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For those who read my journal who do not use Twitter, here's a very basic summation of how Twitter works, to explain why the following story is so amusing:
People have a Twitter account that is somewhat like a LiveJournal account, in that you make posts and people can read them. There are a variety of public & private settings, but most people have a fairly public account. Which means, when you go to the website, there is a text box at the top, and when you type something in it, everyone who visits your Twitter page can read what you posted.
Now, where it differs from LJ is that you cannot then make a comment on that post within that person's page. What you *can* do, however, is post a tweet on your *own* page with the code @thatperson'susername and that will ensure that the person in question will see your tweet even if they are not following you or given permission to see what you post in general.
But the @thatperson'susername tweet is made on your Twitter page and everyone who visits *your* Twitter page can see it. It's called an @reply and I think it was intended to make conversation between two people possible, but it is also often used just to refer to another person. So, you can say "that's great @jane, congratulations!" or you can say "OMG @john is such a dork!" Either way, Jane and John will be able to read the respective tweets that you posted on your own page even if you make your page friends-only.
And everyone else who can see your page (for most accounts, that's *everyone*) can ALSO see the comments you made to and about Jane and John.
Twitter also has a Direct Message feature, which is more like a mailbox. You send someone in particular a Tweet and only they can read it because it is not posted on anyone's page. These are private correspondences.
Now, another thing that Twitter does is have a search feature where you can type in a keyword and it will search for all the Tweets that have that particular word in it. The Twitterverse has evolved a tradition of putting a hashmark in front of certain words to make sort of a tag for that post, much like LJ allows you to tag your posts. So if I wanted to make a comment about Harry Potter that I wanted other Harry Potter fans to see, even if they are not following my Twitter, and even if they have never heard of me before, I might end my tweet with #harrypotter, as in "Daniel Radcliff is so cute! #harrypotter". Then, anyone who wants to see what everyone on Twitter is saying about Harry Potter would enter into the search bar #harrypotter and be presented with a list of tweets that include that hashtag.
So, naturally, I have a saved search for #polyamory (among others) so I can see what everyone on Twitter has to say about polyamory, and when I make a tweet about polyamory, I put #polyamory at the end of that tweet so anyone else who searches for #polyamory can see what I have to say about polyamory.
Now, the story:
@yetused on Twitter made a tweet that said "creeps me out! #polyamory" Naturally, everyone who follows the #polyamory tag asked what was up with that. What followed was a series of very angry tweets by @yetused about how horrible polyamory was and how it was insulting to her own relationships.
Actually, what she said was that it was insulting to everyone who is in love, was in love, or ever will be in love.
Seriously, that's a direct quote.
So, of course, people started responding. So @yetused then yelled at everyone to "get off my lawn" (again, direct quote) because she felt she was being attacked and invaded by all the poly people who took exception to her comments. She began berating people for having a problem with what she said in her own Twitter and we should stay out of it if we didn't like what she had to say.
Responses were then sent about how she made a public Tweet meant that we were not on her lawn, that she was out in the open and therefore subject to other people having an opinion on what she wrote. It was pointed out to her that adding a hashtag to her tweets brings it to the attention of everyone who searches for that hashtag and we don't actually have to go into her Twitter page to see it. And responding with an @reply is made on our own Twitter accounts publicly and is not a private Direct Message.
NEWSFLASH ......... THE INTERNET IS PUBLIC.
Now, of course, I can moderate what is said here, within my personal LiveJournal, but I cannot stop anyone from making a post in their own LiveJournals about what I said. Even if they direct their comments *to me* in their own LJs, it is a public conversation and they have the right to say whatever they want to say about me. I can only stop people from commenting here, within my own LJ. But if I made a comment in a public post, chances are, someone is going to see it and have a difference of opinion, and possibly someone will even want to write their own journal entry about me. And that might be annoying, but that's what happens when one makes one's opinions publicly known and then deliberately identifies those comments in such a manner as to make it possible for other people to read them even if they don't know who one is and never would have seen the comment otherwise.
The irony here is that @yetused has since made a series of tweets yelling at me (and possibly others, I don't know, I'm not actually reading her Twitter page, just the @replies she makes to me) to "get used to it" that if I say something to her, she'll say something back.
I have not ever actually complained that she was talking to me, I have only responded to her flawed logic regarding other people making comments about her original anti-poly tweet. She actually said "You don't get it? If you start conversation you will get reactions. Deal with it."
Can we say irony?
People have a Twitter account that is somewhat like a LiveJournal account, in that you make posts and people can read them. There are a variety of public & private settings, but most people have a fairly public account. Which means, when you go to the website, there is a text box at the top, and when you type something in it, everyone who visits your Twitter page can read what you posted.
Now, where it differs from LJ is that you cannot then make a comment on that post within that person's page. What you *can* do, however, is post a tweet on your *own* page with the code @thatperson'susername and that will ensure that the person in question will see your tweet even if they are not following you or given permission to see what you post in general.
But the @thatperson'susername tweet is made on your Twitter page and everyone who visits *your* Twitter page can see it. It's called an @reply and I think it was intended to make conversation between two people possible, but it is also often used just to refer to another person. So, you can say "that's great @jane, congratulations!" or you can say "OMG @john is such a dork!" Either way, Jane and John will be able to read the respective tweets that you posted on your own page even if you make your page friends-only.
And everyone else who can see your page (for most accounts, that's *everyone*) can ALSO see the comments you made to and about Jane and John.
Twitter also has a Direct Message feature, which is more like a mailbox. You send someone in particular a Tweet and only they can read it because it is not posted on anyone's page. These are private correspondences.
Now, another thing that Twitter does is have a search feature where you can type in a keyword and it will search for all the Tweets that have that particular word in it. The Twitterverse has evolved a tradition of putting a hashmark in front of certain words to make sort of a tag for that post, much like LJ allows you to tag your posts. So if I wanted to make a comment about Harry Potter that I wanted other Harry Potter fans to see, even if they are not following my Twitter, and even if they have never heard of me before, I might end my tweet with #harrypotter, as in "Daniel Radcliff is so cute! #harrypotter". Then, anyone who wants to see what everyone on Twitter is saying about Harry Potter would enter into the search bar #harrypotter and be presented with a list of tweets that include that hashtag.
So, naturally, I have a saved search for #polyamory (among others) so I can see what everyone on Twitter has to say about polyamory, and when I make a tweet about polyamory, I put #polyamory at the end of that tweet so anyone else who searches for #polyamory can see what I have to say about polyamory.
Now, the story:
@yetused on Twitter made a tweet that said "creeps me out! #polyamory" Naturally, everyone who follows the #polyamory tag asked what was up with that. What followed was a series of very angry tweets by @yetused about how horrible polyamory was and how it was insulting to her own relationships.
Actually, what she said was that it was insulting to everyone who is in love, was in love, or ever will be in love.
Seriously, that's a direct quote.
So, of course, people started responding. So @yetused then yelled at everyone to "get off my lawn" (again, direct quote) because she felt she was being attacked and invaded by all the poly people who took exception to her comments. She began berating people for having a problem with what she said in her own Twitter and we should stay out of it if we didn't like what she had to say.
Responses were then sent about how she made a public Tweet meant that we were not on her lawn, that she was out in the open and therefore subject to other people having an opinion on what she wrote. It was pointed out to her that adding a hashtag to her tweets brings it to the attention of everyone who searches for that hashtag and we don't actually have to go into her Twitter page to see it. And responding with an @reply is made on our own Twitter accounts publicly and is not a private Direct Message.
NEWSFLASH ......... THE INTERNET IS PUBLIC.
Now, of course, I can moderate what is said here, within my personal LiveJournal, but I cannot stop anyone from making a post in their own LiveJournals about what I said. Even if they direct their comments *to me* in their own LJs, it is a public conversation and they have the right to say whatever they want to say about me. I can only stop people from commenting here, within my own LJ. But if I made a comment in a public post, chances are, someone is going to see it and have a difference of opinion, and possibly someone will even want to write their own journal entry about me. And that might be annoying, but that's what happens when one makes one's opinions publicly known and then deliberately identifies those comments in such a manner as to make it possible for other people to read them even if they don't know who one is and never would have seen the comment otherwise.
The irony here is that @yetused has since made a series of tweets yelling at me (and possibly others, I don't know, I'm not actually reading her Twitter page, just the @replies she makes to me) to "get used to it" that if I say something to her, she'll say something back.
I have not ever actually complained that she was talking to me, I have only responded to her flawed logic regarding other people making comments about her original anti-poly tweet. She actually said "You don't get it? If you start conversation you will get reactions. Deal with it."
Can we say irony?
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no subject
Date: 7/8/09 10:21 pm (UTC)From:best,
Joel. Who feels that clue-by-fours are sometimes inadequate, and a piece of clue-rebar is called for. 1.75" diameter, by personal preference.