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Anyone looking to actually verify the source (this is at least partially why they're cited, right?) is going to have difficulty locating the original tweet with
by Firehed 14y ago
Anyone looking to actually verify the source (this is at least partially why they're cited, right?) is going to have difficulty locating the original tweet without the permalink. The original tweet, along with the link, can be deleted - but that's true for any web resource.
Ultimately, I wonder why tweets are cited any differently than any other web resource. I'd find the following more useful:
https://twitter.com/newsycombinator/status/292799867372310529
than MLA's recommended tweet style:
news.yc popular (newsycombinator). "How do I cite a tweet? http://j.mp/ygeHyP" 19 Jan 2013, 5:05 p.m. Tweet.
I guess it's handy to have the full body of the tweet right in the citation, but that would be true for any short quote from any resource - both on and offline.
- lsc 14y agoI think the assumption is that the tweets will go away. Look at the twitter search; I mean, they can't seem to search tweets more than a few days/weeks old. Clearly twitter does not place a high priority on keeping historical data.
- spullara 14y agoEvery public, non-deleted tweet is easily available via the API or a URL. The search index is time limited.
- Firehed 14y agoThey don't prioritize finding historical data, which is why the permalink URL is all the more important. There are (or at least were) third-party services dedicated solely to finding older Twitter data. Again, this is no different than any web resource. We even have an HTTP header specifically to indicate content has been deleted.