For the Twitter folks, it was nothing but a small settings update, but for Twitter users it was definitely a big issue if you have to take into account the buzz that it has created in the “twittersphere”. If you’re a heavy Twitter user you’d know that I’m talking about the “small settings update” done by Twitter which disabled notification sent to your Twitter account from people you don’t follow. Whereas before when somebody reference your Twitter name (for non-heavy Twitter users this means every instance that “@yourname” gets cited on any Tweet) you won’t receive notifications from Twitter unless that somebody is one of the people you Follow on Twitter.
According to the Twitter Blog, this feature confused new Twitter users when they received notifications from people they don’t follow on Twitter. Hence, the decision to turn it off again.
Interestingly, while reading the different blog posts discussing this issue, majority of those who are leaving comments in the discussions are those who opposed Twitter’s decision to turn the feature off.
Well, probably those people who complained of getting too much noise and got irritated with these streams of Twitter updates that they receive from people they don’t follow on Twitter are confused by now as to what the real issue here is.
If you’re one of those who requested Twitter to turn this feature off, you maybe missing the point of using Twitter – and that has something to do with social discovery. Twitter is not a social networking site (Facebook is) but a microblogging site which has evolved into a social discussion forum and information aggregator which allows you to discover not only people but bits and pieces of information about these people and their social activity.
I really don’t see the point of turning this feature off. Can you please tell me?
I agree that their decision to turn off “one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow” is dumb. At worst they should have made it a configurable option and if they really wanted to turn the default setting to off. The “inconvenience” factor to it is very low when comparing to the value that having it on offers. However, as you pointed out they are culling a few of the key reasons I enjoy twitter.
If someone I’m following replies to one of their followers who I don’t about something I’m interested in – I can seek out the rest of the conversation. Unlike in real life where you have to avoid the awkward aspects of introduction yourself into a conversation, twitter offers an “instant icebreaker” of being able to join into it mid-conversation. More generally, it can be a strong indicator that I might want to follow that person as we have something in common.
I’m wondering how long until – like the Facebook Terms of Service – enough people complain about this that they change it back. What’s the hashtag – #twitterstupid, #twitterupdatemistake or my personal favourite – #twitwit!
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.
I think you explained it wrong. You were not receiving notifications from people you don’t follow (this never was available), but the msgs from people you follow to some that you don’t (so, just one side of the conversation).
What happened is that if someone you follow, replies to someone you
don’t, now you don’t get to see that msg now…
Thanks,
–dd