6 ms·

I agree with this, Twitter is still the best place for celebrities to interact with their fans. Elon Musk for example has unveiled more than a few of his ideas

by jeron 10y ago

I agree with this, Twitter is still the best place for celebrities to interact with their fans. Elon Musk for example has unveiled more than a few of his ideas and dropped details of his products on Twitter instead of anywhere else.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
There's no reason he couldn't do the same with a mailing list. Twitter might have value, but no route to profitability. Edit: Y'all are super salty about Twitter falling apart. Sad!
- detaro 10y ago
  Twitter is way better for directly hype-building around those tweets. Although maybe a mailing list could be marketed in a similar way, of done cleverly.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Twitter might be better, but it appears it can't make money from "being better" than a mailing list. You can be the best platform in the world, and if you don't make money, you're going under.
- jkaunisv1 10y ago
  The interaction is completely different. I can check on Elon's twitter whenever I want without having to subscribe. People can have conversations around his tweets without spamming strangers' inboxen. I can send you a link to one of his tweets and you can pass it on to whoever you want without exposing my address to your friends. I have no idea why you would compare the two.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    You just described a mailing list with a web frontend. Perfect example: NANOG (North American network ops group) Massive mailing list. Web enabled. Trivial cost. Deep links possible to share. EDIT: And more than 160 characters! Hallelujah! A format an actual discussion can take place in. I compare the two because I'm old, tech is cyclic, and everyone reinvents the wheel. Twitter is, clearly, not special, and can't justify its valuation.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - slg 10y ago
      The barrier for a follow is so much lower than a mailing list. I am not going to sign up for a mailing list from a random comedian to send me their tour dates that 98% of the time aren't relevant to me. But I will put up with them Tweeting those date if their other Tweets are funny.
      - ghaff 10y ago
        Twitter also has this element of being like a river you can dip into whenever you're inclined and ignore the rest of the time. As you say, I do subscribe to some newsletters and mailing lists but it's very easy to get overloaded and/or end up filtering things to a folder that you never look at. Twitter seems to strike a reasonable balance of utility/effort/distraction/etc. for a lot of things that email-oriented methods really don't.
        tigershark 10y ago
        Ah right.. Like that story last week about the writer that got so addicted to twitter that she had to close her account? From my point of view it doesn't seem so easy and balanced.
      - tigershark 10y ago
        I'm missing something.. You just said that you won't click a button to signup a newsletter that delivers you funny jokes and the tour dates of a random comedian, but you are more than happy to press a button to get exactly the same things but with the limitations that the funny jokes must be less than 140 chars. There must be a reason if I never used and understood twitter at all..
        slg 10y ago
        Emails require more of my attention and they arrive whenever they are sent. Tweets require zero attention, they are easy to ignore, and I never see them unless I specifically seek them out by opening Twitter. Basically Twitter is much more voluntary than email.
- Ruphin 10y ago
  The reach of mailing lists is orders of magnitude smaller. People have to sign up for a mailing list; and people who aren't signed up generally don't get your content. This is a stark contrast with Twitter, where content is shared at a significantly higher rate. I don't necessarily have to subscribe to a certain source to get content from them, if someone in my network decides to share that content. When was the last time you received a message that was sent over a mailing list that someone forwarded to your inbox? I don't follow Elon Musk, but if he puts out an important tweet someone I follow will retweet him putting his content in my feed. An Elon tweet with some big announcement easily reaches an audience of millions. No mailing list has that kind of reach.
  - rdiddly 10y ago
    Yes but there's no reason it couldn't, I believe was somebody's point. Twitter doesn't do anything that's not possible by other means. Following is conceptually the same as subscribing. Sharing or retweeting is the same as forwarding. You're only describing differences in usage patterns, and network effects from popularity of the network. Not discounting those at all, just noticing nothing unique has been demonstrated.
acchow 10y ago
I follow musicians' pages on Facebook - they announce all kinds of things there.
- delecti 10y ago
  The problem with that is Facebook doesn't always show you everything from everyone you follow.
  - tannerc 10y ago
    There's specifically a setting that you can select on any Page or Profile to "See First in News Feed." [https://www.facebook.com/help/1188278037864643 https://www.facebook.com/help/1188278037864643]
  - acchow 10y ago
    I like that. I don't have the time or energy to consume the firehose that my Twitter feed has become - so I just don't use it anymore.
    - delecti 10y ago
      I don't like that it forces me to go to a page to see everything they've posted. The whole reason I subscribe to things is to see all of those things. I can choose to hide things, they don't give me the choice to see everything. To me Facebook is fundamentally broken in that way.
ghaff 10y ago
>for celebrities to interact with their fans. More like broadcast to their fans. Which is something of a strength and weakness of Twitter. It can be used for conversations but the 140 character limit makes it tough. As a result, Twitter is generally best used for people who are broadcasting things to a group of interested followers. If that doesn't describe you (either as a follower or a followee) then you're probably not going to find Twitter very useful.
overcast 10y ago
Which a mailing list would accomplish the same thing. In fact, I would prefer I just receive email directly from people I follow, rather than a separate stupid app.

by jeron 10y ago

toomuchtodo 10y ago

There's no reason he couldn't do the same with a mailing list. Twitter might have value, but no route to profitability. Edit: Y'all are super salty about Twitter falling apart. Sad!

detaro 10y ago
Twitter is way better for directly hype-building around those tweets. Although maybe a mailing list could be marketed in a similar way, of done cleverly.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Twitter might be better, but it appears it can't make money from "being better" than a mailing list. You can be the best platform in the world, and if you don't make money, you're going under.
jkaunisv1 10y ago
The interaction is completely different. I can check on Elon's twitter whenever I want without having to subscribe. People can have conversations around his tweets without spamming strangers' inboxen. I can send you a link to one of his tweets and you can pass it on to whoever you want without exposing my address to your friends. I have no idea why you would compare the two.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  You just described a mailing list with a web frontend. Perfect example: NANOG (North American network ops group) Massive mailing list. Web enabled. Trivial cost. Deep links possible to share. EDIT: And more than 160 characters! Hallelujah! A format an actual discussion can take place in. I compare the two because I'm old, tech is cyclic, and everyone reinvents the wheel. Twitter is, clearly, not special, and can't justify its valuation.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - slg 10y ago
    The barrier for a follow is so much lower than a mailing list. I am not going to sign up for a mailing list from a random comedian to send me their tour dates that 98% of the time aren't relevant to me. But I will put up with them Tweeting those date if their other Tweets are funny.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      Twitter also has this element of being like a river you can dip into whenever you're inclined and ignore the rest of the time. As you say, I do subscribe to some newsletters and mailing lists but it's very easy to get overloaded and/or end up filtering things to a folder that you never look at. Twitter seems to strike a reasonable balance of utility/effort/distraction/etc. for a lot of things that email-oriented methods really don't.
      - tigershark 10y ago
        Ah right.. Like that story last week about the writer that got so addicted to twitter that she had to close her account? From my point of view it doesn't seem so easy and balanced.
    - tigershark 10y ago
      I'm missing something.. You just said that you won't click a button to signup a newsletter that delivers you funny jokes and the tour dates of a random comedian, but you are more than happy to press a button to get exactly the same things but with the limitations that the funny jokes must be less than 140 chars. There must be a reason if I never used and understood twitter at all..
      - slg 10y ago
        Emails require more of my attention and they arrive whenever they are sent. Tweets require zero attention, they are easy to ignore, and I never see them unless I specifically seek them out by opening Twitter. Basically Twitter is much more voluntary than email.
Ruphin 10y ago
The reach of mailing lists is orders of magnitude smaller. People have to sign up for a mailing list; and people who aren't signed up generally don't get your content. This is a stark contrast with Twitter, where content is shared at a significantly higher rate. I don't necessarily have to subscribe to a certain source to get content from them, if someone in my network decides to share that content. When was the last time you received a message that was sent over a mailing list that someone forwarded to your inbox? I don't follow Elon Musk, but if he puts out an important tweet someone I follow will retweet him putting his content in my feed. An Elon tweet with some big announcement easily reaches an audience of millions. No mailing list has that kind of reach.
- rdiddly 10y ago
  Yes but there's no reason it couldn't, I believe was somebody's point. Twitter doesn't do anything that's not possible by other means. Following is conceptually the same as subscribing. Sharing or retweeting is the same as forwarding. You're only describing differences in usage patterns, and network effects from popularity of the network. Not discounting those at all, just noticing nothing unique has been demonstrated.

acchow 10y ago

I follow musicians' pages on Facebook - they announce all kinds of things there.

delecti 10y ago
The problem with that is Facebook doesn't always show you everything from everyone you follow.
- tannerc 10y ago
  There's specifically a setting that you can select on any Page or Profile to "See First in News Feed." [https://www.facebook.com/help/1188278037864643 https://www.facebook.com/help/1188278037864643]
- acchow 10y ago
  I like that. I don't have the time or energy to consume the firehose that my Twitter feed has become - so I just don't use it anymore.
  - delecti 10y ago
    I don't like that it forces me to go to a page to see everything they've posted. The whole reason I subscribe to things is to see all of those things. I can choose to hide things, they don't give me the choice to see everything. To me Facebook is fundamentally broken in that way.

ghaff 10y ago

>for celebrities to interact with their fans. More like broadcast to their fans. Which is something of a strength and weakness of Twitter. It can be used for conversations but the 140 character limit makes it tough. As a result, Twitter is generally best used for people who are broadcasting things to a group of interested followers. If that doesn't describe you (either as a follower or a followee) then you're probably not going to find Twitter very useful.

overcast 10y ago

Which a mailing list would accomplish the same thing. In fact, I would prefer I just receive email directly from people I follow, rather than a separate stupid app.