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> it's not even communcating. It's more like writing something on a wall hoping that your neighbors happen to see it and take interest. It needn't be even remo

> it's not even communcating. It's more like writing something on a wall hoping that your neighbors happen to see it and take interest. It needn't be even remotely like that. You're kind of arguing from ignorance. And I can't, for the life of me, see why. It's okay to not know about some things. And it's okay to not have your curiosity draw you to certain things. But when it's pretty clear you have no idea what you're talking about, why go on asserting that ignorance as fact instead of asking questions and learning more? Why enshrine your ignorance in lengthy words, insisting others take a bite? Here's what it's most like, for me: IRC. Where you're the bouncer and the channel contains whomever you'd like. The messages are brief but that's their only resemblance to SMS. 140 characters is more than ample to share thoughts or directions toward interesting content. There's plenty of communication, if you choose to use it that way.

geoka9 15y ago
> You're kind of arguing from ignorance. And I can't, for the life of me, see why. You can't see why because I'm not arguing in the first place. I'm just describing the things as I undestand them. I may be wrong, but that's why I'm describing them: so that other's can explain them to me if they feel like doing it. Now to the point. I am trying to learn about Twitter and see if there is any value to me. I visited your twitter account, and I saw that most of your tweets don't have replies. I don't see this as communication. To me, it feels more like begging for attention. I don't feel like this is something I'd like to be doing (or at least feel like I'm doing). And, as I wrote in another thread, I think I now know what my problem with Twitter is. I'd like to follow some developers I like, but every time I go to their twitter account, I see a lot of personal and/or vacouous stuff. I just don't feel like reading about their personal life or random thoughts on things. And this seems to be a big part of any personal Twitter stream.
- danilocampos 15y ago
  > I'm not arguing in the first place. I'm just describing the things as I undestand them. I may be wrong, but that's why I'm describing them: so that other's can explain them to me if they feel like doing it. It's fine to post-rationalize it that way but your initial comment left very little room for that interpretation. Questions generally work better than assertions for addressing curiosity. > I don't see this as communication. To me, it feels more like begging for attention. I don't feel like this is something I'd like to be doing (or at least feel like I'm doing). Not really sure what to tell you. You're also not seeing all the direct messages that pass between people, responding to certain things privately, or the many @replies that aren't parsed into the public web interface due to flakey clients. But whatever — you're finding ways to reassure your preconceptions and that's totally your privilege. In the end, though, "not my cup of tea" is a very different sentiment from "I fail to see any other legitimate use of it." What you call vacuous I call personality. The people who work on interesting things are worth getting to know personally. I've enjoyed meatspace drinks and, again, entire paid gigs through getting to know people this way. A good friend who was fucked in unemployment land scored an amazing gig through just being fun and personable on Twitter. Thus same friend managed to introduce me to some people I really admire through the same means. So if you want to view Twitter through this boring-ass lens where you have no curiosity about your fellow humans, well, I guess it's not surprising you're not going to get much value from it. Like much of life, it's what you make of it.
  - geoka9 15y ago
    > It's fine to post-rationalize it that way but your initial comment left very little room for that interpretation. Questions generally work better than assertions for addressing curiosity. Please re-read my initial comment. It _was_ a question followed by a statement of truth. I'm not post-rationalizing anything. I don't like the way this conversation is going. Thank you for your interest.
    - danilocampos 15y ago
      Come on, dude, just be real. Your "question" was so loaded a team of pack mules couldn't shift it: "Isn't the whole purpose of joining Twitter is to get your ego stroked?" And it got, appropriately, down voted into the earth's core. You showed up, you were a little flip, it turned out you're not seeing the whole picture. Just own it and we'll all have a good time learning things.
      - Helianthus 15y ago
        he did, you're belaboring the point too much
- maigret 15y ago
  "I visited your twitter account, and I saw that most of your tweets don't have replies." When I look my TV, or read a book, I rarely answer the writer, anchor, redactor... Still it is communication. Not like "communication with friends", more like "mass communication". It still allows you to share your opinions, bring new ideas, etc. People will only answer if they think they can add additional value or disagree, else they'll just read and enjoy or not. Look, you are on HN, and comment here. You don't expect every member of HN to answer all your comments. Think of Twitter has an enormous HN where you can choose who you read comments from.
paganel 15y ago
> You're kind of arguing from ignorance. And I can't, for the life of me, see why. It's okay to not know about some things. And it's okay to not have your curiosity draw you to certain things. Please, ignorance has nothing to do with it, the author has kind of hit the nail on the head. First of all, he's correct insofar as nobody really wants to follow uninteresting or anonymous people. And the hard truth is that the majority of us are not interesting nor famous (me included, I've only got 2-3 followers, even though I follow around 30 people).
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

geoka9 15y ago

> You're kind of arguing from ignorance. And I can't, for the life of me, see why. You can't see why because I'm not arguing in the first place. I'm just describing the things as I undestand them. I may be wrong, but that's why I'm describing them: so that other's can explain them to me if they feel like doing it. Now to the point. I am trying to learn about Twitter and see if there is any value to me. I visited your twitter account, and I saw that most of your tweets don't have replies. I don't see this as communication. To me, it feels more like begging for attention. I don't feel like this is something I'd like to be doing (or at least feel like I'm doing). And, as I wrote in another thread, I think I now know what my problem with Twitter is. I'd like to follow some developers I like, but every time I go to their twitter account, I see a lot of personal and/or vacouous stuff. I just don't feel like reading about their personal life or random thoughts on things. And this seems to be a big part of any personal Twitter stream.

danilocampos 15y ago
> I'm not arguing in the first place. I'm just describing the things as I undestand them. I may be wrong, but that's why I'm describing them: so that other's can explain them to me if they feel like doing it. It's fine to post-rationalize it that way but your initial comment left very little room for that interpretation. Questions generally work better than assertions for addressing curiosity. > I don't see this as communication. To me, it feels more like begging for attention. I don't feel like this is something I'd like to be doing (or at least feel like I'm doing). Not really sure what to tell you. You're also not seeing all the direct messages that pass between people, responding to certain things privately, or the many @replies that aren't parsed into the public web interface due to flakey clients. But whatever — you're finding ways to reassure your preconceptions and that's totally your privilege. In the end, though, "not my cup of tea" is a very different sentiment from "I fail to see any other legitimate use of it." What you call vacuous I call personality. The people who work on interesting things are worth getting to know personally. I've enjoyed meatspace drinks and, again, entire paid gigs through getting to know people this way. A good friend who was fucked in unemployment land scored an amazing gig through just being fun and personable on Twitter. Thus same friend managed to introduce me to some people I really admire through the same means. So if you want to view Twitter through this boring-ass lens where you have no curiosity about your fellow humans, well, I guess it's not surprising you're not going to get much value from it. Like much of life, it's what you make of it.
- geoka9 15y ago
  > It's fine to post-rationalize it that way but your initial comment left very little room for that interpretation. Questions generally work better than assertions for addressing curiosity. Please re-read my initial comment. It _was_ a question followed by a statement of truth. I'm not post-rationalizing anything. I don't like the way this conversation is going. Thank you for your interest.
  - danilocampos 15y ago
    Come on, dude, just be real. Your "question" was so loaded a team of pack mules couldn't shift it: "Isn't the whole purpose of joining Twitter is to get your ego stroked?" And it got, appropriately, down voted into the earth's core. You showed up, you were a little flip, it turned out you're not seeing the whole picture. Just own it and we'll all have a good time learning things.
    - Helianthus 15y ago
      he did, you're belaboring the point too much
maigret 15y ago
"I visited your twitter account, and I saw that most of your tweets don't have replies." When I look my TV, or read a book, I rarely answer the writer, anchor, redactor... Still it is communication. Not like "communication with friends", more like "mass communication". It still allows you to share your opinions, bring new ideas, etc. People will only answer if they think they can add additional value or disagree, else they'll just read and enjoy or not. Look, you are on HN, and comment here. You don't expect every member of HN to answer all your comments. Think of Twitter has an enormous HN where you can choose who you read comments from.

paganel 15y ago

> You're kind of arguing from ignorance. And I can't, for the life of me, see why. It's okay to not know about some things. And it's okay to not have your curiosity draw you to certain things. Please, ignorance has nothing to do with it, the author has kind of hit the nail on the head. First of all, he's correct insofar as nobody really wants to follow uninteresting or anonymous people. And the hard truth is that the majority of us are not interesting nor famous (me included, I've only got 2-3 followers, even though I follow around 30 people).

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]