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If you're a celebrity, its a must-use product. If you're a normal person, nobody cares about you on Twitter. You get virtually no feedback on the content you p

If you're a celebrity, its a must-use product. If you're a normal person, nobody cares about you on Twitter. You get virtually no feedback on the content you produce. It's a one sided tool for following, not sharing or creating.

ProAm 11y ago
This is it, Twitter is the best ad model and mechanism of the modern day internet. It's your 15 second commercial break of the web.
Touche 11y ago
And it's a bad product for following. I didn't see any of the NBA player tweets that he mentioned. I didn't know they existed before this article. And it's something I would be interested in, I just wasn't on Twitter in the few seconds where that topic was relevant.
- phereford 11y ago
  ESPN published an article the day after with about 10-12 tweets surrounding the victory. You didn't need to be on Twitter to see it, just on ESPN the day after to realize what you missed.
  - cbhl 11y ago
    But Twitter didn't capture that economic value -- ESPN did.
    - jshen 11y ago
      But Twitter created the value -- and that is the twitter contradiction.
- taytus 11y ago
  You didn't see them, I don't even know them.
whoopdedo 11y ago
Would celebrities love it as much if they had to pay to use it as their publicity platform? Lots of people are using Twitter for free and gaining from it. Except the people actually running the service don't appear to gain as much.
tptacek 11y ago
That hasn't been my experience. I've organized events in Chicago purely from Twitter.
- ProAm 11y ago
  You are arguably internet famous.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    If that's a thing, then we're all famous, and famous doesn't mean anything. Is there any media in which a random person can shout content out into the void and expect immediate uptake?
    - Touche 11y ago
      You have 16K followers, you're not a normal person. > Is there any media in which a random person can shout content out into the void and expect immediate uptake? Not into the void, no. But that's not how other social media platforms work, only Twitter.
      - tptacek 11y ago
        I have that many followers because I'm noisy, have been on Twitter for a long time, and very occasionally post original content to Twitter before I post them elsewhere. Patrick has more followers than I do; how'd he get there? Blog posts and Bingo Card Creator. It's true that if you're LeBron James everyone will pay attention to you instantly, and if you're a random programmer it will take an investment of time and energy to get anyone to pay attention to you at all, but that doesn't seem like a flaw in the platform so much as a description of how the world works.
        Touche 11y ago
        It's a flaw in the respect that if Twitter wants people to use it, it shouldn't take the amount of effort you've put into it to be noticed. I mean, I feel like I've put a lot of effort into it and I only have 600 followers. Think about it like this. How long does a typical tweet live "above the fold" (where the user doesn't have to scroll down to see it)? It varies of course depending on how many people you follow and how frequently those people tweet. But on average the stream moves pretty fast, right? Let's say, for the sake of discussion, it lasts 10 seconds. I'd be willing to bet the average is much lower than that, but whatever. You, tptacek, tweet something and you have 16,000 people who MIGHT see that within that 10 second window. The typical person with 50 followers or less needs one of their 50 followers to be looking at Twitter within that 10 second window... or their Tweet will never even be read by anyone, let alone commented on. Don't you at least see how that leads to a negative-feedback loop that makes people not want to use the platform?
mooreds 11y ago
I think following can be hugely valuable though. Just look at this tête a tête between a number of angel investors: https://twitter.com/ganeumann/status/704310775448510464?s=09 https://twitter.com/ganeumann/status/704310775448510464?s=09 Where else are you going to see this kind of discussion in public where you can take notes and/or jump in?

ProAm 11y ago

This is it, Twitter is the best ad model and mechanism of the modern day internet. It's your 15 second commercial break of the web.

Touche 11y ago

And it's a bad product for following. I didn't see any of the NBA player tweets that he mentioned. I didn't know they existed before this article. And it's something I would be interested in, I just wasn't on Twitter in the few seconds where that topic was relevant.

phereford 11y ago
ESPN published an article the day after with about 10-12 tweets surrounding the victory. You didn't need to be on Twitter to see it, just on ESPN the day after to realize what you missed.
- cbhl 11y ago
  But Twitter didn't capture that economic value -- ESPN did.
  - jshen 11y ago
    But Twitter created the value -- and that is the twitter contradiction.
taytus 11y ago
You didn't see them, I don't even know them.

whoopdedo 11y ago

Would celebrities love it as much if they had to pay to use it as their publicity platform? Lots of people are using Twitter for free and gaining from it. Except the people actually running the service don't appear to gain as much.

tptacek 11y ago

That hasn't been my experience. I've organized events in Chicago purely from Twitter.

ProAm 11y ago
You are arguably internet famous.
- tptacek 11y ago
  If that's a thing, then we're all famous, and famous doesn't mean anything. Is there any media in which a random person can shout content out into the void and expect immediate uptake?
  - Touche 11y ago
    You have 16K followers, you're not a normal person. > Is there any media in which a random person can shout content out into the void and expect immediate uptake? Not into the void, no. But that's not how other social media platforms work, only Twitter.
    - tptacek 11y ago
      I have that many followers because I'm noisy, have been on Twitter for a long time, and very occasionally post original content to Twitter before I post them elsewhere. Patrick has more followers than I do; how'd he get there? Blog posts and Bingo Card Creator. It's true that if you're LeBron James everyone will pay attention to you instantly, and if you're a random programmer it will take an investment of time and energy to get anyone to pay attention to you at all, but that doesn't seem like a flaw in the platform so much as a description of how the world works.
      - Touche 11y ago
        It's a flaw in the respect that if Twitter wants people to use it, it shouldn't take the amount of effort you've put into it to be noticed. I mean, I feel like I've put a lot of effort into it and I only have 600 followers. Think about it like this. How long does a typical tweet live "above the fold" (where the user doesn't have to scroll down to see it)? It varies of course depending on how many people you follow and how frequently those people tweet. But on average the stream moves pretty fast, right? Let's say, for the sake of discussion, it lasts 10 seconds. I'd be willing to bet the average is much lower than that, but whatever. You, tptacek, tweet something and you have 16,000 people who MIGHT see that within that 10 second window. The typical person with 50 followers or less needs one of their 50 followers to be looking at Twitter within that 10 second window... or their Tweet will never even be read by anyone, let alone commented on. Don't you at least see how that leads to a negative-feedback loop that makes people not want to use the platform?

mooreds 11y ago

I think following can be hugely valuable though. Just look at this tête a tête between a number of angel investors: https://twitter.com/ganeumann/status/704310775448510464?s=09 https://twitter.com/ganeumann/status/704310775448510464?s=09 Where else are you going to see this kind of discussion in public where you can take notes and/or jump in?