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Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

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Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#1
I was just curious how people managed the tweets in their timeline. I struggle at them, and written below is why:

Assumptions:

1. You follow around 100 people.

2. 50% of them tweet 5 times a day.

3. 20% of them tweet once.

4. 10% of them tweet once in a week.

5. 10% of them tweet 10 times a day.

This is a rough estimate for the people I follow.

If you calculate there is a total of 250 + 20 + 100 = 370 tweets per day.

Ignoring 50% of tweets as junk.

You have aproxly 200 tweets.

How I use twitter?

I like going to twitter.com and reading all the tweets.

But skimming 200 tweets is again a pain, so much of trouble. Besides few of the tweets might call for action. There would be some links that you would want to read later, there would be some friends who would be going out for coffee, and you might want to join them, etc. etc.

One idea would be to unfollow people, few of them might get offended and then your relations might ruin or something like that.

Another would be to create a fake profile and then follow only the ones you want to and are interested in.

Third would be to have some desktop plugin that would notify with the tweets, but that would be a distraction if you are working and are in the middle of something.

Fourth way is via lists, I do not like going to twitter.com//lists/xyz // the url does not look good.

So here is the question:

1. How do people on HN manage their timeline? (Like there are things like Zero Inbox http://inboxzero.com/ rule for managing email)

Is there something for tweets as well, or collectively can we brainstorm over here and come up with something?

2. What other functionalities do you wish tweeter had, like categorizing a tweet in your timeline, saving it for further action etc. etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#2
1. I am a Twitter junkie, and have been since '08. It's rare that you'll find a time when I don't have Twitter open in a tab; I'm checking 24/7.

2. I just think the DM feature could be improved. It's too hidden in the current UI on desktop and mobile.

What I've found over time is that, somewhat unsurprisingly, following people I know always results in more interest and engagement when I'm scanning.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#4
I like to use Twitter to get in touch with the world without being overwhelmed too much stuff.

I try to keep my following list < 50. It's usually a mix of real life friends, interesting people on Internet and services I rely on. A couple of those should not be there but my current client (Tweetbot) allows you to mute them.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#5
I used to use it quite a lot, but since using iOS7 on my iPhone and losing the quick tweet button in the notification center, my tweets have dropped. http://twitter.com/jbrooksuk

I wish Twitter had an App.net-type system where you can continue reading from where you left off.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#6
I have tried a lot of different solutions to manage my twitter feed. All from Desktop apps (Tweetdeck, Metrotwit) to commandline apps (TTytter + more). In the end i settled for Tweetbot[1] for iOS (Mainly iPad) so i have limited myself to only check Twitter when i'm on my iPad, which fits me quite nicely, so i dont get distracted when working on my PC.

[1] http://tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#7

1. I am a Twitter junkie, and have been since '08. It's rare that you'll find a time when I don't have Twitter open in a tab; I'm checking 24/7. 2. I just think the DM feature could be improved. It's too hidden in the current UI on desktop and mobile. What I've found over time is that, somewhat unsurprisingly, following people I know always results in more interest and engagement when I'm scanning.

so how many people do you follow? and do you read all the tweets in the timeline? have you never got irritated by the crap that people come up with? for me its like, i get irritated and my fuse shorts :) and then hit back with a biting tweet, which is actually a result of getting irritated on the BS tweets which I find in the TL.

due to these reactive tweets I have lost couple of followers over time ;)

having read your thoughts, do you think, there can be something like zero inbox for twitter??

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#8
I like to just follow people whose tweets I actually want to read to begin with. Before following anyone I check their last few days worth of tweeting to make sure they don't post junk and that I will be interested in what they have to say. Twitter is not meant to be a friendship or connection manager like Facebook or LinkedIn so much as it is a way to get concise info delivered quickly. Obviously it can be a great networking tool, but by getting others to follow you by sharing good content, not by following junk tweeters in the hope that they'll follow you back. If you're too afraid to unfollow those whose tweets are junk you're not using Twitter correctly.

Edit: That being said, I feel like a client that would let people sift through tweets more efficiently could be great for those who don't agree with me and end up following 10k+ people, and that approach definitely isn't uncommon.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your Twitter timeline?

#9
I just do not manage it; I read it from times to times (and different times show different people because of timezones, too), since I believe useful stuff will be retweeted anyway.

Sometimes I think I may start using a list of "close relationships accounts" to make sure I don't miss anything personal, but I've yet to start doing this.

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