While I think that this change was not a good idea, it’s interesting to think about it in the context of the recent change from “replies” to “mentions,” where the @handle doesn’t have to appear as the first word of the tweet for it to come through to you. Maybe there’s a larger plan here that we just don’t see yet…I’m not optimistic about that possibility, but I’m hoping.
It’s an abysmal behavioral hack to have to make, but I’m thinking that (assuming this change isn’t rolled back) maybe those of us who made use of the “all replies” option just stop using standard @replies entirely for the time being.
Where…
@youdon’tfollowthem Hey, your new site is excellent!
…would be invisible to many, something like…
- @youdon’tfollowthem What a godawful hack this is!
…or the more passive aggressive…
#replyhack @youdon’tfollowthem Yeah, I wish Twitter would roll this back, too!
…would be seen as a “mention” by the intended recipient and could be seen by the people not already following @youdon’tfollowthem.
This is the spring when social media decided to commit suicide, all because entrepreneur/developers can’t stop themselves from tinkering. I’m kind of loving it.
A good painter knows when to stop.
There is a tumblarity style revolt on twitter over the fact that they decided to block any messages where someone references another person you’re not following on twitter.
So if you tweet about @davidkarp and I don’t follow David, that message never appears on my twitter feed.
Folks are upset because they feel they get a lot out of these third party conversations. If these conversations were meant to be private, there is the direct message option.
The notion that conversations on twitter are private is ludicrous on its face, so I’m not sure what end is served here.
