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Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

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21–30 of 43 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#21

Post by 1337biz »

Twitter is for me pretty much unusable without active list management.

I only check my followers tweets in moments of complete boredom. But there are lists with people whom I want to keep up with (personal friends, key targets who's attention I would like to get).

Of those lists I ready every tweet and by checking it at least twice a day and try actively to engage with the people (responding, re-tweeting, asking, answering, etc). Otherwise the noise ratio is just to large and it feels pretty much just as social as shouting "hello" at random strangers.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#22

Post by danso »

jlarocco wrote: post #19
danso wrote: post #12

I use it purely to Tweet and to network...either to respond to people or to just tweet what I've read. I almost never read my timeline as I follow just about anyone who follows me, and anyone who is either in New York, a journalist, or a programmer, though I don't follow too many celebrities. I don't understand people who are put off by the noise. Just don't read your timeline. Also, it's not much work to manage...wh…

If nobody reads it, what's the point?

People may not read the Tweet then, but people who look you up later have a good sense of the kind of things you like to read and think about. In a way, it's an even better reflection than if you had kept a blog, because with a blog, your main intent is letting your thoughts be known and read. For me, a Tweet is an effortless snapshot to what I just read.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#23

Post by bbayer »

Neff wrote: post #13

c) I don't. The service had a value to me when there was a focus on interaction, but as it transitioned to a news feed/advertisement service it lost any and all use to me. For news, there are enough sites that all spout off the same reviews and "exclusives". If there is truly breaking news that I need to be made aware of, there are a multitude of channels I can get the information from and all of them will convey the…

I have Twitter installed on my phone but I check the tweets once a week.I realized I don't really care what people are doing, what they are eating now, what they are watching on TV. Flipboard or similar service is always enough for me to gather important information from rest of the world.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#24

Post by antjanus »

I use a ton of twitter lists! I'm probably the only one that does this. If I get REALLY bored, I go through the actual feed. When I check the list, I check the entire timeline. If I check the feed itself, i don't care.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#25

Post by QuasiAlon »

Huh! Cool question. I do both. If I have time to kill (say, a train ride), I go back and read from where I left off. If I know I just need to pass a few minutes (say, waiting in line at the store), I'll just pop in and see the latest. Sometimes I go back and read what specific friends wrote throughout the day.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#26

Post by rickmatt »

I don't think I browse twitter well. I alternate between your two choices, depending on how long since I last checked twitter.

I would like something like 'circles for twitter' so that I could check close friends and family tweets quickly, then kill time with lower priority/higher volume users if I want to.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#27

Post by tehwebguy »

netman21 wrote: post #8

I follow 30,000 accounts on Twitter. There is no way that anything relevant/interesting shows up on my "feed". I always use the "@Connect" filter so I do not miss any Tweets directed at me. I search on key words or hashtags to follow interesting discussions and get news. I keep a separate tab open to @glenngreenwald since everything he Tweets is interesting.

That is a lot to follow. Do you run a promotional account?

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#28

Post by Leynos »

I originally did a), but it became impractical one I was following around 300 people. Now I just read the last 10 or 15 minute's worth. I also, however, have a list of people I am reasonably close to whose tweets I try to read to a reasonable level of completeness.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#29

Post by Neff »

pearjuice wrote: post #14
Neff wrote: post #13

c) I don't. The service had a value to me when there was a focus on interaction, but as it transitioned to a news feed/advertisement service it lost any and all use to me. For news, there are enough sites that all spout off the same reviews and "exclusives". If there is truly breaking news that I need to be made aware of, there are a multitude of channels I can get the information from and all of them will convey the…

d) Never used Twitter As soon as I realized that sometimes there is news worthy stuff posted there, there will always be reporters crawling through the noise to find those and put the content on their respective outlets. What's the point of me subscribing to boat loads of literal shit ("at toilet, pls rt") to find a pearl now and then, when I can use traditional media to get to the pearls immediately? Sure, I might n…

The larger issue is that Twitter has pushed news services to focus on being first over being correct. It seems like reporters are falling over themselves to be the first to break a story, journalistic integrity be damned.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Twitter?

#30

Post by jfb »

Neff wrote: post #13

c) I don't. The service had a value to me when there was a focus on interaction, but as it transitioned to a news feed/advertisement service it lost any and all use to me. For news, there are enough sites that all spout off the same reviews and "exclusives". If there is truly breaking news that I need to be made aware of, there are a multitude of channels I can get the information from and all of them will convey the…

Yeah, me neither. The signal-to-noise ratio is just way too low, and I don't need another medium to monitor.
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