Rachel Nabors ([info]crowhen) wrote,
@ 2009-06-04 22:16:00
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Twittery twitter fun.
I recently indulged in a little long-awaited creative fun times by making a new background for my Twitter account. (If you have a small computer screen, the full version can be found on my Deviant Art.)

I also posted an article about Twitter on my web design blog.

So does anyone here use Twitter? I mainly use it to stalk other designers and close friends. What do you use it for?

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[info]killsmanygopher
2009-06-05 02:58 am UTC (link)
Nice color work!
I use twitter (http://twitter.com/Tallychyck). It began as a feed I imported to my personal website, and I tried to keep it relevant to what I was working on with art and how close I was to updating, but it quickly dissolved into social interaction. :)

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[info]goodkingnerdnor
2009-06-05 03:32 am UTC (link)
I don't use Twitter. I don't honestly see its appeal. As best I can tell, any feature it offers I already have through other mediums.

As best I can tell, it gained popularity due to the massive increase in iPhones and other easy web access phones. I believe it has a better phone format than LJ or most of the other social networking mini-blog sites.

At any rate, its success confuses me.

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[info]crowhen
2009-06-05 03:11 pm UTC (link)
I kinda ragged on Twitter's popularity in my article. Make no mistake, I don't think it's special, just different, and in some cases more convenient.

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-07 05:35 am UTC (link)
I luuuurv posting to LJ with my phone! I just programmed the email address (with PIN already typed in) into my contact list, so sending messages is so easy. It might be my favorite perk of having a paid account, other than having billions of userpics.

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[info]goodkingnerdnor
2009-06-08 12:05 am UTC (link)
There is nothing on this earth that will ever get me to pay money for something I already get for free.

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[info]crowhen
2009-06-08 12:42 am UTC (link)
Amen to that.

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-08 01:17 pm UTC (link)
Eh, I like to support people who make things I like. It would be hypocritical of me to accept donations to my webcomic and never donate to people who develop apps I use daily. And besides, phone posting isn't free. ;)

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[info]goodkingnerdnor
2009-06-08 03:55 pm UTC (link)
Lucky for me, no one donates anything to my subsistence!

Wait, how is that lucky?

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[info]goodkingnerdnor
2009-06-08 04:02 pm UTC (link)
Two other things:

While the "phone posting" feature might cost money, you most certainly *can* post from an internet capable phone for free. You'd just have to navigate to LJ's website via the phone. It might be a bit clunkier of a display in that format, and not as convenient as text posting, but you can do it.

Also, though I don't claim to know your page view numbers and mean no offense, I'd wager LJ gets *way* more page views and, thus, significantly higher payment for the millions of banner ads scouring their free journals now. When the "free" product is heavily subsidized, I feel much less of a duty to donate to the cause.

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-08 05:15 pm UTC (link)
Ah, but "phone posting" in that way wouldn't allow me to immediately dump a photo into my scrapbook via SMS. It would also require either paying per minute for Internet access on my phone or having a really expensive monthly plan that includes Internet access. Far more expensive than the $25 I pay to LJ each year.

If you run a large community, LJ is a steal. Have you heard of Oh No They Didn't? If they were set up on a private website, their hosting fees would cost a fortune.

There's also the issue that a couple of my friends are employed by LiveJournal. That money feeds their kids. ...And LiveJournal wouldn't have started using ads if there weren't so many moochers. The fact is, good things die if they're not supported. Just ask Rachel about Rubifruit.

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[info]goodkingnerdnor
2009-06-08 11:54 pm UTC (link)
"Ah, but "phone posting" in that way wouldn't allow me to immediately dump a photo into my scrapbook via SMS. It would also require either paying per minute for Internet access on my phone or having a really expensive monthly plan that includes Internet access. Far more expensive than the $25 I pay to LJ each year."

...unless of course your phone has a wifi connection built in. My free Samsung phone from T-Mobile allows me internet access at no charge anywhere I can get a wifi signal.

Otherwise, I'll have to agree with you there. I'd also like to point out that I am in no way complaining about the ad support. I was simply stating that with the volume of traffic LJ gets, they likely have a substantial revenue source from the ads that should more than compensate for the minimal bandwidth usage of most members.

I have absolutely no idea what "Oh No They Didn't" is, but I am aware that many user groups would incur high hosting fees (although I get 50gb a month for $80 paid every two years and if they're exceeding 50gb of data transfer from LJ users they may well have enough traffic to actually profit from self hosting and ad support). LJ does some fantastic stuff for many many people, and if I were inclined to use such additional features I might be persuaded to pay $25 a year or buy a permanent account when they are available.

As it is, my needs are more than served by a free account and 6 user icons so I don't see myself shilling out the money and time soon.

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[info]count_01
2009-06-05 03:35 am UTC (link)
I mainly follow political insiders and comic creators like yourself, so I don't have to watch CNN or wait until morning for the comics I like to come up; I just click on the link when Aeire or Jeph or whoever tweets it. And oh yes I am a member of the SOCKS ARMY 1.6106301 FelDAYS STRONG hey look a couch zzzzzzzz.

Edited at 2009-06-05 03:39 am UTC

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[info]joamette
2009-06-05 07:08 am UTC (link)
I only recently joined Twitter. I plan on using it to feed brief updates to my site whenever I don't have time to write all-out blog entries.

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TweetTweet
[info]takaal
2009-06-05 03:27 pm UTC (link)
I use it for random observations when there's not actually anyone else around to tell, or to update people on my knitting/writing process. Or to let folks know that yes, that last post was bad, but they released me from the hospital, I'm fine. That sort of thing.

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[info]takaal
2009-06-05 03:27 pm UTC (link)
Oh, and to dump-tweet into my LJ account, so my friends know I'm alive between ever-less-frequent actual posts.

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-07 05:31 am UTC (link)
I'm too old to tweet. :P

I don't get the appeal of Twitter, either. It seems to be mostly people talking about themselves and not so much to other people, which makes it not-so-social for a social network. It does have some legitimate uses, like when teachers post homework so parents can check up on their kids... but other than that, I'll pass.

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[info]crowhen
2009-06-07 06:21 am UTC (link)
I discuss in my article the difference between Broadcasting and Responding. A lot of people on Twitter do blather about the most uninteresting of things.

And I don't follow them. Or I stop following them.

I only use Twitter to keep in touch with people who funnel interesting information, like links to good articles or resources, or those who interact with me on it on some level.

It's like a big chat room. Some people are just going to hover there, loling all over the damn place until you want to punch them. Other people will actually answer your questions and engage in intelligent conversation. The trick is to just not follow lol-ers.

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-07 04:58 pm UTC (link)
I read your article a few days ago. And I'm still too old to tweet. ;)

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[info]crowhen
2009-06-07 05:34 pm UTC (link)
I was not advocating that you should, merely demonstrating why I do :)

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[info]kimonos_house
2009-06-08 01:19 pm UTC (link)
I know. I was just pointing out that I know that whole "difference between Broadcasting and Responding" thing.

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