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Lazy Question: What's Twitter and what's a tweet?

Kong76 May 15 2009 12:17 PM

Can someone give me the diddly dee in a nut shell?

Benjamin Grimm May 15 2009 12:20 PM

I have no experience with this myself, but as I understand it: Twitter is a service that lets you subscribe to short messages, or "tweets" from people you're interested in. I could then "tweet" that I just tied my shoes, and you'd know about it instantly.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr May 15 2009 12:23 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 15 2009 12:26 PM

Twitter-- web-based service which allows you to send short (140-character) messages-- usually answers to the question "What are you doing?"-- and "follow" those of an unlimited amount of others you specify. These can be received on/sent from any computer... or phone/wireless device with SMS text capability. "Tweet" serves as both verb (composing/sending such messages) and noun (the message itself). One "tweets" or sends "tweets;" one does not "twit" or send "Twitters." It's useful for instantaneous dissemination of simple messages. I could tweet that I'd just tied my shoes... but I could also tweet that I'd just selected a pope, getting the message out to my hundreds of thousands of followers (and emit less smoke plumage than I would via other communication media).

themetfairy May 15 2009 12:26 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 15 2009 12:26 PM

BG and LWFS are correct. Twitter is a website. You microblog there, with postings that cannot exceed 140 characters. You read the "tweets" of people you sign up to follow, and other people may or may not sign up to follow your "tweets". IMO Twitter jumped the shark once Congressmen were posting from Obama's address this winter. However, it is still useful in professional settings - if you follow and are followed by a lot of colleagues, it can be a good way to ask quick questions and get information from people. I did Twitter for a while, but realized that anyone I followed there was also on Facebook, which has more overall utility IMO.

Swan Swan H May 15 2009 12:26 PM

This is a twit:

metirish May 15 2009 12:53 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 15 2009 01:00 PM

Lately I'm seeing a lot of......David Lennon just tweeted that Reyes looks sharp , Rubin tweets that Church looks glum.....I read recently that Ashton Kuchner is trying for some world record of twiter friends.........enough to make me never want to use it. EDITED for spelling because I am a twit.

Kong76 May 15 2009 12:56 PM

Thanks, I mean I had a general idea but didn't want to go the web-site. It's on the ESPN scroll now, the old business dudes on 1130am in the mor- ning keep mentioning it, etc. The world of info moves too fast for me as it is but I thought I'd ask. Ten minutes and I got answers, a chuckle, and another mention of Facebook here!

Fman99 May 15 2009 01:03 PM

Twitter is a way to feed your ego, 140 ASCII characters at a time. Fuck that noise.

dgwphotography May 16 2009 05:33 AM

once the mainstream media caught wind of it, the true geeks moved on to something else...

Edgy DC May 16 2009 06:17 AM

While there are gajillions of new subscribers every micron, or something, the majority of new users bail after a month.

SteveJRogers May 16 2009 07:16 AM

Its a useful tool for self promotion, but it is like Facebook's status updates on steroids. Doesn't seem great for interaction at all.

themetfairy May 16 2009 09:14 AM

Not great for interaction, but useful for information sharing. I know that a lot of librarians use it to ask colleagues for reference tips.

OlerudOwned May 16 2009 09:26 AM

Twitter is a fun read when you follow funny people, and informative one when you follow ones with information, and a giant boring wankfest if you venture out into the other 98% of it.

metsguyinmichigan May 16 2009 09:41 AM

I use it for work. If you're interested, I'm at reporterdmurray. I can't get a read on how effective it is. Some of the reporters use it for story tips, others post that they're looking for a certain person in a certain situation.

Fman99 Jul 27 2009 10:39 AM

Yes, I read my earlier post. I'm a hypocrite, let's move on. I'm now playing with this, why not. I have oodles of time to do so. Anyone interested in following my "tweets" should look for me using my actual first and last name without a space in between -- the FB'ers out there know it and if you don't, PM me. Having said that, who are the Mets beat writers who use it and what are their names? I would follow anyone that might be breaking a real story here.

metirish Jul 27 2009 10:43 AM

I signed up a few weeks ago to see what all the talk was about . I deleted my profile after a week. I thought it was a complete waste of my time , time I could be wasting elsewhere , like here.

seawolf17 Jul 27 2009 11:05 AM

I love Twitter. OO's dead-on in his description, actually. And wait! What's this? http://www.twitter.com/cranepoolforum

Gwreck Jul 27 2009 12:04 PM

Carlos Delgado's twitter page: http://twitter.com/CarlosDelgado21 Shaquelle O'Neal http://twitter.com/the_real_shaq MLB Players on Twitter: http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com/archives/200 ... oster.html

Kong76 Jul 27 2009 01:21 PM

My Blackberry is going to explode!

seawolf17 Jul 27 2009 01:24 PM

Ha! Sorry about that, Kase. I'll fix that setting so you don't get e-mailed every time someone follows us.

Kong76 Jul 27 2009 03:39 PM

Thanks. I did feel kinda popular there for a few hours at work.

Kong76 Aug 10 2009 04:06 PM

I added a twitter link up top in case no one noticed. I don't really get it, but we're following and being followed! My name is kcmets, I'm following 1 and have 0 following! Over on Facebook, we have picture of Big Murph as a yute in his underwear!