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One billion tweets on Twitter

  1. staboo
    Member

    Mashable: "If anyone ever needed a clear sign that Twitter has gone mainstream - however you define it - this milestone is it."
    http://mashable.com/2008/11/12/twitter-one-billion-tweets-wow/

    And still no Twitter WordPress widget.

    PS: I'm posting this here 'cause someone closed the appropriate thread I would have otherwise posted this to (http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/twitter-and-other-web-20-widgest?replies=29). Is there a gag order on forum posts about Twitter widgets for WordPress?

    - Cassandra

  2. lettershometoyou
    Member

    A billion times zero is still zero. Who really needs it?

  3. raincoaster
    Member

    Slightly less than half of them are mine. Ian, why are you so anti-epigram? I shudder to think of your opinion of sestinas!

    @staboo, there's no gag order, but there's no point in posting it to the forum. Staff already knows what people want.

  4. lettershometoyou
    Member

    Anti-epigram? I just don't like mobile devices. I find them distracting, both to carry and to be in the presense of those who carry them.

  5. rosclarke
    Member

    I'm with lettershometoyou. I have never yet seen a single item of even remote interest on a twitter feed.

  6. vivianpaige
    Member

    Ah, that's because you haven't followed rain's (or my) feed :)

  7. lettershometoyou
    Member

    I think it's because you actually have to be the one twittering in order to find it interesting. I look at these lists and lists of disconnected chatter and my eyes glaze over.

    Worse still is when you see a Twitter exchanged copied into a blog post!

  8. mark
    Staff

    Like rain says, there is no 'gag order'. Anyone can ask for anything.

    But please be aware that all twitter users are not wordpress.com users and all wordpress.com users are not twitter users. We get many requests for many things and twitter has equal status there.

  9. justjennifer
    Member

    I must be dense, but what does the "official" twitter widget give that posting the RSS feed in an RSS feed does not? What's the advantage?

  10. justjennifer
    Member

    retweet! "...what does the "official" twitter widget give that posting the RSS feed in an RSS feed WIDGET does not?"

  11. raincoaster
    Member

    Ha!

    It gives you the Twitter background and your avatar. That's pretty much it.

    Ian, I don't use Twitter from my phone; it got way too annoying going off all the time. Sounded like a disco on crack. I use Twitter from the web.

    And there ARE some items of interest on Twitter feeds. Twitter isn't useless. Check out this post, which combines the hated shibboleths of Facebook, Twitter AND YouTube:

    http://raincoaster.com/2008/11/14/fearless-city-mobile-at-the-heart-of-the-city-and-mobile-online/

    As well, last night after the second glass of wine I said something on Twitter about Fearless City being able to livestream WordCamp Whistler in January and the next thing I know it was a done deal (provided we can get someone to sponsor our hotel room). Giving a Downtown Eastside (ie inner city) nonprofit worldwide exposure and a chance to attend WordCamp and PhotoCamp when we wouldn't otherwise be able to is not an insignificant benefit to using these new social media forms.

  12. raincoaster
    Member

    Actually, you should read Vivian's stream when she's watching football. If soap operas came with subtitles explaining how the characters were feeling at any give time, those subtitles would be something like Vivian's Twitter stream.

    "AUUUUGGHHH! I can't BELIEVE IT!"
    "Fabulous! How could life get any sweeter!"
    "OH NOES!"

    etc, etc. It's like performance art.

    Speaking of which, there are several art projects on Twitter and a recurring haiku meme which is more intellectually challenging than, say, Five Things on blogs.

  13. justjennifer
    Member

    Not to mention novels being written 140 characters at a time...

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    That's true. And at Wordcamp Whistler people will be able to post questions on Twitter and SMS them in and the panels can answer them, rather than having people line up at microphones in the aisles or something.

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    I should start an Exquisite Corpse (popcorn story) on Twitter. That would work really, really well.

  16. raincoaster
    Member

    Digital Shrine at Parade of Lost Souls used Twitter as part of an art project: a digital shrine to things and people who've gone:
    http://raincoaster.com/2008/10/22/digital-shrine-at-parade-of-lost-souls-participate/
    http://fearlesscity.ca/blogs/raincoaster/parade-lost-souls-and-digital-shrine-liveblogging

  17. lettershometoyou
    Member

    @Rain,

    I guess I don't know what I'm missing... :-)

  18. raincoaster
    Member

    At least we're not doing the awful "but you HAVE to use it, all the cool kids are using it" routine.

  19. rosclarke
    Member

    Betcha the CP kids are using it...

  20. staboo
    Member

    How can you compare the sluggishness of an RSS feed to the immediacy of a Twitter badge? If you think they're the same, you're missing the whole point. Then again, that's the same thinking behind the fact that WP only has a lame handful of widgets, so I'm not surprised.

  21. raincoaster
    Member

    CP is not, in fact, using it as far as I can see.

    Anyone who is using their sidebar for their Twitter PR is presumably aware that it's not instant. It's PR! Anyone who wants to follow you will use Friendfeed or Twitter or Twirl or whatever. They're not tied to web sites!

  22. disembedded
    Member

    Tweety-twit-tooty-tweet!! Now, I be usin' Twirl that sends Twitter links to my WP postings, interestin' articles, YouTubes, political goings on, and much more right to my WP sidebar, as well as straight to all of my Facebook friends. My followers include The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, Rachel Sklar, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, Andrew Sullivan, The New York Times and others. And fer sure...the all-mighty Raincoaster! It's all about what you make out of it...Tweet!!

  23. raincoaster
    Member

    Twirl is the shizznit, apparently. I must try this out sometime.

  24. justjennifer
    Member

    @staboo- Which exact twitter widget do you refer to? Enlighten us and maybe you'll make some converts.

  25. raincoaster
    Member

    She's probably talking about a twitter widget that updates in realtime. I, frankly, find the cached sidebar version to be a reliable source of hits on the feed, but moreso the feed to be a source of hits to the blog. In other words (and I have no doubt I'm not explaining it well, it's been a LONG monday) the feed feeds the blog, the blog doesn't feed the feed.

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