What is Twitter, you savvy computer people?

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Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Greentea on 05 Aug 2009, 6:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

tweeter, you mean twitter?

oh my, yes, I'll change the title now.

Probably the easiest way is just to sign up and check it out -- i.e.

1) I signed up
2) searched for "Iran" (this was right when the protests were starting)
3) clicked "follow" on one of the results
4) then messages ('tweets') from #Iran_election started coming in -- IOW, people presumably in Iran would type ('tweet') a message and I'd see it (along with links to photos & videos and such)

... and 5) someone on WP mentioned TwitterFall which is an easier/nicer way to view the 'tweets' as they come in.

I guess it's basically like instant-messaging, except the messages are broadcast to everyone who follows a person's channel. I'm a Twitter noob, though, maybe someone else has a better explanation.

Thanks, Apple. I did register, but now I don't know what to use it for...

SUre. And yeah, it is a little mystifying until you have some channels you're following. Just try a search, and then click the links that start with a '#' like '#iranelection.' That should get some tweets coming in.

Use it to follow people you're interested in, and update your status with what you're doing, what you're thinking etc. If you use facebook you can link it so that your tweets update your facebook status. Hard to explain but once you're hooked you'll wonder what you did without it. Doing a live search of what people are saying about something that just happened is nice.

It's a webapp which tries to be IRC, without the channels/topics. A tweet is a short public message. Tweets belong to a user (someone) and show up in reverse chronological order when you select their timeline.

Every user has also a private personal timeline which contains in reverse chronological order all the tweets of all the people they follow. By starting the message with @someone you can send a tweet to someone, your tweet will then show up in there personal time line even if they don't follow you.

Using #tags tweets are labelled in a way that people can search for them. Search is about the only way to interface. Search for asperger OR aspie will list all the tweets which contain either "asperger" or "aspie" or both.

It is completely and utterly STUPID!

There, I said it.

I think you are correct. I've tried it for some time now but I don't understand the appeal al that much.

But then again.... I think that forum software like what is running wrong planet sucks too.
I would much rather prefer a wiki or irc.

There is nothing new or special about it. It is just a way of staying up to date with what people are doing. If you are searching for a deeper meaning there isn’t one. As messages are short they are easier to process, but are not always that meaningful to you. Generally if you have a blog you might tweet an enticer with a link to that entry.

I started by tweeting random observations - not worrying if anyone else would read them. But I only tweet what I would be comfortable having my mother or my boss read (otherwise, I'll choose a more private medium.)

You don't have to follow everyone who follows you (in fact, if someone follows you & you don't like the look of their posts, you can block them.) People that you follow don't have to follow you.

I follow some people with whom I never plan to interact - just because they make interesting tweets (amandapalmer is a good example.) Surprisingly, a few people also follow me - but I only follow people if I know who they are.

Right now, there's only one other person with whom I actually communicate via Twitter (care to make it 2?) There is the ability to send DMs (direct messages), which are private - but most of what I tweet is information I don't mind sharing with the whole world (if anyone cares to read it.)

Does that help?

"twitter" is a site that lets you type 140 character messages to express yourself.

it is like a free computorial text messaging service.

if someone you know says on twitter "oh god!! ! i want to kill myself!!", then you have 140 characters within which to ask why she wants to commit suicide.

then she has 140 characters to describe her woe to me, and i have 140 characters to describe my understanding of her plight etc etc....

it is like sending pictures from the moon with 1969 technology.

i can not condense my thoughts to fit into 140 characters. even if the thought is basal (like "how did that fly get in?")

maybe "twitter" will force me to learn how to abbreviate and summarize my communication of my notions.

every one else seems to like it.

yeah...a 140-character Internet 2 version of haiku... I think it runs off of SMS.

My question - is it phone-only, computer and phone-only, or can I just do it on computer?

I just use my computer, but I know others who tweet from their phones. I suppose it works with any device that can access the Internet.