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I wonder how much of all these issues is due to Twitter. 140 characters isn't enough for nuanced conversation.

RugnirViking 8y ago
Twitter is a weird site. It's got a core of extremely active users who are almost entirely people who are famous or journalists. I'm at university - probably the place where the concentration of twitter users is likely to be highest, and hardly anybody I know has an account or if they do, doesn't use it for anything except occasionally reading something they got linked to. It's almost like a kind of echo chamber for the media and famous people imo - I don't know if thats nessacarily a bad thing entirely, so long as people are aware on some level of that. There just aren't the opinions of suburban moms on twitter. There aren't plumbers on twitter. Cleaners. Opinions might not matter, but it does bother me quite a lot when you see companies not caring on their support phone lines, on their facebook. There's almost no way to usefully get through to these copanies, but then one journalist idly tweets that they're having a problem with something suddenly you seem to see a dev team drop what they're doing and fix the problem. It's concerning that such behaviour benefits those who need it least.
- DanBC 8y ago
  > There just aren't the opinions of suburban moms on twitter. Surburban moms are also nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, programmers, etc etc, and all of these groups are active on Twitter. But if you want a community of mums who are there as mums you could look at #netmums and #mumsnet. Here's one example: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23netmums&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=%23netmums&src=typd > There aren't plumbers on twitter. There are plumbers on Twitter. Twitter doens't do a good job of surfacing different communities, especially for new users. When you join the site Twitter makes stupid suggestions for celebs, and makes no attempt to find out what you're actually interested in. But you can ignore those selections and find, and follow, people who you're interested in. > Cleaners. This is a good point. People on low incomes are excluded from digital life, and we should probably work out ways to help them access tech. > There's almost no way to usefully get through to these copanies, but then one journalist idly tweets that they're having a problem with something suddenly you seem to see a dev team drop what they're doing and fix the problem. So, this isn't quite what you've mentioned, but using Twitter is sometimes a useful way to get customer support. "This happened, what do you suggest, @CompanyName?" will usually get you the right number to call.
  - RugnirViking 8y ago
    It's a good point, but I do suspect that if I were to look into it the kinds of people you mention: "nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, programmers" who are on twitter would actually turn out to have their own blogs or have written a book read by an audience, and would be thought leaders in their field and such folk. Your average member of those classes are likely not regular users of twitter. Twitter just doesn't work if people don't care what you say - you have to already be a celebrity, with an opinion that 'matters' to people. " Twitter doesn't do a good job of surfacing different communities" Yes, but what I am getting at here is that they are communities in the sense of several important people in the field who all know each other and thats it. There simply aren't many 'average' people using twitter regularly, at least in the sense of writing thoughts and/or having conversations. "using Twitter is sometimes a useful way to get customer support. " Yes, thats what I was saying. I think it should not be this way - at least, the actual dedicated customer support of the company should be at least as effective as tweeting at them.
    - DanBC 8y ago
      I mentioned nurses because I know there are many UK nurses who use Twitter. The discussions are under hashtags like #wenurse and #wenurses I agree that discovery is hard for Twitter, but these communities are there. I use Twitter to talk to people.involved in suicide prevention, safety of MH services, and quality improvement of MH services. It's given me easy access to a bunch of people. I'd prefer a different platform because Twitter has problems with hostility on top of user unfriendliness, but people are there.

Twitter is a weird site. It's got a core of extremely active users who are almost entirely people who are famous or journalists. I'm at university - probably the place where the concentration of twitter users is likely to be highest, and hardly anybody I know has an account or if they do, doesn't use it for anything except occasionally reading something they got linked to. It's almost like a kind of echo chamber for the media and famous people imo - I don't know if thats nessacarily a bad thing entirely, so long as people are aware on some level of that. There just aren't the opinions of suburban moms on twitter. There aren't plumbers on twitter. Cleaners. Opinions might not matter, but it does bother me quite a lot when you see companies not caring on their support phone lines, on their facebook. There's almost no way to usefully get through to these copanies, but then one journalist idly tweets that they're having a problem with something suddenly you seem to see a dev team drop what they're doing and fix the problem. It's concerning that such behaviour benefits those who need it least.

DanBC 8y ago
> There just aren't the opinions of suburban moms on twitter. Surburban moms are also nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, programmers, etc etc, and all of these groups are active on Twitter. But if you want a community of mums who are there as mums you could look at #netmums and #mumsnet. Here's one example: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23netmums&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=%23netmums&src=typd > There aren't plumbers on twitter. There are plumbers on Twitter. Twitter doens't do a good job of surfacing different communities, especially for new users. When you join the site Twitter makes stupid suggestions for celebs, and makes no attempt to find out what you're actually interested in. But you can ignore those selections and find, and follow, people who you're interested in. > Cleaners. This is a good point. People on low incomes are excluded from digital life, and we should probably work out ways to help them access tech. > There's almost no way to usefully get through to these copanies, but then one journalist idly tweets that they're having a problem with something suddenly you seem to see a dev team drop what they're doing and fix the problem. So, this isn't quite what you've mentioned, but using Twitter is sometimes a useful way to get customer support. "This happened, what do you suggest, @CompanyName?" will usually get you the right number to call.
- RugnirViking 8y ago
  It's a good point, but I do suspect that if I were to look into it the kinds of people you mention: "nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, programmers" who are on twitter would actually turn out to have their own blogs or have written a book read by an audience, and would be thought leaders in their field and such folk. Your average member of those classes are likely not regular users of twitter. Twitter just doesn't work if people don't care what you say - you have to already be a celebrity, with an opinion that 'matters' to people. " Twitter doesn't do a good job of surfacing different communities" Yes, but what I am getting at here is that they are communities in the sense of several important people in the field who all know each other and thats it. There simply aren't many 'average' people using twitter regularly, at least in the sense of writing thoughts and/or having conversations. "using Twitter is sometimes a useful way to get customer support. " Yes, thats what I was saying. I think it should not be this way - at least, the actual dedicated customer support of the company should be at least as effective as tweeting at them.
  - DanBC 8y ago
    I mentioned nurses because I know there are many UK nurses who use Twitter. The discussions are under hashtags like #wenurse and #wenurses I agree that discovery is hard for Twitter, but these communities are there. I use Twitter to talk to people.involved in suicide prevention, safety of MH services, and quality improvement of MH services. It's given me easy access to a bunch of people. I'd prefer a different platform because Twitter has problems with hostility on top of user unfriendliness, but people are there.