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Not sure why threads is in quotes here. I believe that’s just what they’re called.

• LeifCarrotson 5y ago
  Yes, that's what they're called by Twitter users, but the word has a meaning that originated (I believe) in the 80s with Usenet threads and is now applied to other places where similar structures exist (Like this HN comment thread). It's obvious that a forum thread or HN thread is basically the same as the original meaning, but Twitter threads are more like disconnected individual sentences that are so illegible and difficult to navigate that it doesn't seem reasonable to call them threads. Clicking "Show Replies" a few tweets down seems to have a 50/50 chance of actually getting me to the end of the thread. On a desktop browser, not logged in, there are a handful of real sentences per screenful. There's a plethora of user interface elements you have to ignore to find the content, with repeated user icons, both a name and an @, dates and times (when it's all practically posted at the same time), retweets, quotes, likes, free-form continuation indicators counting 1/ 2/ 3/, and so on. Twitter will randomly offer seemingly unrelated tweets interspersed throughout.
  • deleted 5y ago
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