Twitter Offline Due To DDoS

The elusive Precision dropped a submission in my lap about a DDoS taking down Twitter running on CNet. It's been down for several hours, no doubt wreaking havoc on the latest hawtness in social networking. Won't someone please think of the tweeters? Word is that both Facebook & LiveJournal have been having problems this AM as well.

Comments

Re:Parent is insightful, not funny

[GreggBz]

For people that actually socialize it provides benefits. I've reconnected with old friends, made dates, organized parties, laughed (at someones silly pictures) and learned (from someones interesting post) countless times on facebook. I've found a few people that meant a lot to me, and have restarted some kind of relationship with them. I've joined groups that share like interests and attended events that I would have otherwise missed. It has value. I don't know of any other thing that does this stuff quite as well. In short, it's a useful way to communicate with most everyone you know.

I can't speak for twitter, but millions of other people find use in it.

The whole "I'm to cool for the popular social networking sites" crowd gets on my nerves.

Because here we sit, sharing opines with like minded individuals on a public website.
Does that make us elite?
Pot-kettle-black as they say.

Re:Lets look at this

[Colonel Korn]

1) Millions of people use it

2) It is uses to allow poeple to follow people that are interesting to them. Not just gossip, but science information, events.

3) Nearly instant knowledge of world events.

4) Allows protesters to disseminate information

5) Is allowing for a deeper understanding od human nature in large societies.

6) It's another tool for expression.

So I would say that it does have value.

You need to look at opportunity cost: what is lost in order to gain these benefits?

1) Millions of people could be using something else.
2) "Following" people on Twitter is necessarily superficial compared to other media, which offer the same benefits without the message size limit.
3) Instant knowledge of world events is available in many media, with Twitter again being more superficial than the others.
4) No, it's a means by which protesters disseminate information. It worked in Iran because it's new and the government didn't know how to block it as well as other services at first. It has no inherent advantage in this area.
5) Your point is preposterous. It allows for a deeper understanding of how people use Twitter, sure, but that's not valuable.
6) And an inferior one at that.