#Sunday7 Week 4

09/08/2009 — efan78

Sunday7Right, twitter’s fucked, it’s well known now and I seem to be hitting it just at the wrong time at the moment ‘cos I keep getting timed out whichever way I access it!  I am not a happy bunny!

But that doesn’t mean that I should scrap my #Sunday7 suggestions goddammit!  It just means that I’m stuck with leaving my suggestions here.  Grrr!!!!

Any hoo, here we go…

  1. I still say @karmadillo’s a bad influence after our #twibbon competition! But she’s worth following! #Sunday7 (And on a seperate note, sign up for your @BullyingUK Twibbon while you’re there!)
  2. Did you know that @edwardclarke is officially the best cook on twitter? TWO awards already! Showoff! #Sunday7
  3. Scathing wit, timely comebacks and a great guy (for a frenchman!) ;-P It must be @zefrog! #Sunday7
  4. Handbag house never died, it just became more cultish. With an L! Just ask @Yorksville when you follow her! #Sunday7
  5. He’s big, he’s new to twitter, and deserves a huge… Following! @BigNige1977 is well worth a #Sunday7 to break him in gently!
  6. He’s in Paris at the moment so he won’t get a big head if I suggest that you follow @anthonyjh as a #Sunday7. He’s a Mac too, bless ‘im!
  7. And my final #Sunday7 suggestion this week has to be @TheFuckingQueen, G’awd bless ‘er! Remember, Mam like ham not Ma’am like farm!

So, when twitter pull their finger out I’ll hopefully be able to get these actually posted up.  Grrr! >:-|

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#Sunday7 – Week 2

26/07/2009 — efan78

Sunday7

Last week I started my special recommendations, #Sunday7.

I decided that, although I love #followfriday, it has one huge problem, information overload, as my #followfriday page shows.  So I decided to start a special set of reccomendations on a Sunday and pick out seven special tweeps through the week for a shout out.

All week I’ve been checking my twitter stream and picking out one person each day to recommend, as well as one person (for Sunday) who sums up the whole week.  So, without further ado, here’s this week’s #Sunday7:

  1. Photographer, Cumbrian and woman living in interesting times, @PinkPebs #Sunday7
  2. Statistics, funnies and general banter your thing? @delmonfieth is your guy! #Sunday7
  3. He says what we wish we could! Vote for @AngryBritain #Sunday7
  4. She might not know the difference between Thursday and Friday but @nik_kee_dee definitely knows how to light up your twitterstream! #Sunday7
  5. A little ray of sunlight in a sometimes desolate day @Yorksville is a star too! #Sunday7
  6. If you want to follow a genuinely nice guy (with a lizard called Gibbs) @JaeKay ’s your man! #Sunday7
  7. She’s challenged me to a #twibbon contest – it’s so on! @Karmadillo – just you wait! #Sunday7
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#Sunday7 – A different way of recommending!

19/07/2009 — efan78

Sunday7

#FollowFriday can be a fantastic thing, it’s nice to be able to suggest that people who’re interested in what you have to say might be interested in others. This is how our twitter networks grow. But it can feel like information overload.

Well, I’ve decided that, on Friday, I’ll stick with my followfriday page but I’m going to have my #Sunday7, seven tweeps who’ve informed, entertained or educated in the week before. Or maybe they’ve just lightened my twitterstream and made me smile…

Seven days in the week, seven tweeps to be suggested, choose carefully!

So, here’s my first #Sunday7:

  1. @PembTeaCo – The nicest tea I’ve had is grown in Pembrokeshire, in Wales! By these guys. #Sunday7
  2. @Qikipedia – The QI elves drop a quite interesting tidbit into your twitterstream every day. #Sunday7
  3. @BullyingUK – Did you know that up to 4 suicidal pupils contact them every day?  Show your support! #Sunday7
  4. @9Swords – I’m always amazed by the stuff he finds, fun, educational and just generally random! #Sunday7
  5. @TechnologyGeek – Want the latest tech tweets but can’t be bothered following all the big names? TG does it for you! #Sunday7
  6. @SapphyNo1 – Saph is a friendly, welcoming and lovely tweep. If I had a sister, she’d be her! #Sunday7
  7. @FizzyDuck – twitter’s punniest rubber bath accessory, witty, friendly and generally gorgeous! #Sunday7
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#FixReplies

13/05/2009 — efan78

twitter LogoSo, this morning – like the rest of the twitterverse – I logged on and saw the announcement that there had been a “Small Settings Update” and that this affected @replies.

There seemed to be a bit of confusion as to HOW this affected us all, although we knew it would.  It didn’t take long though for the hashtag to arrive, and it was #FixReplies.  This was different to any of the myriad ‘bring back the old Facebook‘  petitions, unlike Facebook, twitter changed a fundamental part of the social networking side.  It would be like taking away the “People you may know” feature from Facebook.

Eventually, twitter realised that there was a problem and thanked the community for the feedback, and it seemed that the only thing that was getting through as being worrying was that people use the unshared @reply to find other new tweeps to follow.  Of course that was a concern, but I had a thought…

One of the big conversations about twitter around the net at the moment is whether it will replace Google.  To do this twitter HAS to allow information to flow freely around the twitterverse, and this new “feature” doesn’t allow it.

As an example, I follow @BullyingUK, an excellent support resource (and yes that was a shameless plug!).  Now imagine @BullyingVictim sends a message to @BullyingUK asking for a telephone number he could call for help.  

Using the old system, @BullyingUK could hit the reply button and say “@BullyingVictim Call your local helpline on 12345678.”  And anyone following @BullyingUK could see it.  Under the new system you would need to follow both @BullyingUK and @BullyingVictim to get the update.  

Now imagine you’re a worried, shy person who needs that number but daren’t ask and you don’t know @BullyingVictim.  You won’t see either tweet.  The new system doesn’t work.

As I was heading home from work earlier however I saw a link to a final post from @Biz that said it wasn’t a new feature, but something that the system couldn’t do any more.  But it’s a key part of what makes twitter work, and the team need to remember this.

They’ve said the way around it is to type your @reply instead of using the reply button.  Isn’t that great – especially after reports that show 60% of twitter users don’t get it and quit within a month – twitter decides to make the site even less user friendly!

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I am not a number!

15/04/2009 — efan78

i-am-not-a-number-logo
So, Ashton Kutcher and CNN have decided to compete for followers. Am I the only person who’s offended by the fact that two of the largest names on twitter have decided to have a pissing contest and use the number of people who want to hear what they have to say as a marker?It can be difficult enough to explain twitter to some people (see my last post about this) and this concept of followers and following’s purely as a scoreboard just rankles me. As I said in that last post, twitter is a truly social concept. It depends on people saying something interesting or fun as well as the retweet and the @reply. Those numbers, whether they be 1, 100 or 1 million aren’t numbers, each and every one of them is a person and each and every one deserves respect.

I’ll admit, I started following @StephenFry when I came onto twitter, and I still do. Not because I expect him to notice me or even be interested in a word I have to say, but because I’m interested in what he has to say. I also follow @DaveGorman and completely agree with him about people who follow thousands of others.

But the thing is that I’m just so annoyed by this that I can’t even explain why.  This competition just seems to have cheapened twitter, just as it starts to come of age. So I ask you, are you a number, or are you a free (wo)man?

(Oh, and I know it’s an awful attempt – I’m not a graphic designer or artist or anything, and it was all done in Paint, but if you want a copy of the Logo head over to Flickr.)

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I don’t get twitter

13/04/2009 — efan78

I have a few friends at work who’ve started using twitter, but it seems that no-one’s really “getting it”, by which I think they mean that they’re not enjoying their experience.
The only reason I can think of is that twitter is true social media. There’s no distractions, no way to interact with people outside of the 140 characters. You actually have to sit and read what other people are saying and you have to react!
It might seem simple but if twitter is going to be any use to you then you need to be prepared to tweet and be tweeted. Be prepared to start your own update but also to RT (retweet). Use general sweeping statements and @replies. Use photos, blogs and other pages to explain in more detail. But remember, above all else, interact with people.
I think that there are a couple of things that I’ve noticed my friends doing that I don’t think help them. I did the same at first but then realised that this wasn’t helping me with what I wanted from twitter.

  • They’re Following mostly celebrities. This isn’t a bad thing if all you’re interested in is what @xxandip (Andi Peters) had for breakfast (in case you’re interested – it’s ALWAYS pineapple) or where @stephenfry’s heading next (as he’s spent the last month or so jetting around for various programmes). I’m a follower of Stephen’s as I like his updates, I like to see some of the photos that he sends and I am a fan of his in general. But I found that most of the stars are either more bothered about what they can say to the world, or in giving one-word answers to as many of their followers as possible.
  • There are people out there who are spamming stars with “follow me” requests, personally – if I’m going to be followed by someone famous – I’d rather that it was because I actually post interesting updates than because I typed #followmestephen. And if I come across someone who’s every other post is “Pleeeeaase follow me random star” then I’m afraid I’ll not be interacting with them, I don’t want to be seeing that taking over my twitterstream thanks.
  • They approach updates as they would Facebook and so their posts usually start “is…” and follow that literally with what they are doing. Yes it’s a purist’s way of tweeting, but it’s not fun! I always worry when I look down a twitterstream for someone and don’t see a single update that starts @, RT, via or with a picture in it.

So my advice to people who are looking for a fun time on twitter – don’t rely on celebrities – look around and find fun people that you like. Look at their recent tweets and take advice from other people. Ask others that you’re following, or that are following you, if they have any recommendations, use #followfriday suggestions – and most of all – INTERACT with people!
—- Update —-
Thanks to @tonyisme’s great linkage – here’s a great YouTube video about twitter to explain what it’s all about!

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