Friday, August 7, 2009
the one:forty - @WhomItMayConcern (ep2)
Many folks were up in arms (or thumbs or fingers) due to the recent Twitter crash...one day we'll tell our grandkids about the great Twitter crash in the summer of 2009. But this episode is not about the unreliable nature of Twitter. No, we have bigger, more foundational, problems.
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Te entire time (1:40) I was looking @ that hat. I wonder what hat you'll wear next time.
ReplyDeleteThe hat is now part of the show...it should get credi at the end.
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong, but I believe the adoption of "@" to signify a screenname was due to that convention being used by actual users. (For example, the hash tag, #, as a way to tag a topic was a user-created meme that caught on so well, Twitter "officially" adopted it in its trending topics section.) In the beginning (and you'd have to verify this with biz or ev), there was chaos. Users needed a way to "tag" who they were talking to. Thus, "@reply" was born. Incidentally, I believe this is a carryover from forum user, where posters would often reference a previous post by begging with "@[the above poster]". At any rate, the convention was not created by Twitter, although it's clear that it has been brought to the masses by Twitter... Just some additional thoughts to think about.
ReplyDeleteThat should be "forum use," not "user". And "beginning with", not "begging with".
ReplyDeleteDammit, don't make me think. Ok, I can accept that the trend was user generated, but that does not make it right. If all the users (at least the English speaking users) in the world started using irregardless, it still wouldn't make irregardless a real word. Even if a company started creating a platform around the term, it would not make it right. Twitter needs to take the high road and break the cycle.
ReplyDeletetravis,
ReplyDeletei don't mind the use of the @ within twitter, but refuse to use it in other online discussions, which is creeping in .
it annoys me in online forums because you can easily address people without it, as i have done to start this comment.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteBut Twitter is making the @ seem more acceptable in other areas. It's a slippery slope. Next think you know we are going to move away from capitalization...oh the humanity.
TAS
Even if a company started creating a platform around the term, it would not make it right.
ReplyDelete___________________
Julie
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