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It's hard to blame them for that, though. They made a blog with a 140-character limit and it became one of the most valuable companies in the world. Who knows w
by qq66 10y ago
It's hard to blame them for that, though. They made a blog with a 140-character limit and it became one of the most valuable companies in the world. Who knows what it will become if they fiddle with anything?
- return0 10y agoIt wasn't really a blog though, right? Maybe it began as "a real-time blog aggregator, where blogs only have titles". I believe nowadays it's the network effect that keeps them, not the technology itself.
- mattl 10y agoMicroblog, but sure..
- chris_wot 10y agoWhilst Twitter has someone tweet the occasional gem, it's genuinely few and far between. I honestly feel that the format was great when it was only really programmers who used it (and even then I'm not so sure...) but limiting people to 140 characters, even discounting images and links, means most people can't convey views on most complex issues. I have an unpopular view, but I'm firmly of the belief that all Twitter did was amplify the voice of celebrities - most of whom have not much to really say, made it easier for abusive speech to be targeted towards individuals and amplified moral outrage. Facebook has as well, but nowhere near as badly as Twitter. Ironically, sometimes it's been for the better. But for every https://twitter.com/RabbiJason/status/728404847381204993 https://twitter.com/RabbiJason/status/728404847381204993 there is a https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/240462265680289792 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/24046226568028979... Sometimes you even get something like this: https://twitter.com/adriarichards/status/313417655879102464 https://twitter.com/adriarichards/status/313417655879102464 Edit: like I say, it's an unpopular view! If only someone would tell me why my view is wrong or unreasonable. In 140 characters... Edit 2: It's suddenly occurred to me that if someone was able to give a highly convincing argument in favour of Twitter's ability to convey all complex arguments and views and did so with a lengthy response, but there was no way of distilling the message to 140 characters... would that invalidate it?
- jsmeaton 10y agoI think it depends who you choose to follow. Twitter can be different things to different people. I've never been a big fan of Twitter myself, but I follow about a dozen programmers and a few sporting brands and I get some value from that. Your argument of Twitter being better when only programmers used it doesn't really apply if you only follow programmers, does it?
- chris_wot 10y ago> Your argument of Twitter being better when only programmers used it doesn't really apply if you only follow programmers, does it? That's a fair point.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- joshkpeterson 10y agoTwitter can be fun
- gregmac 10y agoDefinitely twitter is entirely about who you follow. I tried it out early on, saw no value, and ignored it for a year or two, until a friend convinced me it has some value, and there are two uses I find. I follow several programmers (some internet famous, some merely who I've found from using a project they worked on or someone else's retweet), and through that, find it interesting to get a glimpse at what other people are doing or finding challenging, or see when there's buzz around some new technology in my space. The other thing I find it useful for is local updates in my (relatively small) city. Traffic updates, road closures, police activity, events, etc. The local public works and city hall accounts are surprisingly active and often useful. I also follow a handful of restaurants nearby the office: they often tweet lunch specials. I follow exactly zero mainstream celebrities, never look at 'Moments', 'trending', etc -- I find those things full of crap I simply don't care about at all.
- chris_wot 10y ago
- SilasX 10y agoA description that, I think, would also fit HN ...
- lokedhs 10y agoAn astute observation. Yet people do not assume that HN will rival Facebook, nor do they place valuations in the hundreds of billions on it. Twitters troubles come from a misguided impression of what it is supposed to be, creating pressure on the product to not be what it in fact is.
- r00fus 10y agooblig: s/affect/effect/ Still I think the 140 character limit was in part due to their continued success; I know when I look at a tweet, I'm not going to get a 1000-word dissertatino on a subject - I will get bite-size pieces of info (for the most part, except for the multi-part diatribes or conversations, which I generally ignore). Link anxiety is a real thing - I'm less likely to click if it's going to absorb my attention for 5m+.
- frank_jaeger 10y agooblig pointing out of incorrect oblig correction. network effect[0] is absolutely correct. edit: for the downvotes- [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
- r00fus 10y agoparent made an edit from affect to effect, so I guess my recommendation was taken to heart :)
- oneeyedpigeon 10y agoFair point though, it's confusing. Can't you edit your post and remove the correction now that it's irrelevant? And then we can delete this entire unnecessary subthread :)
- return0 10y agoHonestly, i didn't. I guess you misread. Besides, i wouldn't be able to edit my comment an hour later.
- lmm 10y agoIt was originally a blogging service - people would use it as an online diary (like livejournal) and follow personal friends. The broadcast/aggregation aspect came later.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mceoin 10y ago"Public SMS" is a more apt description.