Twitter’s recent change to their @Replies system has caused some controversy. TechCrunch puts it well
Gee, thanks Twitter. I didn’t realize that an option I manually activated was undesirable. Any other things I shouldn’t like that you’d like to make me aware of?
What they have effectively done is removed the feature that allowed people to opt-in to all replies, regardless of if you are following all the parties in a conversation.
The problem is this is one of the ways I have found people to follow.
If you @reply someone I don’t know then I am going to check them out if your conversation looks interesting. I’m sure many folks do the same thing. It’s kind of like listening in to a conversation at a cocktail party, that is how you know when it is time to switch groups and follow the trail to where the good chats are taking place.
Now I am sure Twitter folks think they are doing the right thing, but it is strange they are removing features that harm nothing rather than improve the service?
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That’s annoying. I, too, found new people to follow that way. Does this affect searches as well? Are we now unable to see searches for keywords where anyone has used an @ reply in them? If so, what’s the point of taking it off messages if you can still find them that way? If not, there goes the much-touted great effectiveness for organizations to respond when they see a problem.
I guess it’s time to start looking for the next twitter.
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I agree, that’s a bit of a bummer.
Has Twitter taken a page out of Facebook’s update gamebook? ;)
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Chris I agree some of the best resources have found has been by contacting people with the @chrisgarrett. It has given me the opportunity to make a connection to you, introduce myself added to your discussion, offer a comment, advice, or even ask you for help if so needed. It they decide to remove that option for good @bethrosen then that opens the door for up and coming micro bloggings upstart to jump in and offer that valuable feature. Most of the people whom I have found and connected with the @ have turned out to be very helpful, resourceful, and I have developed partnerships with some of them…thanks for your great post…Beth