Twitter Turns 8; May Drop Hashtags and @replies

Twitter has only just turned eight years old, but in that time it's become so pervasive that some of its conventions have spread beyond Twitter itself, and its character limit seems almost like a natural law. Now, Buzzfeed reports that some Twitter-isms may be about to change: based on screenshots of interfaces in alpha testing, it seems that hashtags and "at" replies may be on the chopping block, or (based on some updates made to the story) at least made less visible for some readers.

Comments

Remove all of the site's character in a redesign

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure sounds like another site I heard of recently where the users got upset about people stripping away the things that made the site the site.

Twitter killing off... itself

[CanEHdian]

the @userid and the trick with the . in front, combined with "hashtag" DEFINES twitter. Twitter wants to kill that off? Sure. Here comes Flit-it with @userid, hashtags, and 255 character Fleets. Flit it. Fleet it like it's 2013.

Re: Twitter killing off... itself

[AudioEfex]

Just like anything, it's all in how you use it.

Twitter is a great source of breaking information, in a nearly endless number of ways.

Yeah, if you use it to follow folks that use it as a "microblog" to tell you what they had for lunch, just like FB, I can see your point. But if you subscribe to the right feeds, you can get some amazing content - and opportunities. I've tweeted back and forth with several of my favorite celebrities (while it may seem silly, to this gay boy exchanging tweets with Cher at 2am one late night awhile back made my year). Another time I was traveling somewhere and because I had subbed to a few local feeds I found out about - and was selected as one of the winners of - a local contest which got me in the back door of a theme park at midnight to be in the first group to ride a brand new headliner attraction over and over all night at a private party (best damn brownie sundae I ever had at the desert bar, too, LOL).

Sure, those are not so typical (and admittedly vapid) examples, but you get the idea - the mobile friendly nature, the immediacy, and the ability to follow feeds without having to "friend" people is really great for timely information for everything from silly things like the above to people trying to stay in contact in a literal war zone.

Just like I've leveraged FB in more ways than I can ever count for opportunities or finding (or giving) help on various projects from old friends I haven't seen in person in a decade or more, and simply to keep in touch with folks I'd never see again otherwise (I love that when I travel I can just go to FB, see who I know there, and can connect with folks in practically any city I visit, either socially or just for advice), Twitter is really great if you learn how to use it well. I come from a small town, and one of the things you learn growing up in one is who to go for and why - if I needed my car fixed, or help locating a research article, or who to ask about the best new restaurants in the area - it's really sweet when you can be a part of a local network like that because it makes life so much easier - and more enjoyable. That's what Twitter - and FB - do, they just expand them on a global scale.

It's all in learning how to make it work to the best advantage - if all you do is follow asshats who make a tweet every time they take a shit, sure, it's garbage - but there is so much more there for the taking, and sharing, if you go at it from a different mindset.

Only thing I hate about Twitter

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

There's no way to disable Twitter pictures in your feed, searches or @history.

The most common use of a Twitpic is to post a meme. And if that isn't bad enough, the second most common use of Twitpic is to post a shock picture. It is unacceptable that we can't have them disabled in the options.

Re:Only thing I hate about Twitter

[wiredlogic]

Hashtag and At are just a condensed form of markup. They are useful for entry of tweets but completely unnecessary for displaying them.

Re:Only thing I hate about Twitter

[Rob Riggs]

Hashtag and At are just a condensed form of markup. They are useful for entry of tweets but completely unnecessary for displaying them.

Except they make it readily apparent how to compose a tweet -- even for new users. #dying

The alternative headline

[wonkey_monkey]

Twitter turns 8; seeks free advertising

Re:Remove all of the site's character in a redesig

[MrBigInThePants]

Except in this case twitters user interface and navigation system has always been a completely shitty experience.

Yes, popular things can have shitty interfaces and their popularity can hide that fact from the creators.