User Content Feed
Kerrin’s set up an RSS feed for user content – anything that gets submitted and approved gets added to this feed. You can now stay completely up to date with what my minions are doing. I’ve added a link in the sidebar (along with the feed for the blog and Thing a Week) and boy does it look ugly over there. I want to burn that sidebar to the ground. Someday I will fix it, but now I have to go to Baltimore.
And speaking of staying up to date, I’ve taken the plunge and created a Twitter account. I can’t say that I completely get it – who am I talking to? Is it a blog or what? Does anyone out there really want to know when I’m having a sandwich? What is “the internet?” But not doing it makes me feel like an old person who’s given up because he doesn’t understand something, so for a while at least I’m going to keep spouting nonsense into the void and getting pointless messages from strangers. I complain, but I actually find it strangely compelling. For today, expect to see some entries like “Driving to Baltimore,” and later, “Still driving to Baltimore.”
Showtime tonight is 7 PM, not 7:30 as it says on my calendar…
Comments
Glenn says
I myself feel the pointless of Twitter, and this is from someone who is likely addicted to information input.
Chris Radcliff says
I updated the time on the calendar; hopefully it won't get overwritten by Ticketmaster.
I'm also trying to figure out Twitter. It seems to combine the immediacy of drunk dialing with the subtlety of a bullhorn in a bingo parlor. But I'll continue to appear to give it a chance until it disappears in a puff of electrons.
Oh, and thanks in advance for the add.
Chris Radcliff says
I should have said "specificity" instead of "subtlety"; I just couldn't think of it until after I posted.
ArrantPrac says
I don't get Twitter either, but it might be interesting if Code Monkey had one... then he could keep us updated while he's pretending to work.
Josh says
I'm not sure what the point of twitter is, but http://twittervision.com/ makes it more interesting...
Ed says
No one understands why Twitter is compelling. But it is. It's much like America's Funniest home videos in that respect..either that or David Guest. It's biggest evangelist is of coarse Scoble, but that guy had no problem shilling out for Microsoft so who can trust him?
BobCat says
Twitter is for twits. It's right there in the name. It's for people who can't form coherent thoughts and translate them into graceful sentences. It's like Web Number Two Point Oh and Push combined.
With Twitter, they can IM the whole world that they are taking a poo.
I promise to never look at it again, ever.
John says
The light and inessential quality of Twitter is its most compelling feature, in my view. Given that I have so many communications channels that implicitly require response, it's nice to have a stream for short messages to be shared from anywhere to no one in particular with no implied obligation of response. For example, I didn't need to know that JC rang up 76k on a Ms. Pacman (good job with that, BTW), but it made me laugh for a few seconds to think of him at the Maryland rest stop when I had a few free moments to notice it. It may have made JC happy for a few seconds to share his pride at the score. Win/win.
It's a toy, no question, but I'd rather that people throw that kind of inessential stuff up on Twitter than IM or email me about it. Hundreds of journal sites demonstrate that people can share their scatological history at great length. At least Twitter makes them pare it down to 140 characters.
Of course, I'll stop using Twitter the moment anyone I care about says "Why didn't you respond to my Twitter?!"
Andrine says
I have been intrigued by twittervision because it makes the world seem so small (and somewhat small-minded), and was watching it a few days ago when I saw a message from someone I actually know in another state. It was exciting in a weird way; random messages from strangers and then suddenly a less random message from a friend.
As for its usefulness, two days ago a group of my friends were at Etech in San Diego and one of them took ill. Another took him to the hospital and twittered the universe to let us know what was up and how he was coming along. It saved a whole lot of time to send that message on twitter rather than having to call or email everyone who cared. I was surprised at how well it worked.
Additionally, twitter fine tunes my ability to obsess about and stalk JoCo. Thanks for that! Love and kisses! -Andrine
Jess says
I'm bummed that we couldn't make the Balto show, but we couldn't have made it up there even by 7:30, let alone 7. Also we had to stay home and get stood up by a drunken friend. Good times.
I don't understand Twitter either; the primary function seems to be drastically reducing the signal-to-noise ratio on the tubes.
Yvonne Marie Andres says
Actually - twitter seems to simply be a world vision stream of consciousness....random thoughts, by random folks....