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bigdirtyfoot · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:51 am Post subject: Does anyone else use twitter?

Does anyone else use twitter? If you do you can find me at http://twitter.com/davidkwilder. I'd be interesting in having some footbag tweets with people from modified.
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PoisonTaffy · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:28 pm Post subject:

I post allot of footbag tweets, it's essentially my footblog. Added you

http://twitter.com/royklein
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Iron Clad Ben · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:20 pm Post subject:

I know a fair amount of ppl in the footbag community use twitter. I have an account @IronCladBen (if you want to follow me or whatev).

I guess this is a good place to ask... how the hell do you get anything useful out of twitter? It just seems to mostly be people talking about:
-lattes they're getting
-naps they're taking
-that they're bored at work
-links to snarky wall street journal articles about bailouts

Supposedly you can do these things:
-Get breaking news before it happens
-Network and meet people with common interests
-Grow your business and find customers

But how do you do this when 98% of the tweets are about dumb bullshit?

Supposedly Twitter can be a valuable tool. HOW? I don't understand. What are the people that are saying this doing that I am not? Anyone care to explain or discuss?
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bigdirtyfoot · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:26 pm Post subject:

Thanks to both of you. I added you both. @IronCladBen there's a lot of dumb tweets out there. I would suggest just not following people that don't interest you. After you build up a network of say 50-100 people that you follow and follow you, you start getting involved in some really interesting conversations. The best part for me is finding people with like-minded interests and sharing news with them. Remember - if you want to get breaking news on whatever topics you're interested, you've got to be able to share news when you find it as well. It's as simple as sharing a link or two every day with your followers. After a while you'll start building a better following. I've only been at it a month or so but I've met some pretty cool people on Twitter! Another thing to try would be to use TweetDeck, which lets you search the twitterverse by keyword entry. So if you want to find everyone that has recently tweeted about footbag, you can type that in and it will pull up people with footbag interest, some of whom may not be on modified or don't even know about footbag.org or anything! The way I look at Twitter is that it's a way for people with shared interests to get conversations going and help each other.
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Iron Clad Ben · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:26 am Post subject:

Dave thanks for your insights. I'm putting the frustration/bitterness you probably saw aside and giving Twitter another shot. I've "un-followed" some really noisy people (sorry Burrin but I just couldn't take another tweet about you being bored in math class) and the quality has improved. We'll see where this goes.

I'm trying to use the search function more too. It's not well presented on the site, but http://search.twitter.com/ is the shit!

Couple questions for people:

Question 1: People put things like "#footbag" or "#VIA" in their posts. Is that supposed to be a way of intentionally tagging your tweets? What does it mean? What do you use it for?

Question 2: Twitter appears to give you the option to publish your twitter feed into an RSS feed for yourself, but I can't get it working. It gives me an error when I try to open the RSS feed in Google Reader. Does anybody their twitter feed into an RSS feed, if so, how do you do it?

Thanks,
Ben
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shredzilla · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 2:13 am Post subject:

Twitter seems pointless to me for one reason: The character limit. It's like edit: 140 characters? Why not just eliminate Twitter and put the update on facebook newsfeed. If you want to follow someone's newsfeed, just click on their profile.

Now, apparently you can tweet from your phone, so I can see how that is somewhat useful, but then most new phones these days are becoming compatible with facebook, eliminating the need again.

If they did allow more than the 140 characters per tweet, I could see it being useful for a blog, but other than that I can't see the point.

The only real use I saw from it is if you have someone famous that you like to follow and you're obsessed with their every day life, and they tweet regularly. I was following this semi-famous lady Leslie Sanchez for a while who's the head of the Hispanic Republican Voting Committee. Not that I'm a Republican, but she's pretty liberal and an extremely intelligent and nice lady. Anyway it was neat reading her tweets about speaking on CNN and all the traveling she does for things. Or if she got brushed off by some cab driver or some mundane thing that happened to her.

Other than that, it seems completely unnecessary.

/$0.02
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Bander87 · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 2:14 am Post subject:

I use twitter as well. I quickly found it lame because all people talked about was twitter itself and how many followers they had.

I eventually found middle ground and now I like it.

People say they can do the same thing with facebook, here is my response to that (I've posted this before):

It is, but it's also based around texting, creating an environment for quicker more accessible information. It's like, why do people use blogging sites when they can use myspace? Because myspace isn't good for blogging and isn't centered around it. It's the same thing with twitter and facebook. Facebook can keep people's statuses, but it can be done a lot better with twitter, and that's what people like.

For instance, an organization can have an alert system where it updates you on its snow cancellation. This status can be sent out to thousands of people, regardless if they have internet access. PSNH started using it for updates during the ice storm, very handy. The red cross uses it too. It can work the other way around as well. One can send out messages to thousands of users at once through a single text, also handy when your in emergency situations or watching big events unfold.

Not only is it used for statuses, but it's used for information sharing in general. "Hey guys, check out this link I found...", "What do you guys think about...", which isn't done nearly as often on facebook.

The technology is different too. You can put twitter feeds on your website, which will be viewable to anyone, regardless if they are following or even have a twitter account.

Promoting a product isn't so easy on twitter, but it's one way. Facebook pages can't exactly "friend" people. Once your business gets going though, it's a good way to get updates.

You can also get messages sent to your phone without actually giving out your phone number.

Twitter has a lot of geeks, which attracts more geeks. If you aren't a geek, it's also just a fun way to keep up with your friends and what they are doing in general.

The #footbag tags I believe are for 3rd party applications that can do filtering. Basically tags.

And I'm @bander87 btw.
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h4x354x0r · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:15 am Post subject:

I have 2 distinct groups of followers: people I work with and work around, and other footbag players. I love using Twitter, the 140 character limit is tough; I have like a 40% "Twoosh" rate (using exactly 140 chars); I like to be wordy!

Being committed to footbag blogging, being on Twitter helps keep me focused, I announce my kicking sessions and post wrap-ups (mostly links to the wordier blog and a short video).

My handle is the same on Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, the base URL, etc., and here: h4x354x0r - Tweet me up!
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AllanHaggett · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:58 am Post subject:

Good thread Smile

Thanks for the invite to the discussion IronCladBen Smile

The 140 character limit is a serious point in favor of the service. 140 characters forces you to be succinct, and not blather on about stuff (that's what blogs are for). If you can't fit your update into 140 characters, most people probably won't read it Wink

Say more with less. If you need to write a blog post, do it, and then update your twitter status with "just posted to my blog http://yourblog.com/longramblingpostthatfewhavetimetoread."

If you look at each post individually, there isn't much value involved. The point is the continuous stream of info ("lifestreaming" is a term for it). It creates an "ambient awareness" that can be passively consumed with very little effort. Especially from a mobile perspective, the barrier to entry is very low, making it accessible to those with normal cellphones and "smart phones" alike.

I think a microblogging (as the general concept is called) service could seriously help the footbag community be better informed about tournaments (as they happen) and be used as an organizing tool for local groups. Check out how Evan Lovely is using it: http://twitter.com/FootbagAlliance

My account is http://twitter.com/allankh though I don't post much footbag-related stuff there. I like Twitter well enough (despite the fact that SMS is disabled for us in Canada Sad

), but I think the concept is more important than the brand itself. Check out http://identi.ca for an open source alternative. My personal favorite service these days is http://friendfeed.com which ties in with Twitter, but is actually much more robust, has (many) more features, and has status updates with much longer character limits for those of you who *must* be verbose.

As for using Facebook instead: excuse my English, but fuck Facebook. Their new terms of service are serious bullshit. They're the Microsoft of social networking. Boycott Facebook!

Gotta go ...
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PoisonTaffy · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:13 am Post subject:

On top of feeds, I use Twitter search RSS to follow keywords I'm interested in. Granted there's ALLOT of noise (specifically for widely used keywords obviously) but allot of insights as well, so it pays off.
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TwistedTorque · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:42 pm Post subject: Twitter Use

Oh, Twitter...
Here's how I currently use Twitter in relationship to Footbag:
1) I talk to someone who's interested in coming to our footbag sessions, or is already at one of our sessions. I ask them if they want text message updates announcing our sessions. Usually they say yes, although I make sure they have unlimited text messages first.
2) I take their phone and send a text to 40404 (that's Twitter) that says "follow FootbagAlliance". FootbagAlliance is the user account. Put yours there.
3) Twitter shoots a text back asking their name. You respond.
4) You get a confirmation text back saying it all went down. Sometimes it goes through much later (has happened hours later, but is usually a 30 second thing).
5) Later, when you are at your computer, you'll have an email saying that there is a new follower to the account, go to their account and follow them.
6) When a session is going to happen later in the day, I jump on twitter, log in to the FootbagAlliance account, and post an update that gets pushed out to 27 people. That's a lot of phone calls to remind people of a footbag session that I don't have to make. That's nice.
7) Optional: In your tweet (that's what a Twitter post is called), you can ask people to respond if they are coming. They respond via text, you get it. That instantaneous feedback is helpful.

This is usually just a reminder to people about the regularly scheduled session (Weds @ 5), but I think it will really shine as we get closer to summer (I've started getting it going late into fall and through the winter) and if an impromptu session happens we can try and get some of the people who are new too it and not just our favorite shred-buddies.

I've thought about posting a quick wrap up to the session afterwords to share with others what went down but 140 characters is too small for the ENTIRE GROUP. I think that individuals sharing shred highlights would work really well. The best way to do this would be a blog post with all highlights for all players (maybe a video?) and then to announce it on Twitter. If you don't know what TinyURL is, Google it. They shorten long URLs to tiny ones so they fit on Twitter posts.

Here's how it could be taken further:
Once you get a solid base of people following the main twitter account, it'd be nice to interlink all of them. So you'd have to talk to each person and have them text in "follow USERNAME" to 40404 for EACH MEMBER. This would take a decent bit of work, but would be worth it. Then, when the main twitter was sent out and each person replied, each member would see all the responses after the main post. This would also allow a single member to send out a tweet asking if anybody wanted to shred without having to access the main account or use a computer for that matter.

I'm using Twitter for the Footbag Alliance in the way that traditional media (radio, tv, newspaper) works: one person sending out a message to a lot of people who can't respond back. Twitter, however, allows each member to talk to every other member while the rest of the members listen. Then others can add to the conversation that the first two are having. This is really something to experience and not read about.

In conclusion, Twitter seemed like dumbest thing I'd ever heard about (think back to the first time someone tried to describe Twitter to you), but one of the coolest things I use. It took a little (ok, a lot) of getting used to, but I get it now, and I think that it is an amazing tool.

Twitter Accounts:
@FootbagAlliance
My personal Twitter account: @EvanL
My geeky web designy, Mac lovin' Twitter account: @freeStyle_Media
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BainbridgeShred · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:07 pm Post subject:

Lol Rory; Adobe Actionscript professional? Yeah and my little brother is a Plate and Cup Sanitary Specialist.
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shredzilla · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:42 pm Post subject:

PoisonTaffy · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:08 pm Post subject:

AllanHaggett · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:45 am Post subject:

Thanks for the write-up, Evan; that was well-explained.

As another tie-in service that I think has serious potential, check out:

http://qik.com

Record a live video stream from your phone (tons of supported models (including jailbroken iPhones)) to the web. It's got nice twitter integration, and I could see it being used to mob-cast tournaments in *such* a cool way ...
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AllanHaggett · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:24 am Post subject:

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but:

Nitrox · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:06 pm Post subject:

And I'm officially on twitter now...

http://twitter.com/joshohana
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Asmus · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:42 am Post subject:

I am still considering starting to do this..

I think it's kinda pretentious and I like visual blogs so I think I should rather go for tumblr than twitter but on the other hand I like the interface and it seems easy to get into conversations and such.

I think I might do it next year when I move out from home.
Hopefully my life will also be more interesting by then. Hehe.

This is totally awesome:
http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-twitter.html
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mtoolan · Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:04 am Post subject:

i have one too

mtoolan

and i saw evan lovely posted this on facebook, it seems relevant to the conversation

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html
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james_dean · Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:36 pm Post subject:

Me: @james_dean21

So far I'm pretty much only following a couple of people from this thread and unsure of how to expand that. Maybe do some searches and trawl through all the noise.. hmm.
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