Daniel Jalkut’s “Elements of Twitter Style”
I am 100% on-board with Daniel’s set of thoughtfully-composed guidelines for avoiding being obnoxious or dumb while using Twitter.
Particularly of note, the bit about @replies:
In general you should not edit the standard formatting for replies, which include the @username of the user you are replying to at the beginning of the tweet. Deviating from this format will cause your reply to be visible to all of your followers, instead of just the ones who follow both you and your recipient.
Some users abuse this fact by adding an arbitrary character before the username, so that all of their followers see the reply:
.@danielpunkass I think you’re full of crap, and everybody knows it.
If it’s imperative to share a reply with your entire audience, be respectful and edit your tweet to adopt the format of a mention, so your audience knows you are not abusing the reply format.
Oh, the bitching and whining when Twitter released that feature, the one that let users see only @replies to people they also followed. And the self-satisfaction of those who figured out how to game the system with an ugly little dot.
I was an early proponent of that new filtering feature because, while many claimed it was robbing them of the element of user discovery, I had always made a point to specifically avoid following people who cluttered my stream with conversation that was irrelevant to me.
And the feature came out and immediately, I was able to start following new people who had interesting things to say in between the conversation. There is nothing wrong with using Twitter conversationally. There is nothing wrong with using Twitter in any way at all, of course. But insisting on inserting one side of a conversation into my stream feels like you’re standing next to me, talking loudly on a cell phone. Kill the dot.
That said, what about conversation between two users who I do follow? Well, that can be fun, to a point. But what about when it’s not fun? There is no mute button for you fucking people. Our best option is to unfollow one of you chatty cathies to opt out of the entire conversation. But I don’t want to do that because I follow you because you’re brilliant and charming and I love what you have to say. Our second best option is to get all passive aggressive and then feel bad about it and then get over it because sometimes, you just gotta speak your mind.
Also of note, the part about direct messages.
You should never use replies to highlight the fact that you can’t direct message a user. This is a rude implication that the other user should be following you, when it’s every user’s prerogative to manage their following list as they see fit.
I hope I am not wrong about this, but I don’t feel I’m being rude if I reply to a follower through DM who cannot DM me back because I don’t follow them. I have been called out before about this being rude behavior, in essence, rubbing in the imbalance of power. To these people, I respond that I am always completely accessible through email, which is listed on my site, which is linked on my Twitter, and I love email and will always respond to it. Plus, if it’s okay with you, I prefer to keep my Twitter content relatively free of @replies. I think that’s fair, don’t you?
Lastly, I can’t help but champion Daniel’s call to thoughtful writing:
Be Yourself, Only Better
Twitter is your opportunity to show off your best attributes. Some people will defend rude or tactless behavior on Twitter by quipping, “I’m just being myself.” It’s true, but you’re also just being yourself when you’re using the toilet. Don’t share every little facet of your life, only the charming parts.
This is the point at which Twitter becomes useful to me, the unintended outcome of providing a platform for self-expression. Twitter has been directly responsible for so much good in my life, simply by allowing me to condense my identity into small, palatable bits I would like to be held accountable for. And I believe it has this potential for everybody. And some of us have formed a community around this very idea, and I’ve forged some life-changing partnerships among this community.
It’s hard to believe, after all these three years, that Twitter is still as relevant as it is. I can’t think of a good way to conclude this so I’ll leave you with a final thought:
RT @ktgasserEw! => Can the Double Down get any less healthy? Sure, add more sauce and a Krispy Kreme bunhttp://bit.ly/9cW1Ok (HT @LATimeshealth)
