Stop - you are doing it all wrong

by Volker Weber

Andrew says that Twitter is mis-used as a chat room - and wants to replace it with a proper chat room. That isn't going to work well, since you need to tell people to stop doing something, and then to start doing something else instead.

Yes, you can set up a chat room. And then you need to set some expectations to what you will be seeing there. And then you wait for people to show up. But what do you do, when they run wild? When it's not used how you intended to? Moderate? Throw out some people?

That is the beauty of Twitter. You listen to the people you want to listen to. You don't set ANY rules. You just ignore what you are not interested in.

It always puzzles me, when people tell me what I must and what I must not write. If you don't like what you see, stop looking. That's how Twitter works. It's not a chat room. It isn't even a room. It just gives you a unified view of interesting stuff.

I am not going to tell you to use Twitter. Find my micro postings in the right side bar. Or on Twitter.

Comments

That's right. And i liked especially your last two urologicals twitterings ;-)

Frank Mueller, 2008-08-13

I think you misunderstood Andrew. Regarding his boulevard-press like title, I can follow your reactions, but the message is different than what you are implying with your title, maybe you should reread.

Jens-B. Augustiny, 2008-08-13

Agreed. Rules make life boring and prevent innovation. Who gets the "authority" to define the rules anyway? (apart from my manager and my wife).

Steve Castledine, 2008-08-13

Jens, I am doing it all wrong. :-)

Volker Weber, 2008-08-13

@Steve I was going to say "wait until your nipper gets old enough to talk" and then I thought mine started re-writing the rules from birth... :-)

Jason Hook, 2008-08-13

Its interesting that some folks want far more structure and regulation in their life - but only when they're the ones setting the rules. These same people seem unwilling and unable to accept regulation from others.

I guess one of the downsides of being in IT is the high number of people willing to tell you what to do, and unwilling to listen to any other viewpoint.

I guess after a while, we just tune them out.

---* Bill

Bill Buchan, 2008-08-14

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