AceT said:
I'm done trying to "sell" the website to people. It's a difficult site to explain because it doesn't have a set purpose, a dozen people can use it a dozen different ways. It's not just about documenting the mind-numbing minutiae of your everyday life, unless that's the only thing you use it for.

Before making snap judgments give it a try. It's not difficult to sign up, and it's not difficult to use. There's no profile to fill out and no "friends" to request.

You'll either find it useful or you won't.

Why in the world would you care if I make a snap judgement about a fucking website? I'm pretty sure I won't find this useful and if I'm missing out on some unparalleled experience, that's my loss. Why take it so personally if someone doesn't want something that you like?

I'm not taking it personally and I don't care; it's entirely your prerogative to dismiss Twitter. The point of my post was to say that I'm done trying to explain its benefits to people making uninformed arguments.

It's the equivalent of someone dismissing SG as just a porn site, and me explaining that it's a lot more than that, and then still dismissing it as just a porn site. I'd say the same thing, "I'm done trying to explain it to you, just try it out and see that it's more than just a porn site".

Frankly I could not care less if people think SG is just a porn site or if they ever try it.

I don't understand why you want people to try Twitter. So what if it's the best thing since indoor plumbing- does it negatively affect your experience if everyone on earth doesn't try it?

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 14, 2008 10:41 PM

Thistle said:
I don't understand why you want people to try Twitter. So what if it's the best thing since indoor plumbing- does it negatively affect your experience if everyone on earth doesn't try it?

Yes. It's kind of a hive mind thing, the more people that use it the better the service becomes. It would certainly improve my experience if you and other people I know in this thread started to use it. Malloreigh put it best.

Thistle

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAY 15, 2008 09:46 AM

Huh. Well, sorry, but I'm not going to sign up.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 15, 2008 10:05 AM

AceT said:

lil_tuffy said:
Is there a way to make specific groups... can I make an SGSF twitter.

SGLA seems to be using it already.

Certain members of SGLA were using it. I just now signed up SGLA itself.

d20 said:

lil_tuffy said:
Is there a way to make specific groups... can I make an SGSF twitter.

the way people have done that so far is to make a twitter account for that group and make it private, then broadcast from it to the people allowed to receive its messages.

Thanks! We'll see how it goes.

I'm skeptical, because it seems like having an account for a group seems to run counter to the paradigm by which Twitter operates, but we'll see.

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 15, 2008 11:16 AM

bean said:
I'm skeptical, because it seems like having an account for a group seems to run counter to the paradigm by which Twitter operates, but we'll see.

Personally, I don't think that's the best way to use Twitter for groups. It's a very top down approach, so only the owner of that account can send messages. It also requires that device updates be sent to everyone's phone, which people might not want to do, and if they don't do it they won't get messages any faster than checking on SG since they would have to manually check Twitter to see them.

A better approach I think would be to have everyone in SGLA sign up for Twitter (which they're going to have to do either way), and then use hash marks to "tag" certain tweets as meant for SGLA. Then you can use Twitter's "track" feature so that any tweet with "SGLA" in it pops up on their phone.

So for example, I join the site, and type "track sgla". Then when someone else tweets, "Hey! Who wants to meet up at Griffith Park for a picnic? #sgla" I get that message regardless of whether I'm following you or not.

The drawback is that I think this would have to be done with public accounts, I'm not sure that the track feature works with protected accounts. But the benefit is that you have now decentralized the process, so anyone can address every member of SGLA.

It would be really neat if we didn't need Twitter for this, here's a suggestion I made a year ago:

Another is how shallow the text messaging features are on these sites. Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, none allow you to send different messages to different groups of friends. Pownce is close, but doesn't have SMS support. It would be nice if I could do something as trivial as send a text message to everyone in the SGPDX group that I'm going to the movies tonight, and who would like to join me.

Having some kind of opt-in service on SG where you can put in your phone number and then be able to either text a username or a group would be neat. How many times have you wanted to contact someone during some group thing, but you didn't have that person's number for whatever reason?

d20

San Francisco, CA

September 2003

MAY 15, 2008 01:06 PM

unfortunately, SMS costs a goddamn fortune.

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAY 15, 2008 01:16 PM

d20 said:
unfortunately, SMS costs a goddamn fortune.

Seriously. I had to turn off device updates for pretty much everyone. I only track my name now.

I actually find the # tagged twitter posts to be pretty annoying.

Erica

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

MAY 15, 2008 01:24 PM

I think the annoyance factor is higher for me than the cost of SMS factor. I'd rather log on to twitter.com with my iPhone to check things out.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 15, 2008 02:24 PM

Posh said:

d20 said:
unfortunately, SMS costs a goddamn fortune.

Seriously. I had to turn off device updates for pretty much everyone. I only track my name now.

I could be wrong, but I think he's talking about licensing the ability to send SMS messages from a web interface, which really does cost a fortune.

On an iPhone with AT&T, switching from their default data plan (which includes 1500 SMS messages for $30) to an unlimited SMS plan costs $10.

Trevor

Colorado Springs, CO

July 2003

MAY 17, 2008 10:32 AM

I'm in.

Sid

SUICIDEGIRL

Colorado, USA

MAY 17, 2008 06:15 PM

If my husband's playing, I might as well play too:

me

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 17, 2008 06:53 PM

Trevor said:
I'm in.

I look forward to your tweets. Now I'm looking for other soldiers to follow.

zenFish

Vancouver, BC

August 2004

MAY 17, 2008 07:32 PM

I started a couple of days ago... mainly for the Mars Phoenix Lander Project, then I found Diablo Cody, and a few of my friends.

oh, and here is me.

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

MAY 17, 2008 09:06 PM

zenFish said:
Diablo Cody,

Jonny has red paint on his jeans from painting Doctor Who figurine. No comment.

I'm bummed I missed it. I was busy getting hammered at MN American Legion. Think I killed a moose at some point. Don't know.

Pretty well...CAN YOU STAND IT??? (thunderous laugh track, Fonzie-calibre applause)

Happy birthday Ahmet! How about a cake iced with Dan's smegma?

"This ain't Mister Rogers," says my co-bartender, watching them soak the rafters in fuel. "This ain't pretend."

No way is this fire going to burn hotter than my raging VD.

FrankenToe's shot of choice is the Slippery Nipple. In keeping with the anatomical theme.

I'm not sad that it's over. People who get sad about wrapping films drink Spanish lattes.

My bagina isn't on Twitter. It prefers Facebook.

Yep, about as annoying as I thought it'd be. I can't wait until she works a reference to this into her next HYSTERICALLY FUNNY AND QUIRKY film.

I've got $10 on "Twitta, please!"

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 18, 2008 03:32 AM

There's also John Hodgman and MC Hammer.

Twitter officially jumps the shark when Paris sends her first tweet. You heard it here first.

Conjure

Australia

September 2005

MAY 18, 2008 06:51 AM

Conjure on twitter

I use this website as a space for a 'mind-dump'

And, with a select group of closest friends connected to Mobile Twitter, I've done away with many nasty text message costs.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 18, 2008 11:41 AM

AceT said:
Twitter officially jumps the shark when Paris sends her first tweet. You heard it here first.

You're kidding, right? It's a networking product. It has zero "underground appeal." Massive growth is a good thing for it, through and through.

mamet

Charleston, SC

March 2005

MAY 18, 2008 12:00 PM

I just broke down and joined a few minutes ago.

http://twitter.com/mametmeter

zenFish

Vancouver, BC

August 2004

MAY 18, 2008 01:09 PM

AceT said:
There's also John Hodgman and MC Hammer.

Twitter officially jumps the shark when Paris sends her first tweet. You heard it here first.

Bet is she'll have more followers then anyone.

Also MC Hammer is still dancing? Crazy.

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 18, 2008 01:43 PM

bean said:

AceT said:
Twitter officially jumps the shark when Paris sends her first tweet. You heard it here first.

You're kidding, right?

Yes.

GlitchChaos

Denver, CO

August 2007

MAY 18, 2008 08:45 PM

I signed up last week Link

cusegrrl

Gaithersburg, MD

March 2008

MAY 21, 2008 09:25 PM

add me

Lexiphanic

Australia

August 2005

MAY 23, 2008 10:30 PM

I've been on there for a year or so now.
It'sa me!

Can't say my updates are all that interesting, though.

Belllla

Houston, TX

February 2004

JUN 22, 2008 08:48 PM

Add me! twitter.com/belllla

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Groton, CT

October 2006

MAY 14, 2008 11:31 AM

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAY 14, 2008 06:54 PM

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 14, 2008 10:41 PM

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAY 15, 2008 09:46 AM

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 15, 2008 10:05 AM

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 15, 2008 11:16 AM

San Francisco, CA

September 2003

MAY 15, 2008 01:06 PM

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAY 15, 2008 01:16 PM

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

MAY 15, 2008 01:24 PM

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 15, 2008 02:24 PM

Colorado Springs, CO

July 2003

MAY 17, 2008 10:32 AM

SUICIDEGIRL

Colorado, USA

MAY 17, 2008 06:15 PM

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 17, 2008 06:53 PM

Vancouver, BC

August 2004

MAY 17, 2008 07:32 PM

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

MAY 17, 2008 09:06 PM

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 18, 2008 03:32 AM

Australia

September 2005

MAY 18, 2008 06:51 AM

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 18, 2008 11:41 AM

Charleston, SC

March 2005

MAY 18, 2008 12:00 PM

Vancouver, BC

August 2004

MAY 18, 2008 01:09 PM

AceT

Portland, OR

April 2004

MAY 18, 2008 01:43 PM

Denver, CO

August 2007

MAY 18, 2008 08:45 PM

Gaithersburg, MD

March 2008

MAY 21, 2008 09:25 PM

Australia

August 2005

MAY 23, 2008 10:30 PM

Belllla