Comments on: Does asymmetric tweeting work? or will we see “natural deselection?”

By: alan p

alan p — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:24:53 +0000

I switched Scoble off…signal to noise and all that, Twitter needs a “Interestingness” filter ;)

By: stu

stu — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:32:22 +0000

I tweaked my settings here:

http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=85

By: Kerry Buckley » Modes of Conversation

Kerry Buckley » Modes of Conversation — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:53:10 +0000

[...] of Conversation By Kerry This post has been languishing in my drafts for a while, but JP’s musings on ‘asymmetric tweeting’ reminded me to get it [...]

By: alexis

alexis — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:34:29 +0000

Twitter versus “pester”… discuss with reference to ambient context.

Why is this problem different from issues involved in managing email, or indeed creating information from data in any other asynchronous conversational technology characterised by ‘post, reply’.

It can’t be message length.

Ambient context surely arises from identity, situation and conversation. Who am I, what am I doing and where, and what am I saying.

Context for emails can be managed using filters and threads, etiquette around ‘reply’, ‘reply all’ and ‘cc’, and because the content of emails creates meaning once a conversation is under way.

Context for blogs is managed by forcing all replies (blog comment) to be republished to all readers in place situated near the blog post. Compared to email this is like ‘cc and reply all’ but replies still have to be pulled by checking the blog (or feed); they are not pushed to you like email.

Tweets are pushed to channels by publishers, for any channel subscriber to see. So far the only way to filter seems to be to choose between getting tweets pushed to you (sms, twitterific) or not (http). If you choose push, then you will be pestered .. like email. If you choose to check twitter periodically, then you may not have enough context to enter into a conversation.

Unlike email and blogs which manage situation and conversation quite well, and to a degree identity, twitter seems to lack features. Would adding them be a bad thing or kill it off?

By: JP

JP — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:02:16 +0000

So we have a number of levels of selection/deselection

1. Dont’t know person
2. Know, but don’t follow as yet
3. Know, too noisy, deselected
4. Know, follow, but too noisy for phone
5. Know, follow, receive on phone as well

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:58:43 +0000

“Not everyone I follow gets to my phone, and particularly not those with a high level of asymmetrical chatter. That is, all twittering of those I follow display on my monitor”

rates a “me too”.

More than about 5-6 tweets a day an individual is too much on the phone…

The rest I follow online…

By: Roland Smith

Roland Smith — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:12:30 +0000

Since “following” someone means making two decisions (first to follow and second whether to send those tweets to my cell phone), I already practice a form of deselection. Not everyone I follow gets to my phone, and particularly not those with a high level of asymmetrical chatter. That is, all twittering of those I follow display on my monitor. Those whom I highly value get beyond that to my cell phone.

By: FND

FND — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:39:19 +0000

Phil has summed it up pretty well in his first comment – especially the part about “regular” tweets drowning in the onslaught of excessive update(r)s – as well as in his brilliant blog posting.
There’s little left to say.

By: Phil Whitehouse

Phil Whitehouse — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:14:05 +0000

I’ve had a first stab at optimum etiquette for Twitter users…already getting some interesting reaction (online and offline)! Here’s the link:

http://philwhitehouse.blogspot.com/2008/01/tweetaholics.html

By: John Dodds

John Dodds — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:51:09 +0000

I think Phil makes a great point. Our attention – even in an ambient setting – is a scarce resource. I much prefer it when friends realise that the 140 character format should inform their Twitter communication and self-censor their tweet volume. We all have a voice but some choose to use a megaphone as well and that is not sustainable.

That said, I assure Phille Casablanca that real-life conversation with those two sometimes have the same assymmetric effect.