4 ms·

Why can't Twitter block this? It's really not much different than email spam. Twitter could pretty easily find duplicate posts and remove them. More and more,

Why can't Twitter block this? It's really not much different than email spam. Twitter could pretty easily find duplicate posts and remove them. More and more, I wonder why Twitter is so popular. I never really "got it". If I want news, I can go to a news website/aggregator. If I want memes, I can go to Reddit/Tumblr. If I want to talk to friends, I can use Facebook. Twitter always just gives me a headache.

divbit 10y ago
> wonder why Twitter is so popular Anecdotally, I've found several useful tidbits on twitter that are less than newsworthy (maybe because they are not interesting to a large subset of people) but that never popped up other places- I'm probably not using it correctly though.
Buge 10y ago
From the article it sounds like a very large percent of their power users use tools like this. So if they banned it, many of their best users would quit.
meowface 10y ago
Why should this be banned? It's not the same as spam, since you have to subscribe to someone to see their tweets.
- somedangedname 10y ago
  Not a Twitter user but: if you wanted to disrupt or derail ongoing conversations, couldn't that be done programmatically too? Or harass people?
  - meowface 10y ago
    Yes, but that's a different subject entirely. This article is just describing someone queueing up general political tweets.
    - r721 10y ago
      >and “.@realDonaldTrump” in hopes of getting the attention of Trump or those who track messages to him. He mentions Trump by username in some tweets at least, so that could be considered "harassing" (depending on scale though).
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  Not if they @ you, which is what these bots do--which also triggers a notification if you have them turned on.
- greglindahl 10y ago
  These tweets leak into search results. Or, maybe you want to think of it as "Twitter allows them to leak into search results."
  - jsprogrammer 10y ago
    Twitter manipulates search results. I've been looking at a live tweet, searched for a hashtag in that tweet, and Twitter said there were no matching Tweets.
ci5er 10y ago
I've found Twitter feeds more timely than status-light dashboards for various online services. Partly because the users start to scream before the SREs update their blinken lights. I was vaguely interested in it (Twitter) when the Iranian purple revolution was going on, but that passed, and after that version of tweetdeck did as well, I've never been able to track topics well enough to make it more worth-while (to me) than a meme-tracker. Other than that, I haven't found much use of it. I'm guessing that puts me in the dissenting position, but this isn't the first time that's happened.
- sofaofthedamned 10y ago
  Yeah, some online services are tardy as hell when it comes to updating their service status pages, a quick Twitter search is a great canary for any problems.
yehi 10y ago
> I wonder why Twitter is so popular. I don't have an account but it is very useful if I want to see is a program updated to a new version, how a politician feels about a recent event (or wants us to think they feel), or live updates to current events. All that may be possible with Facebook, but since I don't want to always be logged on, I have a huge pop up and annoying captcha
tnecniv 10y ago
Everyone I know that enjoys twitter (I never got into it) uses it to interact with an extended group of people that they aren't friends with but have similar interests to -- including minor celebrities in their area.
r721 10y ago
There are limits already: >Tweets: 2,400 per day. The daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Retweets are counted as Tweets. https://support.twitter.com/articles/15364 https://support.twitter.com/articles/15364
- vacri 10y ago
  One tweet per 30 seconds is a 'limit'?
jasonkostempski 10y ago
"If I want news, I can go to a news website/aggregator" The one time I found twitter to be far superior is when I heard gunshots outside my apartment and found the location and a pretty good understanding of what happened within a few minutes.
- refurb 10y ago
  As someone who barely uses Twitter, how did you find the information? I'm sure there is good info out there, but it's impossible to find unless you've already subscribed to follow people.
  - iambateman 10y ago
    My community Facebook group does a fantastic job at answering the regular "gunshots vs. fireworks" debate.
    - majewsky 10y ago
      Is this really a regular debate in the US? I've never heard a gunshot in my life in Germany.
  - mistersquid 10y ago
    Twitter apps on mobile devices can surface near-to-you Tweets. This is incredibly helpful in emergency situations. A couple years back there were, literally, a dozen police cars on my street and traffic blocked in all directions. I discovered on Twitter searching Tweets near to me that a man had barricaded himself in an apartment around the corner. He had a hostage and when he started lighting the apartment on fire, the SF SWAT team killed him. [0] More info on event from The SFist. [1] [0] https://twitter.com/galactic/status/200451986838138880 https://twitter.com/galactic/status/200451986838138880 [1] http://sfist.com/2012/05/09/homicide_suspect_has_standoff_with.php http://sfist.com/2012/05/09/homicide_suspect_has_standoff_wi... EDIT: Link layout. Spelling. Reduce number of single-sentence paragraphs. Reword fourth sentence.
  - jasonkostempski 10y ago

divbit 10y ago

> wonder why Twitter is so popular Anecdotally, I've found several useful tidbits on twitter that are less than newsworthy (maybe because they are not interesting to a large subset of people) but that never popped up other places- I'm probably not using it correctly though.

Buge 10y ago

From the article it sounds like a very large percent of their power users use tools like this. So if they banned it, many of their best users would quit.

meowface 10y ago

Why should this be banned? It's not the same as spam, since you have to subscribe to someone to see their tweets.

somedangedname 10y ago
Not a Twitter user but: if you wanted to disrupt or derail ongoing conversations, couldn't that be done programmatically too? Or harass people?
- meowface 10y ago
  Yes, but that's a different subject entirely. This article is just describing someone queueing up general political tweets.
  - r721 10y ago
    >and “.@realDonaldTrump” in hopes of getting the attention of Trump or those who track messages to him. He mentions Trump by username in some tweets at least, so that could be considered "harassing" (depending on scale though).
snowwrestler 10y ago
Not if they @ you, which is what these bots do--which also triggers a notification if you have them turned on.
greglindahl 10y ago
These tweets leak into search results. Or, maybe you want to think of it as "Twitter allows them to leak into search results."
- jsprogrammer 10y ago
  Twitter manipulates search results. I've been looking at a live tweet, searched for a hashtag in that tweet, and Twitter said there were no matching Tweets.

ci5er 10y ago

I've found Twitter feeds more timely than status-light dashboards for various online services. Partly because the users start to scream before the SREs update their blinken lights. I was vaguely interested in it (Twitter) when the Iranian purple revolution was going on, but that passed, and after that version of tweetdeck did as well, I've never been able to track topics well enough to make it more worth-while (to me) than a meme-tracker. Other than that, I haven't found much use of it. I'm guessing that puts me in the dissenting position, but this isn't the first time that's happened.

sofaofthedamned 10y ago
Yeah, some online services are tardy as hell when it comes to updating their service status pages, a quick Twitter search is a great canary for any problems.

yehi 10y ago

> I wonder why Twitter is so popular. I don't have an account but it is very useful if I want to see is a program updated to a new version, how a politician feels about a recent event (or wants us to think they feel), or live updates to current events. All that may be possible with Facebook, but since I don't want to always be logged on, I have a huge pop up and annoying captcha

tnecniv 10y ago

Everyone I know that enjoys twitter (I never got into it) uses it to interact with an extended group of people that they aren't friends with but have similar interests to -- including minor celebrities in their area.

r721 10y ago

There are limits already: >Tweets: 2,400 per day. The daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Retweets are counted as Tweets. https://support.twitter.com/articles/15364 https://support.twitter.com/articles/15364

vacri 10y ago
One tweet per 30 seconds is a 'limit'?

jasonkostempski 10y ago

"If I want news, I can go to a news website/aggregator" The one time I found twitter to be far superior is when I heard gunshots outside my apartment and found the location and a pretty good understanding of what happened within a few minutes.

refurb 10y ago
As someone who barely uses Twitter, how did you find the information? I'm sure there is good info out there, but it's impossible to find unless you've already subscribed to follow people.
- iambateman 10y ago
  My community Facebook group does a fantastic job at answering the regular "gunshots vs. fireworks" debate.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Is this really a regular debate in the US? I've never heard a gunshot in my life in Germany.
- mistersquid 10y ago
  Twitter apps on mobile devices can surface near-to-you Tweets. This is incredibly helpful in emergency situations. A couple years back there were, literally, a dozen police cars on my street and traffic blocked in all directions. I discovered on Twitter searching Tweets near to me that a man had barricaded himself in an apartment around the corner. He had a hostage and when he started lighting the apartment on fire, the SF SWAT team killed him. [0] More info on event from The SFist. [1] [0] https://twitter.com/galactic/status/200451986838138880 https://twitter.com/galactic/status/200451986838138880 [1] http://sfist.com/2012/05/09/homicide_suspect_has_standoff_with.php http://sfist.com/2012/05/09/homicide_suspect_has_standoff_wi... EDIT: Link layout. Spelling. Reduce number of single-sentence paragraphs. Reword fourth sentence.
- jasonkostempski 10y ago