By Alec Meer on February 10th, 2009 at 6:26 pm.
As John revealed yesterday, as part of a transparent attempt to raise his own follower count (coughhere’smecough), RPS has a Twitter thing. We’re so impressionable. In fact, we’ve had the account for a while, more to bag the URL than anything else, but being stupids we haven’t thought of how to best leverage this exciting new web 2.5 sociopathic networking micro-blogging brainfart technology as yet.
It should, from now on, add a tweet whenever we add a post to the main site. It’s like an RSS feed, but an RSS feed that’s pretending to be your friend. Is that enough? Or should we do something more? Please, leave your suggestions below or in an @rockpapershot tweet, and we’ll almost certainly not act on any that involve a vast amount of work. Wheee. Maybe there’s a gem of a simpl-o-idea out there though. If we’re going to get caught up in the latest web craze, we might as well do it well…
Just don’t tweet about food. Enough people do that already.
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Please only tweet about food. The public needs to know what RPS eats!
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I don’t use twitter, thus I implore you not to put anything interesting on it. Thanks.
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At some point everyone will realise how idiotic the whole concept of twitter is and silently delete all references to it. what a day that will be.
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SNOBBERY LEVELS RISING
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Pah. I don’t jump onto bandwagons until they’re at least four years old. You early adopters!
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Don’t follow Stephen Fry. Enough people follow him already, we don’t want his head to get any bigger.
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I remember following Stephen Fry in the heady days when he only had 15,000 followers, a tiny, intimate band of initiated..
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No one follow Alec. Only follow me. It’s imperative I have more followers than him.
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The Legions of Walkerites Vs. the Army of Meerians? Hmmm… can we get a game out of this?
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I demand regular RPS bowel movement updates. This is imperative.
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We have the RSS feed for being an RSS feed…maybe just more of a platform for interaction with the masses?
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The thing I don’t get about ‘twitter’ is that you’re making the choice of the broadest possible audience – anyone in the world with an internet connection – but also choosing what is perhaps the most restrictive medium to address those people since the telegram with that ridiculously arbitrary yet bizzarely oft-praised 100-odd character limit. For me this makes no sense, because surely the only time you can cut down on the information you’re communicating is when your audience is intimate enough to be able to fill in any contextual gaps you choose to excise from your message?
On the other hand, if the trend is that now the output of the world’s bloggers is getting smaller and less visible then I for one am all for it.
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I second that notion.
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Everyone follow Kieron and incite Twitter-envy in the rest of RPS. He’s like a Twitter superstar!
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@Pags – nah we should only follow Tim Stone, the whole site watching him. Staring.
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This sms-blog-crap spreads like the plague.
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I’m being followed by RPS!
I’m ecstatic
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Right, I have twitter, it’s great, etc.
Now tell me, what the hell is your background picture?!
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I’m fairly certain that *everyone* already is following Kieron.
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Please dont use twitter as another rss feed!
Instead I suggest you use twitter for interacting with your readers in ways you dont find the main site suited for.
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I used to have a internet friend that use the dot . as a nick. I have lost contact with him, and googling for him was of no use (try to google . )
. was a very fun forum-er and a radical defendant of brevity.
. are u here?
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I am sure . has a twitter
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I suggest you read this Charlie Brooker piece on the pointlessness of twittering:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/09/twitter
Then use the RPS twitter to write about the joys of docking.
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I don´t get the twitter-thing… I never will… Am I too old?
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You can’t be too old for Twitter, because the combined age of RPS makes them about as old as the trees.
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Hum hum…
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No Alex, you’re still sane. Try to stay that way, don’t let yourself get corrupted :P
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Little bird speaks to me… hum hum… I need to think… hum hum… I still can not comprehend.
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Bah, what is it about Twitter that makes (some of) those who don’t use it act as though it somehow makes them morally and intellectually superior. Oh wait, that’s true of everything.
Oh and BooleanBob, please tell me that you at least see the irony involved in the medium in which you chose to divulge your little comment.
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I wanted to say just how much I don’t care about some form of social interaction I don’t belong to b
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ut I can’t type over 100 characters and I’ll be buggered if I keep this up as long as it would take
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I must confess that after RPS’s previous post on Twitter I made an account there. I use it too! My shame is alleviated by the fact that I only use it to advertise my link-blog. I never knew shameless plugging would leave me not feeling… well, ashamed.
Anyway, consider me your follower, o mighty RPS! (Disclaimer: by ‘follower’ I mean ‘twitter follower’ and the use of the word does not imply any servitude forced or otherwise)
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to give you my full feelings on this matter. Sod it. ;) Communication good. Limits bad. FIRE BAD!
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Rockpapersnot, more like. HAH!
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Mechanically feeding a copy of the RPS RSS feed into Twitter would be a pointless duplication of bits. Please don’t do it.
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Twitter is what you make it. I think this explains it fairly well:
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2009/02/09/a_twitter_decision.html
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I need to develop a web 2.6 app which allows you to join twitter posts together. I will then post the works of shakespeare.
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One Twit per post? OH NO, NO, Please! That would be literally SPAM. Im already suscribed on my Google Reader.
Could you please think about something else to do with your Twiter account?
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@Mark Chan
The twitter character limits are, I think, down to its integration with SMS services.
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I give Twitter 10 months. After that, there will be either a tweetfade or a buyout.
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Sad. Sad sad. RPS in a digital keffiyeh.
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I don’t really see a need for Twitter for myself. I can update my Facebook status from my iphone just as easily, and that’s where all my friends are.
I guess if I ever started a cult I could update followers separately.
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What happens if Alec out-followers you, John?
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@James G :) I was just trying to be pithy, trite and offer nothing but a sardonic viewpoint on something I don’t really care about, save the people that may post there. I’m not big into the whole social networking aspect of these tubes I frequent, but, if others enjoy it, Huzzah!
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The winner gets to eat the loser, thereby acquiring their powers.
Does Alec have powers? Does John?
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Twitter? Is that some kind of bird feed? Our journalists so badly paid that they have to live on seeds now? ;-p
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Okay, RPS is following me on Twitter, that’s neat. What I don’t understand is how this happened. Did you guys auto-mine all the comments for email addresses corresponding to Twitter accounts?
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Twitter is VERY well named.
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And yes I’m elitist; i’s what makes me better then you
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that and my ye olde english.
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I’m following John just because he sounds a bit like David Mitchell.
I wish that I had not succumbed to twitter, but boredom is a harsh mistress.
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Agrees with JonFitt.
*nods sagely*
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(post buhleted by author: there’s already enough misanthropy and sniping on t’internet as is).
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You should use it to assign world conquering tasks. Onward RPS.
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I don’t really get the Twitter thing either. Every time I use it I feel like a complete and utter twit. But it is slightly more managable than that Facebook malarky.
But if you want to broaden your exposure the site does have its uses. So much so that Twitter will probably just become a huge never ending deluge of advertising spam. So no different from the rest of the ‘Net.
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i followed you guys just after the podcast came out, think ive got you all followed.
if you guys are looking for a good twitter client, i recommend http://www.destroytwitter.com
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James G seems a little defensive there. You use Twitter per chance?
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Not only new posts but also every new comment should be announced via twitter. Yes, I think that makes sense.
Full disclosure: I don’t use twitter!
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I find the name and the terminology all too twee to take seriously. Posting an update on Twitter is a Tweet? *cringe*
A couple of friends who use it were recently discussing their preferred terminology for the past tense of posting a message on Twitter: Twittered?, Tweeted? My own suggestion: Twat.
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Twitter would be good for a mini-me version of Wot I Think.
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I think that would be *very* useful during events with bunch of news – like, press events and conventions (like E3).
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http://gender.twitmarks.com/g.php?username=rockpapershot
“There is 91% chance that rockpapershot is a FEMALE”
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