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[heyf00L]

I don't use Twitter for much, but when people link to it I hate how it does a redirect so that your back button just puts you in a loop (at least the mobile site does that anyway). Any site that does that should be removed from the Internet. The fact that a site as big as Twitter does it shows a startling level of incompetence.

 

[Levyne]

Ok, makes sense. Thanks guys.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I don't use Twitter for much, but when people link to it I hate how it does a redirect so that your back button just puts you in a loop (at least the mobile site does that anyway). Any site that does that should be removed from the Internet. The fact that a site as big as Twitter does it shows a startling level of incompetence.

I've never had this problem.

 

[Boney]

I had to make one for this year FFV Fiesta challenge. There's no instructions on how to use it and # and @ and other stuff were confusing as hell.

 

[Auron_Kale]

I use twitter more than FB because it's easier to follow.

I don't need overly long 'status updates' or fifty pics of what you did over the weekend in San Diego but rather, I like that twitter's only restricted to 140 characters so you have to be concise.

Plus, ever since they updated twitter's direct messaging feed on iOS, it feels like I'm having a conversation with my friends as it resembles a chat window. I play around with different clients, but twitter & twitteriffic are my go-to clients.

@ is usually directed to whomever I'm tweeting to and # is used for trending something, not very difficult to understand really.

 

[Slayven]

Twitter is as complex as you make it. Personally I just follow standup comics, Neil Gaiman, and pornstars.

 

[R2D4]

@ allows you to have a comment attached to another user. Say, I want to talk to PlayStation's Yoshida on Twitter, I'd type "@yosp how are you doing?" so he is attached to that post, and can read it.

# is basically a tag, like how a blog would have tags for specific subjects. Let's go back to Yoshida, let's say I ask about Vita, "@yosp, do you know if #Vita will have swell looking games?". #Vita is a tag, clicking on it will show you tweets from all over the website from people who've tagged Vita in their post.

Makes perfect sense. First time I've heard it explained and not just assumed.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

Still don't understand the use of number signs, "at" symbols, and the concept of retweeting.

So yeah, definitely too confusing.

 

[Emitan]

the retarded thing with twitter is when someone reply's to someone it doesn't show WHAT is being replied too

example

@johhny HAHA that was funny

....................WHAT was funny?

this whole @ shit is retarded

Click on the tweet and it shows you

 

[Error]

Still don't understand the use of number signs, "at" symbols, and the concept of retweeting.

So yeah, definitely too confusing.

how is it confusing? # means you are hashtagging a word or phrase, @ means you are replying or tweeting to someone and retweeting means you are copy/pasting a tweet from an account you are following so the people that follow you can see the tweet. Retweeting is basically wanting to show your followers a tweet you liked from someone you are following.

It's one of the simplest websites I've ever used.

 

[Casp0r]

Twitter is just the worst part of facebook.

Peoples crappy status updates.

 

[Emitan]

I don't really understand hashtagging though. It's really pointless.

 

[Utako]

Facebook is just a more capable Twitter, your argument is invalid.

I don't really understand hashtagging though. It's really pointless.

Cool, now reveal a better way to mark a topic purely with text.

 

[Agnostic]

Twitter is down for me. Over capacity.

I wanted to sign up and see how it works.

 

[Emitan]

Facebook is just a more capable Twitter, your argument is invalid.


Cool, now reveal a better way to mark a topic purely with text.

It's 140 characters. If you can't tell what someone is saying when they're restricted to 140 characters you need help.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

It's 140 characters. If you can't tell what someone is saying when they're restricted to 140 characters you need help.

It creates the Twitter version of chat rooms by search. I can be talking about the E3 PS3 keynote and hashtag #e3ps3 and anyone can search for that term and find what everyone is saying about it.

This is the defining use of Twitter. You can't get this on Facebook.

 

[Grinchy]

It has never seemed too complicated. It has always just seemed annoying. That's why I don't use it, at least.

 

[Hari Seldon]

I'd rather be in a conversation on a forum than narcassistically blast shit out into the ether like I'm important enough to be a fucking quote machine.

 

[Meier]

Twitter and GAF is all I need as far as the internet goes. I really don't understand what there is to find confusing personally if you have any sort of internet savvy. I can see it being confusing to an older person who didn't grow up with computers, but Facebook would have confused them when they first started using it too so it's kind of a silly mindset.

I don't really understand hashtagging though. It's really pointless.

It isn't pointless at all if it's used correctly. It's often used sarcastically, but when it is, it's really evident.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I'd rather be in a conversation on a forum than narcassistically blast shit out into the ether like I'm important enough to be a fucking quote machine.

Then don't use it, you very selfless, unimportant person with an abrasive opinion of everyone.

 

[Korey]

@name is not "hard to wrap your mind around" at all. It's even used on youtube which has like the broadest internet audience, so....

 

[Malajax]

I think the bigger problem Twitter faces is that most people don't understand why they would want or need a Twitter account over a Facebook account. For the common user, like the woman illustrated in the article, Facebook can do everything Twitter does and much more.

 

[Korey]

I think the bigger problem Twitter faces is that most people don't understand why they would want or need a Twitter account over a Facebook account. For the common user, like the woman illustrated in the article, Facebook can do everything Twitter does and much more.

Not until recently, when Facebook responded to Twitter by allowing you to "follow" people you're not friends with.

Twitter is also more spammy, which makes people more comfortable with sharing their stream of consciousness thoughts, retweets, etc.

Also, Twitter is completely public (or completely private) which means anyone can read your tweets and you can read anyone else's tweets with zero friction

Honestly, both Twitter and Facebook have their purposes and can coexist. This is why Google+ fails, because it's trying to do a mishmash of both without being awesome at either one

 

[Meier]

Facebook's reach is a fraction of the size of Twitter's for the average user. If you have no interest at all in communicating with people you don't know, then Twitter (or any sort of public message board) usage isn't for you.

Essentially every positive change of Facebook's in the past year or two has been as a result of trying to recreate what Twitter allows... but it can't do that completely because of the privacy of accounts.

 

[anaron]

ITT: stupid people who can't use twitter.

 

[Ifrit]

I actually agree with the article

 

[spats]

I hate Facebook because it's incredibly confusing and I love Twitter for its simplicity.

 

[thechristoph]

Count me in as someone who is completely mystified by Twitter. I don't get how it's supposed to work. You don't talk TO people, you talk AT them. And then you hope that your message was clever enough that they retweet it, and then maybe some of their followers will then follow you? Is that how game works?

I can't imagine anyone using it for any type of meaningful conversation. The tiny message limit makes sense if you think of it like a way to send mass text messages, but it's gone far beyond that now.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

It isn't pointless at all if it's used correctly. It's often used sarcastically, but when it is, it's really evident.

I think exposure to sarcastic, ironic, and superfluous usage of the syntax away from Twitter, or being quoted without proper context outside of Twitter might have had a detrimental effect on exposing people to Twitter's utility. When I knew very little about Twitter, it seemed kind of silly to me for people to include the symbols needlessly in the Facebook updates. Now, sometimes it was just because of some program or app they had automatically posting their tweets as status updates, but given that it provided no functionality, it also frequently seemed kind of like the person was just trying to be hip with the latest internet fad by including an unnecessary hashtag description of the topic, for instance.

Obviously, if you're using Twitter and participating in discussions, then the utility of the functionality is perfectly clear. But from the outside looking in, it doesn't really lend itself incredibly well to a quick overview of what it's all about.

 

[gutter_trash]

taking a crap with my mobile, had burritos, take long




that's Twitter in a nutshell

 

[Meier]

The irony of Twitter and the "@name" being confusing is that Facebook directly copied it for usage on their site. I see it used all the time. Considering how ubiqituous it is now in news reporting and media, I'm not really sure how anyone could still be confused by it. We've been using @ signs in everyday speech for at least 15 years now thanks to email.

There isn't a single show on TV these days that doesnt use an official hashtag in their advertising. Heck, many of them keep it as an overlay while the show is on!

 

[Eggo]

The volume of people confused by Twitter in this thread only reinforce the idea that it is not intuitive. Twitter needs a tutorial video or better instructions when you first log in.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Count me in as someone who is completely mystified by Twitter. I don't get how it's supposed to work. You don't talk TO people, you talk AT them. And then you hope that your message was clever enough that they retweet it, and then maybe some of their followers will then follow you? Is that how game works?

I can't imagine anyone using it for any type of meaningful conversation. The tiny message limit makes sense if you think of it like a way to send mass text messages, but it's gone far beyond that now.

There are millions of ways to have "meaningful" conversations using millions of other things. Twitter enables you to find people to have meaningful conversations with using another system.

I can search for any topic I want and find what people are saying about it. From there, I can make friends or debate with assholes. What other system lets me do this?

 

[Evening Musuko]

Twitter is what you make of it. I used it as a replacement for a message board I used to frequent that became too shitty for me. Honestly, if GAF wasn't around I'd have no use for message boards thanks to twitter. Plus, I've won some coupons and free stuff here and there so it's not all bad.

ITT: stupid people who can't use twitter.

It's really more like people complaining about stuff they don't use.

So basically it's par for the course for GAF.

 

[thechristoph]

There are millions of ways to have "meaningful" conversations using millions of other things. Twitter enables you to find people to have meaningful conversations with using another system.

I can search for any topic I want and find what people are saying about it. From there, I can make friends or debate with assholes. What other system lets me do this?

I'm genuinely curious as to how this works... So say you want to find people to talk about pies with. Do you just search for #pie and then tweet at people who have mentioned #pie in their messages? Sounds like a forum without any structure.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I'm genuinely curious as to how this works... So say you want to find people to talk about pies with. Do you just search for #pie and then tweet at people who have mentioned #pie in their messages? Sounds like a forum without any structure.

Yep.

Structure is overrated if you want actual opinions and thoughts from anyone in the world. You can guess how GAF felt about the Republican debate last night by what you already know about us and the hivemind, but you're free to check Twitter to see what everyone out there is saying. You'll see it all. Then from what you find, you can follow who you want to follow so that you get your own personalized structure.

Also: very few people on GAF are funny. I have discovered and follow hundreds of consistently funny strangers on Twitter.

 

[joelseph]

ITT: stupid people who can't use twitter.

Except the ones agreeing with the article are coming up with actual arguments and discussion points while you and most of your peeps are calling us stupid and old.

edit - to be fair

 

[joelseph]

Yep.

Structure is overrated if you want actual opinions and thoughts from anyone in the world.

Neither service samples everyone though.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Neither service samples everyone though.

Let's not dismiss things for not being able to force people to use it.

GAF influences GAF. Twitter has the input and influence of all types.

 

[TemplaerDude]

If Twitter is too confusing, then you might not want to be on the computer at all.

This. Twitter is no more confusing than anything else on the internet. And just like everything else, you use it for a while and you figure it out. That's how it all works. This article is bunk.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Funny how this comes up and there are a lot of "yeah, fuck this, it's too complicated" in the same week that there's a thread about how computer illiteracy isn't excusable or cute.

 

[joelseph]

Let's not dismiss things for not being able to force people to use it.

GAF influences GAF. Twitter has the input and influence of all types.

I guess. And if everyone was on gaf and everyone was on twitter I would rather use twitters methods of polling data for sure. I just don't know how much sampling counts towards a systems entry barrier. I do see your point though.

 

[Jasoco]

I love Twitter and sometimes prefer it. If FaceBook disappeared, as long as I had Twitter I'd still use it.

Currently any non-direct posts I post on Twitter go to my FaceBook as a status update of sorts. Some things I want to say fit more as Twitter updates that can also go to FaceBook. Most of the time I just post to FB. If FaceBook didn't collapse Twitter updates into one item and make it universally hideable, I'd just use Twitter, but right now I refrain from doing it because I'm afraid one or more of my friends might have hidden the Twitter "app" from their feed and would never see my updates.

 

[joelseph]

Funny how this comes up and there are a lot of "yeah, fuck this, it's too complicated" in the same week that there's a thread about how computer illiteracy isn't excusable or cute.

I bet a huge motivator for computer illiterate people learning how to get online is facebook. Anything is possible when you want it.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Sure you can follow a conversation in-site with clicking the quote but have you seen people posting copypasted twitter convos on Gaming side? Those are the clusterfuck ones and thats the problem

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I bet a huge motivator for computer illiterate people learning how to get online is facebook. Anything is possible when you want it. Twitter is overly complicated and nobody cares enough to figure it out.

I understand this criticism, but it doesn't make sense to me because I can ask the same of Facebook: why should I use this? What am I getting out of it? I get much less out of Facebook than Twitter. Much, much less.

 

[Kinyou]

I hate the search function. I want to follow Will Ferrell but all it comes up with are some pathetic fake accounts.

 

[Jasoco]

Twitter isn't complicated at all.

You post stuff. Anyone who follows you can see your updates. And you can see anyone you follow's updates. It's not that hard.

Once you figure that out, you then get into hash tags, which are so simple because they're everywhere now, including in the corner of many TV shows. When you see the # you assume you search Twitter, or even Google, and you'll find the source. The @ symbol is even used on FaceBook to tag people in posts. Though they now changed it so you don't even have to type it, but you can if you want.

At least Twitter doesn't clutter itself with stupid app posts.

As for Celebrities, just look for the green checkmark. It means they're verified and the real person. Not some fake person.

 

[Error]

fb also copied being able to 'follow' (it's called subscribe in fb) without needing to send a request to the account you want to follow.

 

[joelseph]

fb also copied being able to 'follow' (it's called subscribe in fb) without needing to send a request to the account you want to follow.

Which I have found no reason to use yet. Is anyone following anyone on facebook? I do use twitter to get music news but I prefer RSS.