Twitter is AWESOME

That too. I'm blown away by how many people believe they're hilarious despite not moving the needle once away from their circle of friends. "Oh she's EDGY!" the friends will say. It's a nice way of saying, "Says shocking things in an attempt to get laughs."

 

I do freelance writing and editing now, mostly business-related (where my name typically isn't on the article/document).

I think the best decision I've ever made is not to get on Twitter. Any project I'd be in contention for would be DOA.

 

People use Twitter the wrong way. I think at first I did to until I really took a look at what it can be useful for.

Nobody cares what your deepest thoughts are. Nobody wants to read your comedy routine either.

I think it is a good tool to drive people to your site, your work, your web-site, your blog, whatever.

And if you treat Twitter like it is a text message to your boss -- seeing as your boss likely follows you or is at least aware of what you are tweeting - you won't have brain farts and make stupid jokes about white people and AIDS

 

The people I most appreciate now on Twitter are the people many find most bothersome and irritating: Reporters who post play-by-play from events.

The Twitter outrage machine is so tiresome, as has been written about.

The little bantering doesn't do much for me anymore, even though I of course continue to engage in it.

Random observations bore me. As I post random observations.

Liberal Twitter is annoying. I say that as a liberal. But just reading the same things from the same people, it just became too much. So expand my horizons? Well, then I'd be reading conservative Twitter and it'd be the same thing but even worse (from my ideological perspective; flip those for however you lean).

With work I'll have to be engaging on Twitter in the coming months much more than I ever have. It will be important. Hopefully I can do it while still sort of enjoying myself (same thing with Facebook, which I'm not on, but my wife set up an account that I suppose I'll have to start using for work).

So what do I still like on Twitter? When someone tweets play by play of an event I can't see. Maybe it's a college game. Or high school. Or pro. Maybe I'm on the road. Or just don't have access to a TV or the Internet. But, yes, I now like the reporters who drive others crazy by updating every score or every pass or every run. That gives me much more than people -- and I'm one of them -- who post during a game things like, "Wow." "Derrick Rose." "Vikings." "That was everything." Assuming everyone is watching the same game. Well, if I'm not watching I have no context for a tweet that just includes someone's name with a series of exclamation points. So I appreciate getting actual details, as boring as that is, as much as it clogs people's timelines.

 

The guy who posted the shot by shot updates of Tiger's rounds in Phoenix and Torry Pines - that is a great twitter feed (Tiger Tracker?)

 

Yeah that's a great follow; it's fanboiesque but as a fanboi I like that, but when he's playing like garbage he says that and talks about just wanting to get drunk. And people get mad at him for only writing about Tiger. If ever there's a time to say "hit the unfollow button" it's when someone complains about tracking Tiger too much on a feed called Tiger Tracker. Go follow Nick Watney Tracker.

And it's great if Tiger's in the early tee times and not on TV; perfect time for play-by-play.

 

Yeah, I followed at work last week. And the weekend before.

Tiger usually doesn't play weekends any more.

 

Curt Schilling congratulates his daughter on deciding to play softball at Salve Regina University. Responses from sterling young men include promises to rape her, and those tweets aren't even in the top five of most vulgar. Schilling outs the two worst offenders, gets one fired from his job as a Yankees ticket-seller, gets the other suspended from college.

I suddenly like the guy a whole lot more.

The world we live in…Man has it changed. ADDENDUM! | 38 Pitches

Curt Schilling outs Yankees worker who allegedly posted vulgar tweets about daughter | NJ.com

 

He's still Curt Schilling, but yes, fuck these scumbags.

 

I Tweet for a living.

My biggest problem with the platform is its lack of functionality. Twitter is dying on the Vine (pun intended) because people do so little account maintance. Most people follow hundreds of accounts but most people don't know how to, or bother to, use lists.

Twitter's UI needs to make creating and switching between lists a one-button function. As of now, it takes several, somewhat complicated steps, to move from one list to the next. It's lists that turn the firehose effect into a series of garden hoses. Want to see what people you cover are saying? Go to that list. Want to see what your friends/families/colleagues are saying? Click that list. Want to see what celebs or commedians or what Fat2Cat (follow me!) are saying, list it.

 

Twitter is tricky. Some people are great, some reckless, some boring, some should be put in jail.

When I left my sports editor job, the question I was asked the most was if I would stay on Twitter.

I try to be funny but not mean (and shilled the product). It's a tough juggling act.

 

Seems like a must in the news biz if you want to attract younger readership.