The Twitter Experience

Finally getting around to write about my Twitter experience!

But why did I turn to twitter ITFP(in the first place, duh!)?
I was getting sloppy with blogging inspite of the heck of an audience that I get everyday ;) And facebook I found to be heavyweight. Heavyweight? I don't know where to start but here are my grouses with facebook in no particular order:

• It takes a heck of a long time to open.
• Finally, it's a bunch of people updating some statuses and people commenting on it.
• There are some nasty people putting nasty comments viewable to whoever is your friend which you cannot delete!
  
• No quick way to see what people are upto. Like, with the help of some clients.
• I know you can write about yourself only as much you like others to know. But facebook is just intrusive in it's format. If you say tyoo little about yourself you are a voyeur and if you tell too much about yourself you have privacy issues. There is no winning.

Overall, it has never appealed to me. Then there is the IM. But IM is hardly ever used these days except for chatting where calling is not an option. AND its soo gay if you chat too much with your best same-sex buddy ;)
In comes Twitter with a lot of buzz attached to it. And I think what the heck lemme give it a try.

At first Twitter comes through as utterly unfriendly. It's, like, saying I am the one who's popular you will have to f*$king search and know more about me, how to use it, etc. It's lack of newbie help is just too stand-offish. It must be something wrong with me to not try and get to know it better and give up on it, is its message.But having stuck to it I find it better than the other alternatives in the following ways:

• It is lightweight. No lengthy bio-data to fill-up. Heck it's based on the max SMS length of 140 chars so it's gotta be pithy.
  
• It's based on a very simple format. 1. Broadcast a msg to your followers. 2. Your followers can reply just to you. 3. World can see your broadcasts but cannot send msg to you. 4. You can direct message one follower for privacy's sake too. 5. The best part nobody gets to see what others are writing to you.
  
• There are n-number of clients for it. Also, plugins with IM clients.
• I have a few people I no longer IMed much, on my follower's list now and we catch up quite often. This is the most important reason why you need twitter. Because IM is history and this is the most unobtrusive way to catch up with people who you used to IM before.
  
• The other appeal of twitter is the Mobile way to update your followers while on the move. Which I haven't tried but it's there. Phew! what if I get stuck on an island with only SMS & MMS working then I can update my followers with the sexy scenes of the exotic island that they are missing :) Or heck, a quick twitpic update of the dripping gorgeous air-hostess right from the esconce of your seat :) The possibilities are mind-numbing.

Anyyways, here are some lessons to the newbies while am at it:

• Be careful about what you broadcast as it is open to public viewing.
• Be careful about what you reply to followers with @username too. Though it is going only to specific person it is still viewable in your public timeline.
• The only way you can be sure of privacy is when you direct message someone.
• Do not reply to someone in a broadcast way as it clutters the timeline of all your followers.
• Also do not post helluva lot of broadcasts in a day. Again the same problem. I have personally unsubscribed people who did that.
• You don't have to think much before unsubscribing anyone. It's least unobtrusive. I keep getting random followers and I even don't come to know when they've unfollowed me. Also, you are not obliged to follow someone just because they are following you.
• The best way to use twitter is with a client. It makes replying, keeping to 140 chars limit and shortening lengthy urls a cakewalk. I use TweetDeck. Also, it instantly updates me with an alert of any update I got from someone I follow.
  

Last but not the least, twitter has MANY java APIs which I plan to use to make a java app for my mobile, one of these days. And finally the last thing my twitter id: http://twitter.com/gparmar :)