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Putting Twitter on Notice
I’m becoming increasingly irritated with Twitter and Twhirl.
Yes, yes, go ahead and say you told me so. That’s all right; I can handle it. I’ve been waffling on the subject of Twitter from day one. At first, I scoffed. After caving to peer pressure, feeling the need to hang out where all cool kids were, I joined the collective of Twitterfied Borg.
I’m on the verge of dumping it.
Don’t get me wrong. Twitter had its value. It was great for making connections and getting to know people a little better. If I hadn’t have joined, I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet so many new people.
Twitter was great for networking and promoting anything we had going on. Late at night, tweets scrolling in the background kept me company in a weird sort of way.
Twitter let me do some excellent PR and gain some confidence. It made it easier for me to talk to complete strangers and land some projects – and this kind of schmoozing is usually James’ area of expertise, not mine.
I use Twhirl to access Twitter. I like the little application that gives me a real bang for my buck. But lately, both Twitter and Twhirl have been rather unreliable. Nothing hardly works right anymore.
Take tonight, for example. Twhirl worked fine until I downloaded and installed the latest upgrade. Surprise, surprise – no Twhirl.
I received a message that says, “Exceeded limit; paused 5 minutes.” What the hell is that? I just turned the damned thing on and I’ve exceeded my limit? Now that I think about it, what is the limit?
Joy.
What do we do now that Twitter has us hooked? The left-hand corner of my monitor has a big empty space where Twhirl should be, and I miss the constant chatter of tweets in the background. Will it ever be fixed? Should I even bother spending time dwelling on this minor dilemma?
The situation really shouldn’t bother me. I’ve come home to my faithful standby, Trillian. Trillian isn’t as vocal as Twitter and the instant messaging sessions are more personal and less social, but at least instant messaging works.
To all the Twitteratti who I have come to know and love, I have not abandoned you; The double duo of Twitter and Twhirl has abandoned me.
I would love to continue having conversations 140 words at a time, but I’m putting Twitter on notice. Shape up or you’re gone. Go join your buddy Entrecard over there in the corner.
How about you? Has Twitter lost its glitter?
*winces* It must be late. Maybe I should just step away from the keyboard now…
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Social Hookups
@ James – True facts indeed, I still think without a website I would use Twitter as its fun to “tweet” haha, thanks for the reply
Ryan Ray’s last blog post..Get Your Link On, On My Business Cards & Website
@Ryan: Aaaahhh….I never said I was leaving – just yet. Twitter’s on notice for now. In other words, alright, Twitter, I’ll allow you to rent a room on my desktop, but if you continue to give me excuses why the rent is late, out you go!
I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t check twitter as often. Though I want to connect, I can’t be sure I hear back from folks or they hear from me when they ask for info. But what service compares? I’ve yet to find one. plucky Plurk doesn’t quite have the usability that Twitter does (not counting downtime).
I’ll keep using it because that’s where people go for the 140 character convos. It’s getting old to spread across so many average services. There’s ping.fm, but I haven’t quite gotten into it yet.
Meryl K. Evans’s last blog post..The Power of Story in the Digital Age
“I’m putting Twitter on notice. Shape up or you’re gone. Go join your buddy Entrecard over there in the corner.”
Ah. Entrecard. I tried that one (and it was fun for a little bit–until it started to feel like a job with no real payoff) and eventually had to let it go. I haven’t missed it. Much more fun to concentrate on writing posts and checking out others’ posts and commenting on them when I can.
Twitter–I can certainly see how it would be much more fun to use than Entrecard ever was, but as far as using it as a business tool–I’m still waiting for someone to demonstrate conclusively that they’ve generated significant business from Twitter to justify the time spent twittering away.
It could happen, but as I say, I’m still waiting for that report.
Jesse Hines’s last blog post..How to Become a More Clear and Concise Writer by Reading Road Signs
Harry, i took a break from Twitter only to come back and find it broken…daily! I have Plurk and FriendFeed but it’s not easy to add all the Tweeps. Twitter reeled me in and let me down. I’m hopeful that with Jeff Bezos investing the API will improve. I am hanging in there, just not as often. Heartbreak has made me cautious.
I still love twitter but admit that it’s been getting a little frustrating. It’s been growing so fast, I guess, that the system overloads a lot. I hope they fix it soon because I want it to work the way it used to.
Katherine’s last blog post..Setting Writing Career Goals – Freelance Writing Can’t be Ignored
I wouldn’t write off Twitter just because of a wonky Twhirl update. I’ve had a certain operating system tweak out after piss-poor updates too, but that’s life. I can’t throw my computer out the window every time Microsoft lets me down. And believe me, I’d go through millions of dollars if that were the case…:)
The same thing happened to me on Twhirl: I updated, then the program sucked. I uninstalled, went back to the earlier version and it works just fine. All you have to do is wait a little while until the upgrade doesn’t suck and it’s not like you *need* the update anyway. Sure it’ll bug you (once each start-up) to update, but just “x” out of the box and you’re fine.
Sometimes program coding is just plain horseshit. Sometimes you have to sit with an HP printer all day long, wondering why the piece of shit won’t effing print already. Just don’t let it get to you and go with the last known thing to work
r.l.david02 – TKD Happiness’s last blog post..Why can’t I gain belt rank? (part 1)
Took the words right ‘outta my mouth.
I’ve been getting the exceeded limit as well with Twhirl, its a pain.
I just Twittered (“Tweeted?”) the other day: Where has MenwithPens been? Didn’t James invent Twitter or something?
(and yes, I included the winky face)
lornadoone’s last blog post..Exit Strategy 3: Passive Income for Writers
Have you tried http://twiddict.com/ – it queues your Tweets until Twitter is live again…?
Justin Souter’s last blog post..Microsoft vs. Yahoo! My tuppence
I like Twitter, and I’m not really a huge fan of the whole “Put your entire life on the internet thing” but it has a different feel to it than myspace, or facebook. As much as I like Twitter, all these server issues are beginning to annoy me and I’m sure I’m not the only one….
Andrew’s last blog post..10 Motion Sickness Tips For The Healthy Traveler
@ Lorna – I think they invented Twitter for me. BUT! I did invent a word because of it; how could I leave that behind?
Niebu everyone
I want a service like this to succeed, because I want to follow guys like Problogger and see more about what he is up to (he tweets interesting stuff he is reading or doing that doesn’t necessarily make it onto his blog). Its hard to separate the quality tweeters like that from the “lots of followers and tweet their every mundane move” guys.
Paul’s last blog post..How my trip to New Zealand taught me to be a better blogger
@Justin Souter http://twiddict.com/ –very cool. It’s interesting the sort of services that crop up b/c of Twitter’s shortcomings! I’ll give it a try next time Twitter is down.
I liken Twitter to a big library where we’re all sitting at our computers working. Every once in awhile one of us looks up and waves to someone across the room and a brief (140-characters-at-a-time) conversation ensues. Then we go back to work.
@lynnterry tweeted today that Twitter now brings in more traffic than any other source. Don’t throw out Twitter just yet!
I love the networking myself. I am a “people person” and working in solitary confinement at my computer was having a deleterious effect on me — until Twitter. I’ve built new relationships with people who were once mere names in a webinar room and my soul gets what it needs as I interact. Having those pics up in the corner makes such a difference. It’s like talking to the actual person.
I can’t recommend it enough.
While I can’t track my traffic directly from Twitter, except when I’ve included a link in a tweet, I know people are googling me and then going to my site for writers.
I’ll be glad when the growing pains are over with Twitter, but I figure getting in now and being established is better than waiting until all the bugs are worked out.
I suggest giving it try again with a different view. Networking is the name of the game these days. Connections between people. In an age where we see scams all around us, we rely on relationships and recommendations from people we trust.
Twitter is a tool, not just the recreational vehicle as some people use it. It’s best not to use it to directly market to people. People who use social networking entities aren’t there to be “sold.” They’re there to connect with like-minded people.
So find your group and connect away! And have fun at the same time.
Deb Gallardo
The Story Ideas Virtuoso’s last blog post..Creative Writing Exercise – Ficbits
I love Twitter. For all the obvious reasons. Yes, of course, i miss it a lot when it is down. But i do not mind. Because, i have realized that some times it is better to be with yourself.
ravi karandeekar’s last blog post..With interest rates set to rise – real estate, automobile and consumer durable companies to see their sales dropping in the coming days
@James – I knew about “niebu,” which is why I was joking that you invented Twitter. Plus, you’ve been pretty active on there in the past and it was weird while you weren’t posting.
Personally, I still haven’t quite figured Twitter out. I never know what’s appropriate to say or not.
lornadoone’s last blog post..Social Networking Overload
Well, I’m definitely having issues with it. It’s NOT user friendly and despite being fairly tech-able I hate anything that causes frustration. There is more frustration with Twitter than benefits so far as I’ve seen. But, perhaps it’s having teething issues that will get sorted so, I’m hanging in for the moment.
Meanwhile, have you jumped into Plurk yet??? It’s like twitter but more conversational and easier to keep up with.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Networking, Friendship, and Colleagues
@ James: You need to do a review of Plurk, what you don’t like about the interface? I think the timeline thing is a little strange but it’s also creative. I love getting to see only the threads that have been updated or are new and it’s wonderful having conversations that actually stick to the rest of the conversation no matter who said what.
Still, Twitter has its moments.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Networking, Friendship, and Colleagues
I’ve just started using Twitter and I love it except for the almost constant lag time. Most of the time when I go to the site or am on it and refresh it, it brings up the over the limit page. As nice as it’s been for networking, it’s taking too much of my time just to try and use it. I’m giving it a few days however. Maybe they will do something about it??
Cindy’s last blog post..Organization for WAHMs