44% of Twitter Users Have Never Tweeted

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44% of Twitter Users Have Never Tweeted

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday April 13, 2014 @09:03PM from the 140-characters-to-go dept.

First time accepted submitter RileyWalz (3614865) writes "Twopcharts (a third party website that records and monitors activity on Twitter) is reporting that about 44 percent of all 947 million accounts on Twitter have never posted a single tweet. Of the 550 million users who have tweeted before, 43 percent posted their last tweet over a year ago. And only about 13.3 percent have tweeted in the last 30 days. This could be a sign of many users just signing up and forgetting about their account, or they just prefer reading other's posts. Twitter is not commenting on this data, saying that they do not talk about third-party information related to its service."

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Probably typical by Chrisq · 2014-04-13 21:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Most will have signed up, thought it crap, and never returned. Most people don't delete dead accounts and counting them as "users" is as false as counting someone as driving a Toyota if they once took a test drive.
1. Re:Probably typical by buchner.johannes · 2014-04-13 21:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  No, what it means is that the majority of accounts are bots, created to increase follower-numbers.
  
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  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
2. Re:Probably typical by Johann+Lau · 2014-04-13 21:12 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  No, it means both.
3. Re:Probably typical by penix1 · 2014-04-13 21:21 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  And a third group people are totally forgetting.... Parents and students where the schools has said it will use Twitter to tell them of emergencies. They get the account solely to receive these notices.
  
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4. Re:Probably typical by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2014-04-13 21:24 · Score: 1
  
  No it just means they are all following Nadine Dorries and can't get a tweet in edgewise!
  
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5. Re:Probably typical by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 21:46 · Score: 1
  
  This exactly.
  If you use a tool like who.unfollowed.me you'll quickly notice a trend that about 50% of the "people" who follow you are doing so only to either make you visit their website, or click on links in their stream, or they message you with spam links. These accounts quickly disappear or stop working after a few days, use photos stolen from other twitter users or from dating sites, and generally are "trash" followers.
  The ones that haven't posted a thing are generally people who read-only, have more than one account and only post to one of them, or are brand/name camping so nobody else gets it.
  In many cases, twitter showcases the problem with tying identity to a pseudonym. Those who regularlly use 3/4/5 character names often are screwed if we don't camp our names before others do, and some sites won't allow pseudonyms less than 6 or less than 8 characters.
  I could see twitter going back to the identity verification in a more limited basis, if only to provide a monetization layer for paying for staff verification.
  If a name is a "real name", pay a one time charge by credit/debit card with the same name on it. This would put a green verified box next to the user name. The blue box will continue to be used for identities that twitter staff have verified on their own.
  If a name is a nickname, pesudo-name, or a business/brand, then the user must mail a business card showing both the brand, twitter handle and name used. This would put a different color icon (maybe violet) that signifies that this has been professionally identified, and clicking on it should show the business card.
  All that the latter does is verify that the twitter account is associated with the brand and not the reverse of the user verifying their name.
  What this does in the grand scheme of things is do what Livejournal was doing right, in making users pay for an extra feature that says that "this user cares about keeping this account" , Unlike livejournal, an annual maintenance fee is probably too much of a joke to do.
  At any rate the problem is that half the accounts out there are made just to farm followers. They get registered and then they are camped on.
6. Re:Probably typical by shri · 2014-04-13 22:11 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Most people are consumers of tweets. They follow people, click through their links / updates etc. If you look at forums and other community media, you'll see that getting >10% of users to contribute is actually VERY good.
7. Re:Probably typical by Gunboat_Diplomat · 2014-04-13 22:25 · Score: 1
  
  Why is this modded as "troll"? The points raised are valid. How many accounts have you lot created on the billion sites and how many are actually used?
  I don't think he deserved troll at all, but I do think he is mistaken. Not about the dead accounts, they obviously exists in great volume, but the assumption that these are counted in quoted user numbers. Almost all large online services, and third party statistic sites like Comscore, use "logged in at least once last month" as the metric for their user count. Where there is inflation in user numbers are when multi-service companies are making sure that users that intended to go to one service also "visits" another (looking at you Google+).
8. Re:Probably typical by ildon · 2014-04-13 23:00 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  There's a third type of person who never tweets. One that essentially uses Twitter as an RSS feed, news aggregator, and/or joke-a-day (or joke-a-five-minutes) feed. They could still be considered "active" users, in that they use the service, but don't feel the need to post.
9. Re:Probably typical by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 23:09 · Score: 1
  
  Who the fuck is stupid enough to agree to something like this? Why not a phone number for personal emergencies or email for broadcast stuff, hell even a plain old SMS would work better.
  A 20-year old can be a parent these days.
  I think that says enough about why or how social media ever fucking got on the emergency options list. There are a lot of young people out there that communicate no other way, nor have they ever had a need to.
  Reminds me a lot of the old AOL days when people thought that shit was the "internet" where everyone searched by keyword.
10. Re:Probably typical by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 23:39 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  These systems are not meant for personal emergencies. They are meant for situations that have to go out to the whole school population at once. Like weather closing/delays, or that a there is bear prowling the playground, recess is canceled (yes, I really did get a message like this once).
11. Re:Probably typical by Narcocide · 2014-04-13 23:42 · Score: 1
  
  But, curiously enough, they're indistinguishable from the bots.
12. Re:Probably typical by stderr_dk · 2014-04-13 23:56 · Score: 1
  
  If a name is a "real name", pay a one time charge by credit/debit card with the same name on it. This would put a green verified box next to the user name. The blue box will continue to be used for identities that twitter staff have verified on their own.
  How much longer do you think the twitter staff is going to verify accounts on their own, if they can get people to pay instead?
  If your answer to that question is longer than the time it took you to read the question, you're kidding yourself.
  
  If a name is a nickname, pesudo-name, or a business/brand, then the user must mail a business card showing both the brand, twitter handle and name used.This would put a different color icon (maybe violet) that signifies that this has been professionally identified, and clicking on it should show the business card.
  All that the latter does is verify that the twitter account is associated with the brand and not the reverse of the user verifying their name.
  No. All it does is verify that the user had enough money to get one business card printed and mailed to Twitter.
  
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13. Re:Probably typical by Bacon+Bits · 2014-04-14 00:18 · Score: 1
  
  The school district I work at uses a messaging system which is capable of sending phone calls (pre-recorded or computer generated voice), email, SMS, and twitter. We also contact the local news agencies if the emergency requires it (school closures, etc.). We also use it for attendance calls for students with unexcused absences or tardies. Parents are signed up for phone calls (required at time of registration) and email (if given) by default, but they have to opt in for SMS.
  We still have parents who don't know about school emergencies.
  
  --
  The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
14. Re:Probably typical by Gonoff · 2014-04-14 00:41 · Score: 1
  
  I use it this way and cannot see any other use for it.
  Want to send me a message? Try email, SMS, skype.G+ and so on. Even Facebook.
  Want to send me a picture - see above...
  I see no other use for a 140 character max message than to replace the RSS feed
  
  --
  I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
15. Re:Probably typical by hodet · 2014-04-14 01:21 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You don't need to tweet for twitter to be useful. Many people follow others or use it to keep on top of things. For example, if there is a minor earthquake somewhere there is no better place to really find out what happened quickly than twitter. "Holy crap, #EARTHQUAKE, shook the building for 30 seconds"
16. Re:Probably typical by hodet · 2014-04-14 01:22 · Score: 1
  
  You mean those hot women that are following me are not real?!
17. Re:Probably typical by bluefoxlucid · 2014-04-14 01:24 · Score: 1
  
  OMG TWITTER IS DYING!
  
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18. Re:Probably typical by mlts · 2014-04-14 01:53 · Score: 2
  
  You can count me in that category. I signed up way back in 2008 because after getting out of college, prospective employers would demand if I had a FB/MySpace/Twitter account, and if not, the interview was up, as the HR rep felt that it was mandatory for anyone in IT to have social networking accounts to be considered up to date in skills.
  So, I created a Twitter account, followed EMC and a few other names, and called it done... it did make the bean counters happy because they thought I was "with it".
19. Re:Probably typical by egranlund · 2014-04-14 02:03 · Score: 1
  
  hell even a plain old SMS would work better.
  If you set it up properly, you can have twitter send you an SMS whenever a specific users tweets.
20. Re:Probably typical by egranlund · 2014-04-14 02:07 · Score: 1
  
  But, curiously enough, they're indistinguishable from the bots.
  Not really, as a bot by definition isn't a person.
  People who sign up for Twitter and use it a as a news source or whatever are still getting something out of it.
21. Re:Probably typical by GuitarNeophyte · 2014-04-14 02:19 · Score: 1
  
  this is completely me. I have three people I follow. 1) My wife. She logged in and followed herself on my account. 2) a band I like 3) DDO (D&D MMO) because it tells me when there are special deals, because I think that their normal prices are too high, but I enjoy the game. I never post. I just check every once in a while to see if they have posted anything interesting recently.
22. Re:Probably typical by ron_ivi · 2014-04-14 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  I've done this on Twitter (signed up, thought it crap, forgot my password, never returned(as that same account)) at least a dozen times.
  Same with Facebook. I have one throwaway facebook account for just about every damn application or website that makes me "log in / sign up using facebook" - and in each case I promptly forget my username and password and never log in again.
  I imagine that's more typical than those companies care to admit.
23. Re:Probably typical by cyberchondriac · 2014-04-14 04:22 · Score: 1
  
  I've had an account for a few years now (under my real name, darn it), and have posted all of two or three times; the only reason I joined was for a contest.. and I won. (I got a free Kymera wand out of the deal, totally worth it)
  Other than that, I just don't see much call for it.
  
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24. Re:Probably typical by QRDeNameland · 2014-04-14 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  A 20-year old can be a parent these days.
  I'm curious, when were the days when a 20 year old *couldn't* be a parent?
  
  --
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25. Re:Probably typical by Marxist+Hacker+42 · 2014-04-14 06:54 · Score: 2
  
  1939-1945
  
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  SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
26. Re:Probably typical by jkauzlar · 2014-04-14 07:18 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sort of in that category. I got my actual name, but my only tweets (~200 of them) are actually from a russian hacker/spammer that generously disappeared and left my account intact.
27. Re:Probably typical by Darinbob · 2014-04-14 07:19 · Score: 1
  
  Why can't it just mean they want to follow tweets but no make their own? I don't do twitter, but this sounds suspiciously like the elitist arguments that used to be on usenet or some bulletin board systems, where readers who didn't post were given insulting names like "lurkers".
28. Re:Probably typical by xvan · 2014-04-14 09:06 · Score: 1
  
  Good one, mod this guy up!
29. Re:Probably typical by Narcocide · 2014-04-14 10:40 · Score: 1
  
  I meant to imply "when reading these marketing stats from the server end." As-in: the figures that the advertisers are paying for.
30. Re:Probably typical by necromaedian · 2014-04-14 14:36 · Score: 1
  
  I have a twitter account and have never posted, a facebook account and never posted, a youtube and + account and never posed, xda account, yahoo groups, etc. I doubt I've posted on /. in years, but I still read every day. I'm a consumer. And to me these are more news services then social interactions. I post to reddit often, but usually drunk and those accounts don't last long...
31. Re:Probably typical by Hognoxious · 2014-04-16 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  Most people are consumers of tweets.
  
  That's something to be grateful about. Most of the ones who do tweet have precious little to say, so if the rest joined in the signal would be buried even deeper in the noise.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Too easy by kruach+aum · 2014-04-13 21:11 · Score: 4, Funny

I wish the other 56% didn't either.
1. Re:Too easy by Johann+Lau · 2014-04-13 21:13 · Score: 1
  
  The 44% are the better (near) half of Twitter, keeping hope alive ^^
2. Re:Too easy by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2014-04-13 22:37 · Score: 1
  
  Not (all) twits gonna tweet. It's actually something of a heartwarming discovery.
3. Re:Too easy by savuporo · 2014-04-14 06:05 · Score: 1
  
  If my calculations are correct, there is a 50/50 chance of a twit being a twat.
  
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Not bad, actually by jones_supa · 2014-04-13 21:15 · Score: 1

I bet there's a huge amount of dummy accounts in almost all websites. If you flip this around and look that 56% have said something, that's pretty good.
1. Re:Not bad, actually by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 21:57 · Score: 1
  
  I bet there's a huge amount of dummy accounts in almost all websites. If you flip this around and look that 56% have said something, that's pretty good.
  
  Depending on what's meant by "dummy account," I estimate approximately 100% fall into that category. ;o)
  BTW, how many twats would a Twitter twat tweet if a Twitter twat could tweet twats?
Re:Fakes by invictusvoyd · 2014-04-13 21:19 · Score: 1

Twitter and microblogging in general have limited use. I dont think anyone would be interested in knowing what you ate for breakfast today . For example ,the only twitter feed I see some sense in following is probably "Richard Stallman" ( the fact that I dont follow it is another thing . ) . So to think of it , twitter is meant to have more "followers" .. The stats are kinda predictable ..
I wonder by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 21:27 · Score: 1

What percentage of slashdot accounts have never commented? Probably much lower because of AC here, but I bet there are quite a few. For example, I think I made an account here one drunken night, but I have never used it.
1. Re:I wonder by matria · 2014-04-13 23:00 · Score: 1
  
  Oops... I hadn't even noticed that I wasn't logged in when making the previous comment! My eyes are getting worse all the time.
Finding correlation where there is none by Roxoff · 2014-04-13 21:34 · Score: 2

Somehow the report of '44% of twitter accounts have never been used' has been morphed by the reporter into '44% of twitter users have never posted'.
I know people with multiple Twitter accounts, separation between business and pleasure accounts... some just to follow others without sticking their nose above the parapet (and are never tweeted from), some for larks, some for business.
44% of Twitter accounts != 44% of Twitter users.
The original poster has read some report on the internet and inferred meaning where none could possibly exist. Shoddy, shoddy journalism.

--
"Is the Chief Priest an Offlian? Do dragons explode in the wood?"
In other news... by Joce640k · 2014-04-13 21:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

In other news: 44% of Slashdot readers have never posted a single comment.

--
No sig today...
1. Re:In other news... by Monsieur_F · 2014-04-13 21:51 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  In other news: 82% of Slashdot readers have never read a single article.
  
  --
  McCartney fans pay bus tickets. [...] Lennon fans too, with discretion.
2. Re:In other news... by grep+-v+'.*'+* · 2014-04-13 22:47 · Score: 2
  
  In other news: 82% of Slashdot readers have never read a single article.
  And if you're using slashdot beta, that number drops to a low 101% of the comments.
  
  Why that extra 1%? Why that's because the print function is also in beta and it loses comments before th
  
  --
  If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
3. Re:In other news... by marcello_dl · 2014-04-13 23:12 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In other news, 100% of facebook users have never booked a face.
  
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  ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
4. Re:In other news... by TeethWhitener · 2014-04-14 00:18 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about that...
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Bourne/255438524487203
  Relevant clip:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLt7lXDCHQ0
5. Re:In other news... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · 2014-04-14 01:16 · Score: 1
  
  With user IDs well into the millions here, some days I think everybody must post every day.
  
  --
  (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
6. Re:In other news... by mea2214 · 2014-04-14 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  In other news: 55% of all statistics are made up.
And 99% never posted anything interesting by Katatsumuri · 2014-04-13 22:01 · Score: 2

This is okay. Twitter is labelled as a "microblogging" platform, but many people use it as a multicast IM, or just a newsfeed app. Not to mention the bots.
1. Re:And 99% never posted anything interesting by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2014-04-13 22:50 · Score: 1
  
  I suspect that the okay-ness of this fact depends on whether you are a disinterested observer (in which case your points are valid and likely account for many silent users, along with some amount of abandoned accounts, squatters, etc.) or whether you are somebody at Twitter, who would probably prefer to keep their (laughable) early post-IPO value of something north of 30 billion dollars, rather than have further bad news after announcing in Febuary of this year that you'd lost half a billion dollars in the last year, and that your >P/E ratio is kind of tepid.
  
  For a site that requires sign-up to do all but the most crippled reading/following (do they do public RSS, such that you could 'follow' without an account? Barely matters since the public mostly doesn't and their design makes just-sign-up-with-us easier for most non-geeks than getting RSS up and running, especially across devices), 56% participation is actually higher than I'd expect, and certainly far from shockingly low. It's just that any pretense of being worth more than the scrap value of their office furniture is largely based on optimistic subscriber numbers, so I suspect that they are Not Happy about somebody talking about it. If some analyst comes out with "Percentage of twitter accounts that are actually bots" tomorrow, I imagine they'd be less happy still.
Re:Fakes by invictusvoyd · 2014-04-13 22:24 · Score: 1

yeah garbage man .. they just dont know what BIG data is.. and they dont care .. Ignorance is bliss . AFAIK big data is a form of evil feeding on the ignorant ..
This is nothing when compared... by ctrl-alt-canc · 2014-04-13 22:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

...to the fact that about 85% of world population does not use Twitter!
And on facebook... by damn_registrars · 2014-04-13 23:28 · Score: 1

99.9999% have never posted anything of any value.

--
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1. Re:And on facebook... by Virtucon · 2014-04-13 23:49 · Score: 1
  
  I'd think there's enough consensus out there to say that there's never been anything of value on Facebook.
  
  --
  Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
It's a good service by jones_supa · 2014-04-13 23:58 · Score: 2

Many people think that Twitter is some hipster bullshit, and I was somewhat in the same boat before. But when I slapped a Twitter client to the side of my desktop and subscribed to a bunch of cool tech guys and some news agencies, I really started to enjoy the stuff. The perfect way to stay updated to world events in easily digestible small capsules. Also much better platform to discuss nerdy stuff than Facebook.
Now only waiting for the angry AC to call me a Twitter shill.
1. Re:It's a good service by jones_supa · 2014-04-14 00:19 · Score: 1
  
  Hooray. Got the my nasty AC reply and my original comment is also modded down. This place is starting to look like Reddit: if you don't go with the hive mind, you will be beaten down.
2. Re:It's a good service by matria · 2014-04-14 00:22 · Score: 1
  
  I'm certainly notified of any interesting developments in fields I'm interested in and follow, with links provided so I can follow up if I want to. It has to a large degree replaces newsgroups and mailing lists in those areas. I occasionally even "tweet" any new things I've done in those same areas, and have a handful (78 as of last check) of reasonably dedicated followers. While it's by no means a replacement for various blogs and forums I frequent, it's a good notifier that there's something interesting going on. Also helps when at conventions I want to find out which pub everybody in the other hotel is going to for the evening ;)
3. Re:It's a good service by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-14 00:57 · Score: 1
  
  Hey, that's still better than /r/politics. There you will be modded down if you don't sound angry enough when you post.
4. Re:It's a good service by dave1791 · 2014-04-14 02:27 · Score: 1
  
  Slashdot was the place to get modded down for going against the hive mind, before Reddit made getting modded down for going against the hive mind cool.
5. Re:It's a good service by mspohr · 2014-04-14 03:25 · Score: 1
  
  I have never "tweeted" but I do follow a few blogs, individuals, events, etc.
  The twitter feed itself doesn't provide much information but the links are usually valuable.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Re:Moste people by Andrewkov · 2014-04-14 00:05 · Score: 1

Yep, this has been true of every web service I've been involved with, all the way back to the BBS days. 90% of users are consumers and only about 10% actually contribute anything. Twitters numbers look pretty good, actually.
Here's why I did so. by Simulant · 2014-04-14 00:13 · Score: 4, Interesting

I signed up and never posted simply to use twitter credentials on other web sites.
1. Re:Here's why I did so. by thoth · 2014-04-14 02:52 · Score: 1
  
  I did something similar. I signed up for the twitter account in order to follow a handful of others, and get event results (not all of which I am interested in). Of some use is an education account I follow for occasional tips learning a foreign language.
  I think twitter is great for "one to many" information dissemination.
2. Re:Here's why I did so. by Fear+the+Clam · 2014-04-14 06:29 · Score: 1
  
  Similar story here. I signed up to be able to truthfully claim that I was familiar with Twitter for a job application. I looked at the user interface and I knew enough to talk about it if asked. Never posted, never followed, never went back.
3. Re:Here's why I did so. by lexman098 · 2014-04-15 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, it's a decent free RSS generator I guess. It's really always just been glorified RSS though.
No kidding by ilsaloving · 2014-04-14 00:22 · Score: 2

And when I see (usually in the news) posts from other twitters, it makes me wish the other 46% would do the same.
There is very little you can constructively say in just 140 characters. Twitter is great for only very specific scenarios such as status reports, quick facts, quick questions or witty one-liners.
Everything else is just inanity from people who think the more exclamation marks you use at the end of a sentence, the more seriously you should take their statement.
The sole reason I set up an account was so I could follow a couple of local restaurants because they post useful things like their daily specials. And that ST:TNG S8 guy. Too bad he stopped writing new plot synopses.
1. Re:No kidding by msblack · 2014-04-14 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  Don't you mean the other 56%?
  
  --
  signature pending slashdot approval
2. Re:No kidding by ilsaloving · 2014-04-15 12:47 · Score: 1
  
  Oh bloody hell... Durr... I good math! I got an F for Fantastic! :P
Re:Fakes by Jason+Levine · 2014-04-14 00:41 · Score: 1

I'm a big user of Twitter and, yes, have even been known to post photos of my food from time to time. (Most times, the photo is used to illustrate a specific point, not just "Having my usual oatmeal.")
That being said, there are some trends on Twitter that make even me shake my head. To name two, there's the "sock" photos where guys post photos of themselves wearing nothing but a sock. (No, not on their feet.) Ostensibly, this is to raise money to fight testicular cancer, but you'll never see me posting a photo of this. The second one is "After Sex Selfies." Again, not something I'll ever engage in. (Any bets on how long it takes until some idiot tries to get "During Sex Selfies" to go viral?)

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Re:90% of Slashdot users will leave when beta beco by jones_supa · 2014-04-14 00:43 · Score: 1

Additionally, it's been in public testing for over a half year already. Kind of sad how Dice has kept us long time in a continuous stress of the gloomy shadow of Beta over us. I wonder how long this continues.
Short comments please. by Alain+Williams · 2014-04-14 00:46 · Score: 1

Will everyone commenting to this please do so in at most 140 characters. Thank you.
Re:That's shockingly high. by corezz · 2014-04-14 00:54 · Score: 1

And of that 99.9999%, 100% thing they are posting something of value.
Et Ceteri by kajong0007 · 2014-04-14 00:56 · Score: 1

And I wish more of the remaining 56% would follow suit...
Business model impact... by SkiTee94 · 2014-04-14 01:17 · Score: 1

The number of dormant accounts isn't terribly surprising to anyone that's run a site with users (although its likely much higher than Twitter would like broadly known). The bigger concern is really how the high number of fake / zombie accounts on Twitter impact's it's business model. Advertisers pay for clicks/follows and in talking to advertisers I hear a frustration with the not insignificant amount of paid 'traffic' coming from bots/fake accounts that simply troll the site clicking links and 'following' people. Twitter needs to get much better at separating the 'real' users from the noise... and there's a LOT of noise. To an advertiser that's like finding out a bunch of those magazines you advertised in based on X number of subscribers were just shipped straight to the landfill...
Re:Use it for Nagios by BitZtream · 2014-04-14 01:27 · Score: 1

Hate to break it to you, but you didn't deserve the job.
Your nagios config was broken, and if you were using some SMS service that batched the messages, your choice of providers was broken.
How did your boss get the alert ... oh thats right ... by using a reliable message delivery platform instead of an unreliable one.
Read your post again, and continue to re-read it until you understand why it 'cost you a job'

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What Twitter IS Good For by CMYKjunkie · 2014-04-14 02:29 · Score: 2

Since I am the nerd of the family (I'm sure many of you can appreciate that), family always asks me: should I get on Twitter? My answer is "probably not" because it is really terrible as a person-to-person communication platform. 140 char limit will do that to you.
I use Twitter and it does have some uses, and I tell the family and friends that it's useful for...
* Breaking news (it's like a wire-service for the masses);
* Closely following a product/celebrity/athlete/event/sport;
* Posting a short question on a specific topic via #;
* Posting or finding witticisms and satire;
* Posting or finding a status report (not viable to foster a discussion by any means); and
* Finding spam, click-bait, impersonators of real people, bots, pr0n, and completely inaccurate information.
I mainly use Twitter myself to follow athletes in the NFL (primarily my team, Green Bay) and the three forms of motorsport I watch: NASCAR, Formula 1, and IndyCar. I really like Twitter during one of these sporting events because posters can give you more detail/insight into the event or people involved than just the TV or radio broadcasters (Example: sideline/pit reporters or members of a team participating in the event who can tweet during the event.)
IMHO though, the spam/bots/clickbait is out of control and detracts from the platform.
Twitter sounds like a lame idea by GodfatherofSoul · 2014-04-14 03:34 · Score: 1

I could care less about "oh pasta here is so good" tweets from some celeb. I'm in that 44% and I set up an account just to hold my name.

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I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Re:What's the point? by taiwanjohn · 2014-04-14 03:39 · Score: 2

Can someone explain to me in a sentence or two how and why Twitter is useful? I've had an account for many years, but every time I log in to check, it just looks like a mess. And yet there are millions of people who (apparently) think it's awesome, so I must be doing something wrong.
I would love to hear some examples of how others have found Twitter useful.

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XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
Count me among the 44% by msblack · 2014-04-14 04:17 · Score: 1

I signed up for Twitter as soon as it went public to preserve my name. However, I have yet to issue a single Tweet and only follow less than a handful of people I selected years ago. If I ever see the value of Twitter, I might tweet one day.

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signature pending slashdot approval
Re:What's the point? by physcofish · 2014-04-14 04:34 · Score: 1

Shockingly, I have gotten better support from Samsung's twitter support account than their phone and email support.
Which is worse? by wdc2 · 2014-04-14 08:30 · Score: 1

Which is worse? The ones who never post, or the ones who post once and never return?