Suddenly, the World became a much quieter place. No, it’s not you, it’s “just” a small settings update by Twitter in action today.
In the words of Marshall from ReadWriteWeb …“users no longer see public replies sent by friends to people they themselves are not following. (Fragmented conversations, they are called.) This isn’t a small change at all, it’s big and it’s bad. The new setting eliminates serendipitous social discovery.”
The changes sound small, right? Yes, it is indeed a small change, it’s just that we can’t see Tweets from people we don’t follow and all the @name replies. We used to have an option to switch to that function, but they took it away and now everyone’s function is fixed. What about most of the people who actually WANT to listen to other people’s tweets.
Fruit juice is good for health, yes, and I do find it refreshing to drink it once in a while. But I like a variety of drinks, Coke, Pepsi, Coffee, Tea, not so healthy, yes I know, but I like it, it makes me happy because I have a choice. Now I am stuck to drinking ONLY Fruit juice because they think it’s good for me.
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Twitter is not Facebook
This is not Facebook where we only want to connect with people we already know, this is Twitter, a place where we find people whom we never knew. Doesn’t that explain why Twitter and Facebook are different? Now they are quite the same and personally, I think taking away that function makes Facebook actually more appealing than Twitter from today onwards. At least I can find more more about the people I know in their multi-page profiles rather than a single column 5 lines Twitter profile.
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So it doesn’t really affect how we use Twitter right? No, it changes 50% of how we use Twitter.
Let’s see what Twitter said on it’s blog on the changes.
“Spotting new folks in tweets is an interesting way to check out new profiles and find new people to follow. Despite this update, you’ll still see mentions or references linking to people you don’t follow. For example, you’ll continue to see, “Ev meeting with @biz about work stuff” even if you don’t follow @biz. We’ll be introducing better ways to discover and follow interesting accounts as we release more features in this space.”
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hmm, so does that mean we can now only Tweet inside our cage where we can talk to people we know? I think we want to be in a jungle where we can meet all the Twitterers.
Yes, I am shocked that Twitter implemented this function. My guess is that they won’t put it entirely back, but some changes that makes us happier in a few days time. If they reverse the decision, then it’s pretty heroic which gives me a reason to love the Twitter Team more.
Original Image Source
Would love to hear what you think :)
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Thanks to the ReadWriteWeb Team : Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis, Jolie Odell and Phil Glockner.
And also for Marshall Kirkpatrick recommending political commentator Baratunde Thurston, cyborg anthropologist Amber Case or Google’s Kevin Marks
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope this is not a permanent change. I was just beginning to get some apps integrated to my twitter feed to make new contacts.
yeah hope they change it back soon. Not sure what their REAL reason was for doing it. “Confused? That’s understandable and exactly why we made the update.” – um, I’m REALLY not sure what the purpose of that statement was(posted on the Twitter blog).
Clinton Skakun’s last blog post..UX, a real developer’s challenge
I’m sorry that this change has effected you so greatly. I don’t understand exactly how twitter works, and really, I’m only there because you are. I would think the best solution would be to give people the OPTION (read: FREEDOM) to make this choice for themselves. If someone would prefer to have only their own followers read their messages, it should be up to them. People who like having it open to the public at large should have this option as well.
Putting people in cages, creating rules that stifle them is a huge reason why other websites have failed. Terms of service should never mean giving up personal freedoms. Taking away features that no one was complaining about is not a good idea either.
I hope if enough of you complain that they will rethink this change.
Good luck Eric, you know I want you to have whatever you feel you need!
Jeanie
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