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This is a "Twitter sucks" off-topic rant comment, so if you're not interested in that, just move along. At no point in my reading on this topic or any other, di

This is a "Twitter sucks" off-topic rant comment, so if you're not interested in that, just move along. At no point in my reading on this topic or any other, did I say to myself "Boy this thing would be great if it were broken up into a series of small brainfarts and served up one at a time on a bloated, slow-as-molasses web platform." I'm embarrassed every time someone tries to express a complex thought on Twitter. It's like a machine that turns your thoughts instantly into listicles. And every time I go view something there, I'm astonished all over again at the dismal user-experience people put up with in exchange for "access" to a "network." (Facebook is worse... it looks like some crap I built for my big-company employer. sic. I'm not much in the front-end department, so yes, my UI sucks balls. But my users have to use my app, and they get paid for doing so. Facebook users, I can only weep at the thought. But I digress. This was supposed to be about Twitter.)

dilap 8y ago
I'll take a contrary opinion -- forcing each thought into a tweet is a nice constraint that compels people to get to the point. This would probably be less well-written as, say, a Medium article.
- rdiddly 8y ago
  I actually agree with that - it's an interesting exercise to communicate concisely within a limit. (Sort of like Vine, which Twitter destroyed, but oops there I go getting smart-assy again.) It's just, if that's your game, stick to the game, don't cheat by sprawling across 14 of those. It fails as an instance of the Tweet artform because cumulatively it's too long, and it fails as a longer-form piece because it's all broken up. If I strung together 1780 Vines to make Fellowship of the Ring (and yes, nerdily, the math works out there), what have I proven? My powers of conciseness and economy? My respect for rules and limits? My ability to choose the right tool for the job?
- thatoneuser 8y ago
  Well yeah the point of medium is sound like you're giving information when really you're just making yourself sound smart. So if this were medium Wed never actually talk about what caused the crash and instead spend an hour going over why you NEED to use some esoteric library.
dredmorbius 8y ago
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106934362531155974.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106934362531155974.html And whilst I'm not a Twitter fan or user, on Mastodon I've found the practice of writing in <500 character chunks, posted publicly (and hence not easily revisable) is an interesting and useful writing vibe. In part because feedback can be specific to a given chunk, letting me see what resonates, or doesn't, what communicates as intended, or not.
cameldrv 8y ago
I actually originally posted this on Facebook and then my brother in law broke it up into tweets and posted on twitter.
Yizahi 8y ago
Hear hear. This was almost painful to read. Normally I just close twitter streams as soon as as I realize it's Twitter, but this one was interesting enough to try reading. I wish LJ didn't die or people would adopt Dreamwidth or similar "normal" blog platform. Twitter is simply horrible in UX.

dilap 8y ago

I'll take a contrary opinion -- forcing each thought into a tweet is a nice constraint that compels people to get to the point. This would probably be less well-written as, say, a Medium article.

rdiddly 8y ago
I actually agree with that - it's an interesting exercise to communicate concisely within a limit. (Sort of like Vine, which Twitter destroyed, but oops there I go getting smart-assy again.) It's just, if that's your game, stick to the game, don't cheat by sprawling across 14 of those. It fails as an instance of the Tweet artform because cumulatively it's too long, and it fails as a longer-form piece because it's all broken up. If I strung together 1780 Vines to make Fellowship of the Ring (and yes, nerdily, the math works out there), what have I proven? My powers of conciseness and economy? My respect for rules and limits? My ability to choose the right tool for the job?
thatoneuser 8y ago
Well yeah the point of medium is sound like you're giving information when really you're just making yourself sound smart. So if this were medium Wed never actually talk about what caused the crash and instead spend an hour going over why you NEED to use some esoteric library.

dredmorbius 8y ago

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106934362531155974.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1106934362531155974.html And whilst I'm not a Twitter fan or user, on Mastodon I've found the practice of writing in <500 character chunks, posted publicly (and hence not easily revisable) is an interesting and useful writing vibe. In part because feedback can be specific to a given chunk, letting me see what resonates, or doesn't, what communicates as intended, or not.

cameldrv 8y ago

I actually originally posted this on Facebook and then my brother in law broke it up into tweets and posted on twitter.

Yizahi 8y ago

Hear hear. This was almost painful to read. Normally I just close twitter streams as soon as as I realize it's Twitter, but this one was interesting enough to try reading. I wish LJ didn't die or people would adopt Dreamwidth or similar "normal" blog platform. Twitter is simply horrible in UX.