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…
10/02/2009 at 18:31 FernandoDANTE says:
Just don’t tweet about food. Enough people do that already.
10/02/2009 at 18:33 Theoban says:
Please only tweet about food. The public needs to know what RPS eats!
10/02/2009 at 18:36 Nick says:
I don’t use twitter, thus I implore you not to put anything interesting on it. Thanks.
10/02/2009 at 18:37 weegosan says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 18:38 Theoban says:
SNOBBERY LEVELS RISING
10/02/2009 at 18:40 Iain says:
Pah. I don’t jump onto bandwagons until they’re at least four years old. You early adopters!
10/02/2009 at 18:44 Pags says:
Don’t follow Stephen Fry. Enough people follow him already, we don’t want his head to get any bigger.
10/02/2009 at 18:51 qrter says:
I remember following Stephen Fry in the heady days when he only had 15,000 followers, a tiny, intimate band of initiated..
10/02/2009 at 18:53 John Walker says:
No one follow Alec. Only follow me. It’s imperative I have more followers than him.
10/02/2009 at 18:56 matte_k says:
The Legions of Walkerites Vs. the Army of Meerians? Hmmm… can we get a game out of this?
10/02/2009 at 18:57 Noc says:
I demand regular RPS bowel movement updates. This is imperative.
10/02/2009 at 18:58 Schtee says:
We have the RSS feed for being an RSS feed…maybe just more of a platform for interaction with the masses?
10/02/2009 at 19:00 BooleanBob says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 19:01 ...hmm... says:
I second that notion.
10/02/2009 at 19:01 Pags says:
Everyone follow Kieron and incite Twitter-envy in the rest of RPS. He’s like a Twitter superstar!
10/02/2009 at 19:05 Theoban says:
@Pags – nah we should only follow Tim Stone, the whole site watching him. Staring.
10/02/2009 at 19:05 Hoernchen says:
This sms-blog-crap spreads like the plague.
10/02/2009 at 19:08 Freelancepolice says:
I’m being followed by RPS!
I’m ecstatic
10/02/2009 at 19:09 Nighthood says:
Right, I have twitter, it’s great, etc.
Now tell me, what the hell is your background picture?!
10/02/2009 at 19:14 John Walker says:
I’m fairly certain that *everyone* already is following Kieron.
10/02/2009 at 19:15 Thoms says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 19:18 Tei says:
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?
10/02/2009 at 19:19 Tei says:
I am sure . has a twitter
10/02/2009 at 19:20 Paul B says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 19:25 Alex says:
I don´t get the twitter-thing… I never will… Am I too old?
10/02/2009 at 19:31 Pags says:
You can’t be too old for Twitter, because the combined age of RPS makes them about as old as the trees.
10/02/2009 at 19:32 Alex says:
Hum hum…
10/02/2009 at 19:32 the affront says:
No Alex, you’re still sane. Try to stay that way, don’t let yourself get corrupted :P
10/02/2009 at 19:36 Alex says:
Little bird speaks to me… hum hum… I need to think… hum hum… I still can not comprehend.
10/02/2009 at 19:50 James G says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 19:53 Mark Chan says:
I wanted to say just how much I don’t care about some form of social interaction I don’t belong to b
10/02/2009 at 19:54 Mark Cha says:
ut I can’t type over 100 characters and I’ll be buggered if I keep this up as long as it would take
10/02/2009 at 19:54 Naurgul says:
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)
10/02/2009 at 19:55 Mar Ch says:
to give you my full feelings on this matter. Sod it. ;) Communication good. Limits bad. FIRE BAD!
10/02/2009 at 19:58 sana says:
Rockpapersnot, more like. HAH!
10/02/2009 at 20:00 David McBride says:
Mechanically feeding a copy of the RPS RSS feed into Twitter would be a pointless duplication of bits. Please don’t do it.
10/02/2009 at 20:00 Thoms says:
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
10/02/2009 at 20:04 Heliocentric says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 20:19 Novack says:
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?
10/02/2009 at 20:27 James G says:
@Mark Chan
The twitter character limits are, I think, down to its integration with SMS services.
10/02/2009 at 20:30 Dreamhacker says:
I give Twitter 10 months. After that, there will be either a tweetfade or a buyout.
10/02/2009 at 20:55 Nervous Little Tit says:
Sad. Sad sad. RPS in a digital keffiyeh.
10/02/2009 at 21:14 JonFitt says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 21:20 Ian says:
What happens if Alec out-followers you, John?
10/02/2009 at 21:23 Markoff Chaney says:
@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!
10/02/2009 at 21:36 qrter says:
The winner gets to eat the loser, thereby acquiring their powers.
Does Alec have powers? Does John?
10/02/2009 at 22:21 Larington says:
Twitter? Is that some kind of bird feed? Our journalists so badly paid that they have to live on seeds now? ;-p
10/02/2009 at 22:23 TychoCelchuuu says:
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?
10/02/2009 at 22:26 Radiant says:
Twitter is VERY well named.
10/02/2009 at 22:26 Radiant says:
And yes I’m elitist; i’s what makes me better then you
10/02/2009 at 22:29 Radiant says:
that and my ye olde english.
10/02/2009 at 22:41 Schmung says:
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.
10/02/2009 at 23:43 mrrobsa says:
Agrees with JonFitt.
*nods sagely*
11/02/2009 at 00:03 BooleanBob says:
(post buhleted by author: there’s already enough misanthropy and sniping on t’internet as is).
11/02/2009 at 00:53 Tom Camfield says:
You should use it to assign world conquering tasks. Onward RPS.
11/02/2009 at 00:55 bansama says:
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.
11/02/2009 at 02:05 cubed2D says:
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
11/02/2009 at 08:20 Catastrophe says:
James G seems a little defensive there. You use Twitter per chance?
11/02/2009 at 09:07 Jockel says:
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!
11/02/2009 at 10:22 Craymen Edge says:
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.
11/02/2009 at 15:26 jamsarnie says:
Twitter would be good for a mini-me version of Wot I Think.
11/02/2009 at 17:27 Jocho says:
I think that would be *very* useful during events with bunch of news – like, press events and conventions (like E3).
19/02/2009 at 17:31 Gap Gen says:
http://gender.twitmarks.com/g.php?username=rockpapershot
“There is 91% chance that rockpapershot is a FEMALE”