I know next to nothing about Twitter, but I’ve had two mails recently telling me that someone wants to “keep up with me” and have two questions:
The first is, who the fuck is “Frank Cafarella” and why am I receiving mail on his behalf from “MAILER-DAEMON” ? This looks like some kind of spam, phishing, or whatever. Will Frank use our new connection to keep me updated about his quest to liberate half a billion dollars from an account in Nigeria? There’s an optout URL in the mail that appears to go to to the real Twitter website, but I’m leery of clicking on it.
Second, what the hell does it mean to keep up with someone anyway? Does this mean my phone will be updated with texts about Maoman’s toilet habits? (He was the alleged sender of the other mail.) Or will I come home to find my inbox full of emails about the minutae of his life? Or do I have to start going to some other website just to read this stuff? Or am I supposed to start keeping him updated about what I’m up to every minute of every day? Is this part of some sinister new forumosan plan to take over the world?
Whatever the case, I’m forced to also ask Q2.5: what’s the bloody point? The little I know about this system makes me think it would be the most irritating waste of time imaginable. I can’t see it appealing to anyone except miltownkid, but that hasn’t stopped usage growing 1000% in the UK over the last twelve months. Clearly, someone thinks there’s a point to this but it’s eluding me. Other than the little I know, what else do I need to know?
Enlightenment, in less than 140 characters, would be welcome.
Seriously, I don’t know what Twittter will do for Forumosa yet. (You got the Forumosa invite - I also have a personal account, but I haven’t used it either.) I sent you the message because I know you’re not shy about using technology, links, etc. to promote your own websites. What comes around goes aroun
I’d also be interested to know in how to make a Forumosa account on Twitter valuable to us and the community. I’m waiting to buy Miltownkid a beer or two…
I reckon Twitter could be very handy for companies and organisations to set short status updates on their websites, letting people know that they’re busy and interested. I can see it being useful for Forumosa, for example, to leave little notes like “Server down again - we’re on to the host and it should be sorted soon” - kind of like blogging but without the hassle of feeling like you have to write a proper blog post.
Looking at what “personal users” do with Twitter, though, 99% of it is pointless documentary mumbling. “The cat just pulled down one of the curtains in the living room - grrrr!” - I can’t even imagine the sender’s own mother being interested in that kind of mundanity. I managed quite well before Twitter without knowing when John was “just popping down to the Post Office”.
I joined Twitter to see what it was about, it was still absolutely pointless, I guess all the others are doing the same! Facebook does the same thing already…
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, the Internet, really…it all boils down to one thing: people like to imagine that they’re more important than they really are. Seeing their random, completely useless thoughts in print, distributed to other people via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Forumosa or whatever make these thoughts seem vital and useful to other people, i.e. more than they really are, without the actual effort of putting any thought or work into the deal.
I’m as guilty as the next guy, so I can’t really complain.
I like Twitter. I followed the Salvadorean election, and it was good because the “Twitters” would put links to articles, pictures, and also their comments on real time. I think it is quite useful, as a big collective Messanger, IMHO.
As to the “cat pulled down the curtains again”, I have several links to other people’s blogs, and one camera site.
I see , I guess it depends on your interest and it’s good for real-time info coming in from big events, as I was about to say, Twitter is heavily favoured by Media people as they just copy what some celebrities or other people say and write it as a report! Of course Icon you would never do such a thing
Seriously, I don’t know what Twittter will do for Forumosa yet. (You got the Forumosa invite - I also have a personal account, but I haven’t used it either.) I sent you the message because I know you’re not shy about using technology, links, etc. to promote your own websites. What comes around goes aroun
I’d also be interested to know in how to make a Forumosa account on Twitter valuable to us and the community. I’m waiting to buy Miltownkid a beer or two… [/quote]
The last time I listened to miltownkid I ended up with a webcam on the dog’s head and 27,493 people trying to claim the prize for seeing what he saw when he followed me into the bathroom.
The invite didn’t tell me anything about what I have to do, and my research to date has consisted of looking at the front page and saying “this doesn’t explain anything” so I’m still none the wiser as to how this stuff works. Can someone, anyone, write a simple idiots’ guide to Twitter which explains the basic process and answers the key question of what’s in it for me?
So I’m now up to 24 followers on Twitter, almost all of them within this calendar year. Woo hoo! I’m a social-media maven!
This despite having never deliberately posted a tweet. I accidentally retweeted a cat photo once, a couple of years ago, in what I can only assume was a Twitter equivalent of butt-dialing.
I’ve liked more posts than I’d have thought (i.e. a couple of dozen) but nothing in over a year. Most of them are basically for bookmark purposes, like a picture of a bicycle with the Chinese names. And a bunch more that must have been done by my butt.
My dummy account gets random “people” who want to follow me and I have (and will continue to post) zero content. just read stuff.
When I look at those “accounts”, they’re always young nubile women with following in the lower 1000s and followed in the low 1000s. Me be guessing they is bots.
