Slashdot Mirror
One-Tweet Wonders
theodp writes "TIME has seen-the-future-and-it-is-Twitter. Slate, on the other hand, is more fascinated with the phenomenon of orphaned tweets, the messages left by people who sign up for Twitter, post once, then never return (not unlike one-blog-post wonders). While some orphan tweets betray skepticism about microblogging ('I don't get it... what's the point of this thing?'), other one-and-done Twitterers demonstrate keen enthusiasm before disappearing ('I'm here!'), and some tweets hint that tragedy has cut a promising Twittering-life short ('it hurts to breathe. should I go to the hospital?'). Slate notes that studies of Twitter accounts by Harvard and Nielsen suggest the service has been better at signing up users than keeping them, including the one-tweet wonders."
Krou's law: There is, on average, only one tweet per twit.
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
It hurts to post, should I go to the hospital?
Tweeting seems like a great idea for people who want to start cults or for people who wish they had stalkers.
A great old sci-fi story by Margaret St. Clair "Prott" is a "boring" alien race, who did nothing but bore humans. They looked like gigantic space-going fried eggs. The story begins with a Prott discovering a human in a spaceship; the Prott enthusiastically begins telling the human about "--ing the --." However, the man can't make out what the noun and verb in the telepathically transmitted phrase mean, so the Prott explains some more... and more... and brings equally enthusiastic friends who want to do nothing but talk about "--ing the --" ad infinitum. Reminds me of Twitter.
Help!
Jane, how do you stop this crazy thing!
I only follow a few interesting people but I now find it invaluable as a way of keeping track of them
So she finally got that restraining order? ;-)
Thank you for proving that the stereotype of the antisocial geek is spot on. Now I have even less chance of getting laid.
JFK's dad was JFK, just an average Joe.
rewriting history since 2109
Can we just say that Twitter is public masturbation and be done with it?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Whether you're the pitcher (tweeter) or the catcher (tweetee), at the end of the day you're still gay.
And here you are posting in community forum. How very social of you.
I'ts not social, it's slashdot
Responses can be long and meaningful.
From the end of TFA:
Yes... (backs away slowly...) I'm sure a suspension bridge made of pebbles is just what society needs, now you drive over it while I stand there with the camcorder and a direct line to YouTube.
I explain twitter as "Push" RSS. Grandma totally got it when I put it like that.
The problem is that 140 characters is not enough to write everything we are trying to convey n we all know that incomplete tweets may cause