the Flash blog. As more people joined me there, that seemed less appropriate and it became just the newsfeed/editorial voice. I find myself replying with my main account account to people I follow on the other. Which […]
- How Link Shorteners Leave Holes in Your Social Media
Another problem I’ve noticed in my Twitter archive: Lots of URL shorteners and image hosts have shut down or purged their archives. Sure, bit.ly and is.gd and tinyurl and ow.ly are still around. But in the days before t.co, I used a lot of different Twitter apps that used different shorteners or image hosts. I […]
- Searching Your Twitter History: Case of the Missing Context
One of the problems with Twitter’s search capability is that the results are isolated. I’ve said before that one of the keys to making a social account feel like I own it is that I can find things in it if I want to go back later. You can search your old Twitter posts by […]
- Broadcasting “Likes”
I figured out exactly what bugs me about Twitter & Facebook putting friends’ Likes in the timeline.
- Thread 1/
Twitter threads are a pain to read, especially when they aren’t well-crafted. But what they lack in readability, they make up in reach.
- Why am I still blogging? (And why about this stuff?)
This blog has been around 15 years. Social media has mostly moved on, to silos like Facebook and Twitter. People don’t follow random personal blogs. Topic-focused sites are what people actually read, and even that mainly following links from silos. Meanwhile there are so many major things going on that make the things I post […]
- What makes online posts feel “permanent?”
Facebook is testing a feature to make their posts less permanent, but they already feel ephemeral (even though they aren’t). My thoughts on why that is.
- I “Liked” Twitter Favorites
It shouldnââ¬â¢t make any difference that Twitter renamed FavoritesâË⦠as Likesââ¢Â¥. Itââ¬â¢s a coat of paint. But labels do matter.
- Delicious, Twitter, and Linkblogging
Link-sharing site Delicious has a feature to auto-bookmark everything you post publicly on Twitter. Convenient, especially if you use Twitter for link sharing.
- Recent Links: Social Networking
Linkblogging: How long do links last? What’s the future of Delicious? How quickly can you cross-post? Why does this site need to post to Twitter under my name?
- What’s behind Twitter’s Ban on Twidroyd & UberTwitter?
So, Twitter blocked access from Twidroyd and UberTwitter today, citing acceptable use policy violations, then classily pushing their own apps. IMO this would be similar to Google blocking Internet Explorer or Firefox from accessing their services, then telling people “oh, you can use Chrome.” UberMedia has made some changes to appease the Twitter TOS guardians, […]
- New Plugin: Nice Links for Twitter Tools
The plugin ties into Twitter Tools and cleans up cryptic links, following redirects and adding readable titles when it builds up a digest.
- Promoting Old Posts
There’s a plugin to automatically tweet links to old posts – but is it an effective way to promote forgotten gems?
- Links: Doomed Data, Web Services, WTF Textbook Questions & More
An experiment: I’ve modified* Twitter Tools to create digest posts as drafts instead of publishing immediately. That gives me a chance to edit a week’s worth of random thoughts and links down to the interesting stuff, clean things up a bit, expand things that could use more detail, and remind myself of items that I […]
- Why Link Length Matters
Twitter writes that link length shouldn’t matter, but the zillions of URL shortening services out there show that, for now, it does. But why? There are two main reasons to shorten* a link: There’s a technical limit, such as SMS message length or email line width. You expect people to manually enter the URL. Right […]
- Tweet Cleanup Complete
I’ve deleted redundant or trivial items, split some digests by topic, tagged, categorized and titled the rest, fixed typos and expanded abbreviations, reformatted quotes, links and lists, imported photos, and more…all in an attempt to make the archive a little more useful. After trying to unify some of the more eclectic mixes of unrelated one-line […]
- Twitter is…
Twitter is never having to say TL;DR
- Retweet Beta
The major problem I see with the new retweet feature in beta on Twitter is that (for now) the posts are invisible to API clients. Since I do most of my Twitter activity through Twidroid (on my phone) and Twhirl (on the desktop), that means if someone I follow retweets a post using the new […]
- The Trouble With Trending Topics
Problem: Twitter trending topics are quickly flooded with in-jokes & spam. There’s no context if you don’t already know what they’re about.
- What the Heck is a “Pilule?”
Spammers have been using misspellings, synonyms and malapropisms for years now. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Viagra/Cialis/etc. spam using the word “pilule” instead of “pill.” At first they’d just find misspellings for the drug name, but I guess some filters are blocking or scoring on “pill,” so they’ve substituted words for that…including the […]
- @LOL_Spam: Sometimes You’ve Gotta Laugh
Finding the humor in spam, 140 characters at a time.
- Ada Pong
Just realized the “busy” animation in the ada (desktop Twitter client) titlebar is actually a miniature game of Pong.
- Hero, Headlines & Spam
Just learned “Holding Out for a Hero” is cowritten by Jim Steinman. Explains why it keeps turning into “Good Girls Go to Heaven” in my head Writing for Twitter Spam vs SPAM. I suspect it’s way too late to close the barn door on this one. Kinda like “hacker.”
- Looking for a Good Android Twitter App
I love Twidroid, but I’m looking for a good secondary app – I’ve tried I Tweet, Twitly, Loquacious, Twit2Go and Twitta, but none of them quite make it.
- The Twitpocalypse Explained in Layman’s Terms
Here’s what’s going on, in layman’s terms.
- Social Side of Swine Flu
Sad, but true: XKCD tackles the social component of swine flu. Update: Things haven’t changed much in the Covid era, have they?
- The REAL Problem with Twitter
Twitter asks its users the wrong question, and it’s outgrowing the limitations of SMS messages.
- Thoughts on #AmazonFail (or is that #SorryAmazon?)
Even if it was unintentional, Amazon screwed up responding to the PR disaster.
- Friends or Followers: Social Networking Terminology from LiveJournal to Facebook to Twitter
Since LiveJournal’s debut, social networks have expanded the meaning of ‘friend.’ What does it imply to have friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter?
- 5 Things I’ve Learned About Twitter
For the longest time, I figured Twitter was little more than a social toy. But after signing up two months ago, I’ve completely changed my view. Here are five lessons I’ve picked up. 1. There are many ways to use it. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” Some people answer that, and post […]
- Twittering
I’ve been using Twitter for a couple of weeks as an additional update channel and sort of an adjunct to my blog, Speed Force (you can follow it at @SpeedForceOrg), and I’ve actually realized that yes, there is a point to it. It’s good for the random thought that only takes a sentence or two, […]