After resisting for a long time, I signed up for a Twitter account in January so I could more easily follow the feeds of friends like Dan Fienberg and Rick Porter. I Tweeted on occasion, but so rarely that I would feel embarrassed when I got an e-mail telling me I had a new follower. Being stuck indoors the last couple of days has prompted me to give it more of a try. I'm never going to be as comfortable with the format as I am writing at greater length, but so far it's proving to be useful for things like explaining why I'm not watching "Eastbound & Down" anymore, or briefly mentioning the Rob Thomas sitcom "Party Down," which I watched this weekend in advance of its premiere later this month. I can't promise how frequently that I'm going to Tweet, or how entertaining it's going to be (half my Tweets of the last day just link back to here), but if you want to follow me, my feed's at the easy-to-remember URL of http://twitter.com/sepinwall
I find Twitter is one of those things wherein you discover more and more reasons for using it as you go along. Either way, looking forward to what other contributions happen to emerge over the coming days.
ReplyDelete(Sidenote: any other readers out there using Twitter? I figured if we're having a discussion about the site, this sounds like a great place to find some new people of the TV persuasion to follow/converse with. Mine's at Twitter.com/Memles.)
I'm with Myles on this one. I was a huge Twitter skeptic before Mo Ryan convinced me to sign on. ("Why would I want cryptic little messages about the boring minutiae of people's lives?," I wondered.) But it turns out to be a compact, pithy form of expression and information, and a fun way to interact with my friends, colleagues, and readers in close to real time. Hope you become an addict, too, Alan.
ReplyDelete(And my feed: http://twitter.com/scott_tobias)
Even if you're mostly attaching links, it's certainly convenient for those of us who check Twitter from Blackberrys, etc., more often than we can check the blog, to know when you put up new reviews of our favorite shows. So I encourage you to keep it up - thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnother twitter-er here. Just to add that yes, twitter seems to become more and more useful the more you use it, and if anyone is interested in the witterings of a brit, i'm at twitter.com/ursamal
ReplyDeleteI will check out twitter more than I have because of the comments here... But -- is that a Don Draper back of the head shot up there?
ReplyDeleteis that a Don Draper back of the head shot up there?
ReplyDeleteYup.
Honestly, why do people use this thing? What is the point of <140 character posts when one either has friends or has a blog? You work so well in long-form posts, Alan, I don't understand why you'd succumb to this frankly bizarre trend. If it's to let people know you have a new blog post, there's an RSS Feed for that.
ReplyDeleteOn a non-Twitter note: I'm sticking with Eastbound & Down for one more. Last night's was rough going, but I guess I'm curious to see where they want to leave Kenny Powers at the end of six episodes. I'm perfectly fine with following the man on a downward trajectory. My greatest fear from last night was the inkling of hope regarding April. That needs to be shut down quickly.
ReplyDeleteI signed up for twitter to follow something... never used it unless there was an earthquake smewhere.
ReplyDeleteOne day my duck wshe as walking around the and to room twittering as always does (Muscovies don't quack) and I just couldn't resist. So, myles and anyone - on the offchance I do check my twitter
and to Alan, if you have to approve folks, well, the picture is the same.
Since I've only recently gotten into Facebook (I really like it, though) I haven't quite found a use for Twitter. My bother's ex-roomie uses something called ping.fm to update his facebook and Twitter at the same time. I have Digsby (he told me just don't say yes to every chckbox and you won't get ads) it is am IM client and it checks your mail, Facebook and Twitter feeds(that you are following).
It's incredibly distracting. And I really need to replace some of its default sounds as I did when I used Trillian (I replaced them with sounds from AIM folder. Beats trying to figure out the meaning of new sounds)
Myles, I am, sadly, of the TV persuasion, but lately Alan seems persuaded of many different things from me. Perhaps I'll peek in.
We'll see if I have the guts to stick to the (what is that word) that it's really Snugles' account and I'm just mummy (hey, give me a break - she's the first pet in mumble mumble years that I haven't been allergic to, so basically, she's my first pet. and she does twitter)
conceit (that was the word I couldn't remember, and speaking of which, I must get thru those Boston Legal eps)
ReplyDeleteoh great. you broke Twitter.
ReplyDeleteSomething is technically wrong.
Thanks for noticing—we're going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.
"Honestly, why do people use this thing? What is the point of <140 character posts when one either has friends or has a blog? You work so well in long-form posts, Alan, I don't understand why you'd succumb to this frankly bizarre trend."
ReplyDeletePeople use Twitter for completely different reasons than full-length blog posts. Few people are going to put up a blog post because they have one interesting sentence to share. Your Twitter page becomes a list of very short statements from people you choose to hear from. If that's not up your alley, you should pass, but Twitter updates have nothing to do with duplicating blog posts or (not this again) whether or not you have friends.
I love Twitter, but need to take better advantage of the conversation opportunities with like-minded folk. Anyone want to follow me? @davesandell
ReplyDeleteAlan you may find Twitter Feed useful.
ReplyDeleteIt basically pushes your blog's rss feed to twitter. Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle is a good example. @dsilverman
Also, for people that don't "get" twitter or facebook. There is a good article on the NY Times.
Mo Ryan, Twitter pusher here.
ReplyDeleteOne great thing about Twitter, as Alan seems to have already found -- it's a great outlet for stories that don't merit a full blog post.
If I see that someone has written a good article/post on something of interest, I can alert the people following me on Twitter about that article. It's like a blog pressure release valve. Am I going to make each of those links the subject of a blog post? No. But I'm glad to have a tool to point people to those worthy pieces.
Also, clearly everyone is fascinated by what I eat for lunch. Duh.
No really, I like it a lot. Any service where I can get pictures of Neil Gaiman cavorting in his backyard with his dog and Jonathan Coulton -- with commentary on same from John Hodgman -- is just fun. Makes for a fun break after I finish a deadline.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it, Alan.
isnt a blog post just the thing for things that you think actually don't deserve a blog post??
ReplyDeletewhos to say a blog post cant be 15 words? isnt that the point?
twitter is beyond pointless
I love Twitter. And I'm here to tell you that Mo Ryan almost never tells us what she's had for lunch. And I, for one, would like to know.
ReplyDeleteHa! Love your twitter avi, Alan. Just started using it a couple weeks ago, and I use it more than Facebook, Myspace, blogspot, and the others.
ReplyDeleteI tweet at www.twitter.com/soleilani
Of course, I'm not a professional writer, mine's just drivel, but I do retweet interesting articles I come across.
Have always found twitter a waste of time and still do. The RSS feed will do for me
ReplyDeleteOh, dammit, I just joined Facebook and now y'all are twittering instead? FRAK!
ReplyDeleteHa. I'm sure what Alan has for lunch is far more interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I don't do blog posts for things that only merit 15 words. Typepad is too slow and wonky to make that anything but annoying. And typically what I'm tweeting is links to other pieces or to my own pieces. Twitter serves a somewhat different function than my site does.
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ReplyDeleteI'm a brand new Twitter-er, too (http://twitter.com/ginadardis), and I'm not sure of how well a "fit" it will be for me. I have a blog, so I tweet my recaps, but I also use Facebook a LOT. I'm just not convinced I can keep up with all of them!
ReplyDeleteI am happy for this post, though - now I have a whole bunch of new people I can follow :)
Twitter, Facebook, LinkdIn, etc.... it's not for everyone. I think of them all as another way to pass time during the day!
ReplyDeletetwitter.com/bettyb00p00