Just Who Is Twitter Catering To?
Who is Twitter catering to?
We’ve updated the Notices section of Settings to better reflect how folks are using Twitter regarding replies. Based on usage patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow—it’s a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.
Allow me, please, to attempt to understand the “undesirable” part of receiving Tweets from those I don’t follow. For one, I’m not always notified of a new follower. If someone replies to something I’ve said and I don’t recognize the name, I look in my list of followers. 99% of the time, I will follow this person back. If I have no desire, I simply use the “block” feature. Quite simple, really. So, this leads me to question- just who is Twitter catering to?
The recent influx of celebrities, media outlets and the overall dominance of the so-called “elite” of the blogosphere cannot go unnoticed. These are the Tweeters who are less likely to follow-and heaven forbid a Tweet is received from someone not on their “list.” But, isn’t the ability to block followers on Twitter the solution? Why prevent a Tweet from a person not being followed, from being seen in the regular Twitter timeline? Maybe we have something important, or interesting to say. For example, I follow @SamChampion from Good Morning America. He doesn’t follow me, however, I did send him a cute Tweet, regarding something he did on GMA-and guess what? He responded. With Twitter’s changes, he would probably have missed the Tweet and a nice, little chuckle.
Here’s the solution, for Twitter, the celebs and the media outlets-see the button named “block?” Yeah. Use it. If you don’t want “undesirables, such as myself and other normal users, replying to your Tweets and showing in your timeline, then freaking block us. We didn’t force you to use Twitter. You jumped on the bandwagon a year late. Us lowly bloggers made Twitter what it is today-a way of communicating with people we would probably never have met. We didn’t make it your playground. And Twitter folks? If you’re bowing down to pressure from the so-called elite- you just may lose those who brought the service into the mainstream-yeah, myself, the lowly hillbilly chick from West Virginia, the stay-at-home mom in Texas, or the writer in Ireland. Twitter-get over it, make changes that better the service, not harm.
Oh and feel free to click the image in this post to follow me. I respond to everyone.
I think you might be misunderstanding the change.
Previously, there was an option in your “notices” panel that allowed you to choose to see “@ replies only to people you follow”. That means is you send a reply to @SamChampion I wouldn’t see that because I’m not following him but he still sees it.
The only thing that’s changed is they’ve taken away the option to see “all @ replies”. Before you’ve seen any of my replies to people I follow but you don’t (I’m assuming) and now you won’t and you don’t have the option to change that.
However, you will still get the @replies directed to you from people you’re not following. So, if a spammer wants to get your attention, they will still be able to.
My settings have been set to see only replies to people I’m following from people I’m following, but I’ve still been pinged by spammers and others trying to get my attention (even though I’m not following them). That’s not changing.
I don’t think they should have taken away the option to be able to see all replies (to people you’re not following from people you are), of course. Maybe they’ll change it back. Anyway here’s a link to the blog post when they announce the option to change how you see replies.
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No, I’m not misunderstanding the change. Yes, the change takes away the option to see all “@” replies- which brings me to the point of the block feature. If someone you are following, replies to someone you are not following, yes, you see it in your timeline. I get it. I chose to see all @ replies because the purpose is to find and possibly follow, interesting people. If you replied to someone, I might click the user’s name, depending on the conversation-who knows, I may follow if I see the person as someone interesting. With the new changes-what’s going to happen? People aren’t going to be as aware of other users to follow. Twitter is turning into another Instant Messenger service, instead of the “social” service it started as. My point wasn’t only the new change, but the way Twitter has gone from a way to connect, to a race to see who can get a million followers, who could really care less about those who do follow, (and possibly the reason Twitter made this change). If someone chooses to allow a million people to follow- that’s their fault. Ignore those you don’t want to view- hence the block feature.
Here’s where the confusion lies, I think, because I read it as you saying he wouldn’t have received the reply because he’s not following you:
Those people racing to the top were probably using the “see no replies” feature, which is gone now too. What do they care if people are interacting with them? They just want followers.
I liked having the options and I don’t think they should have taken those away. We agree on that. But I don’t see them as catering to the celebrities because they’ve taken away the option to ignore ALL replies (I can imagine people like Oprah using that, too).
Perhaps they’re looking at ways to clean up their server usage? I dunno. I vote that they bring back the option for people who like to see all the replies.
I don’t and use the hashtag search to find new people to follow. Search has been a life saver for me and I really don’t want my stream cluttered with a bunch of one-sided conversation, but that’s me and my choice. Choice is always good and they should bring that back.
it makes me feel like im some sort of leper and Oprah is afraid i might infect her
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lol- I was surprised when Sam Champion actually responded. If you want to follow someone who makes you go “WTF,” follow @kirstiealley. Only goes to show the celebs using Twitter are doing so because it’s suddenly the “in” thing to do. Duh, we’ve been using it for a year+.
Unless the celebrities and a listers specifically block you, they can still see your @-replies to them even though they’re not following you.
Celebrities on twitter suck ass anyway.
See this article for a good explanation of the changes (I tweeted it, but some people don’t follow me.
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I think we’re both misunderstanding each other- I understand what the change is- the point of my post refers to part of the change and who Twitter is focusing on- not just the change itself.
I have to admit that I’ve had a hard time answering this question myself. As much as I like Twitter, I still can’t quite figure out who they’re trying to make happy.
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I have the same problem regarding twitter. i really bugged me to see so many famous names coming up there and using tweets like some wizard advertising tool. My question is when will this entire thing blow up. Because we only see things multiplying by second, and it’s only a matter of time until the bubble bursts.