Update: Biz Stone posted a mea culpa after Twitter backed away from its @reply decision.
Twitter has introduced what it thought was a minor tweak in the kind of @replies that you saw. Unfortunately, it has ignited a hailstorm of criticism from users who believe it’s a huge step backwards.
Essentially, you can no longer see the @replies of people you don’t follow. Confused?
Here’s a simple explanation: let’s say you follow @BBB, who goes back and forth with @CCC, who you don’t follow. Before the change, you would have seen the conversation.
If you’re still confused, The Guardian’s technology blog explains all the angles.
You have to wonder what Twitter was thinking, and whether it was something they did after getting feedback from enough people. From the outside looking it, it looks like a strategic stumble
8 Comments
THANK YOU TWITTER for doing something about endless drather of noise! There are PLENTY of ways for people to find new followers. They don't have to rely on one-sided conversations with people they already know.
I take my twitter presence pretty seriously. I try to engage in conversations with my (human) followers to make the experience enjoyable. To say that folks did not know that silencing the folks that you don't follow is a COP OUT! Whenever I join a new website, the first thing that I do is go through my Account Settings, and right there under Notices was a pulldown that let you specify how your Replies were handled (there was even an explanation, if I recall).
People seem to forget that twitter is NOT a democracy. People do not paying to use the service. Biz, Evan and the twitter team get to decide what happen to the service that THEY CREATED. I read one of my followers and he said "Put replies back to the way they were! You're going to lose a lot of people this way – epic fail" REALLY! You are going to leave twitter because you have a little more work to find new people. Come on, that is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard.
I applaud twitter for turning OFF the firehose to make this a better service, and more importantly, an enjoyable experience.
Thanks for the insight and perspective about what Twitter users want from the service. What Twitter does won't please everyone but that's how business goes.
Mark
"Before the change, you would have seen the conversation."
Not entirely true… A small % of twitter users would have seen it. Most already elected (I believe it was default setting) to not see @'s for people they don't follow.
There's a comment on this post > http://tinyurl.com/rctqsm that indicates only 2% had elected to see all @'s
I think this will blow over. It sounds like a big deal but I think it's a great evolution in how people will form tweets – it adds an extra layer of nuance to @'ing
Agree with Ryan here. I THINK the default was to not see @'s for people you don't follow.
However, why not just leave this option in there? I'm guessing there are performance reasons perhaps.
I just checked the notices page under settings and this option has been removed. There is still the help to the right mentioning it though "The @ Replies setting can be confusing. Read the help article if you're unsure." Links to this help article http://help.twitter.com/forums/23786/entries/1459…
@Ryan Coleman – 2% of 5 million users is 100,000 individuals forced to change how they use the system.
What I wonder is how many of the 100,000 make up the ACTIVE 40% – which I suspect they do – and how many of the 98% make up the 60% Twitter Quitter Attrition Rate?
@Ryan Coleman – 2% of 5 million users is 100,000 individuals forced to change how they use the system.
I can see the value in turning off the noise, but at the same time there should be an easy way for new or lighter users of Twitter to see the @reply traffic as opposed to making them jump through hoops. Not everyone is a well-entrenched Twitter user with overwhelming @replies. Just my $0.02.
It wasn't about noise, confusion nor any other user experience issue.
It appears now that it was a scaleability issue all along.
See their response to all the #twitterfail mail:
http://blog.twitter.com/2009/05/whoa-feedback.htm…
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