Twitter, to join or not to join.

scubadude57

Ever since Twitter started, I've been on the fence about joining or not. The main reason I'd want to join is because it looks interesting, and I'd like to try it out. Another is so I can get to know the real people, not just the handles and usernames. On the other hand, it seems like a lot of twitter is just more celebrity babble, which makes me wonder how good it can really be. Also, it seems that many tweets are things like "at the mall", "eating lunch" and other things like that. If I could get some advice on this it would help a lot.

Metalbourne

It's not really that big of a commitment. Go ahead and join and see if it's "your thing". There are no penalties for early withdrawal.

Kyougu

Like any social media site, your enjoyment will come out of the people who you use it with.

For me, twitter is another way to geek out. I have conversations there and post things I wouldn't in Facebook. Also fun getting to know people behind the avatars.

scubadude57

Thanks, I really needed someone saying I should from a trusted source, I'll definitely be joining.

Slider

I find it incredibly boring and haven't logged back in for months. However, I don't have a myspace or facebook account, either.

Raneados

Slider wrote: »

I find it incredibly boring and haven't logged back in for months. However, I don't have a myspace or facebook account, either.

exactly

if you're all about this sort of thing then you'll dig it

I signed up and used it for like 2 days and then got bored

why would I want another application to tell the world about my day-to-day living

I have the forums for that

Pheezer

It takes less than a minute to join and you can do so without sharing anything about yourself. Just sign up, play with it, and like 95% of its users get bored and forget about it within a week. It's not nearly as big a deal as you're making it.

Pheezer

Oh, if you do want a good laugh though, www.Twitter.com/shitmydadsays is brilliant and my girlfriend really enjoys Mike from mst3k's Twitter feed, though I can't remember what it's called right now.

TychoCelchuuu

Raneados wrote: »

Slider wrote: »

I find it incredibly boring and haven't logged back in for months. However, I don't have a myspace or facebook account, either.

exactly

if you're all about this sort of thing then you'll dig it

I signed up and used it for like 2 days and then got bored

why would I want another application to tell the world about my day-to-day living

I have the forums for that

I use twitter as an information aggregation tool. I don't post anything to it; I just use it to follow interesting or funny people like William Gibson, Warren Ellis, Brent Spiner, and so on.

fightinfilipino

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Raneados wrote: »

Slider wrote: »

I find it incredibly boring and haven't logged back in for months. However, I don't have a myspace or facebook account, either.

exactly

if you're all about this sort of thing then you'll dig it

I signed up and used it for like 2 days and then got bored

why would I want another application to tell the world about my day-to-day living

I have the forums for that

I use twitter as an information aggregation tool. I don't post anything to it; I just use it to follow interesting or funny people like William Gibson, Warren Ellis, Brent Spiner, and so on.

this is pretty much what i do with my Twitter account, too.

you might as well just create an account and poke around, see how you like it. the commitment is very small (pretty much your e-mail address), and Twitter sends out almost no annoying e-mails. in fact, i can't remember seeing any Twitter e-mails at all since i registered.

KarolinaZisel

I have wanted to join Twitter for some time,as have many people, but they ask for my e-mail password, when I applied to join. This is a no-no, for me. I am suspicious of anyone who asks for my password.

Pheezer

KarolinaZisel wrote: »

I have wanted to join Twitter for some time,as have many people, but they ask for my e-mail password, when I applied to join. This is a no-no, for me. I am suspicious of anyone who asks for my password.

Either you suck at reading, you were at some site other than twitter, or you were setting up some kind of third party client I don't even know, but Twitter does not require your email password.

Rainbulimic

I joined Twitter as a joke with my friends, to post lame updates ironically, and now I've just ended up using it (ironically?). Gives me a way to communicate with people who I otherwise don't often talk to because I don't have the time to sit on instant messenger all day.
I also use it to vent when I'm out and about and someone pisses me off! Always nice therapy.

I did follow some celebs, then I realised I didn't actually give a crap about what they were getting up to, so I stopped. Easy.

RUNN1NGMAN

Twitter has become a pretty decent news aggregator. It's pretty easy to follow newspapers, journalists, bloggers, etc. and just use it to check breaking news and behind the scenes stuff that isn't newsworthy enough to actually get reported in a formal way.

Steev

Yeah, I just use twitter to follow a couple of real-life friends and some current and former game journalists. It's not a big deal, but I have found out about certain things before I normally would have.

BoomShake

I use it much the same way SteevL does. I've got a few real-life friends on it, and we use it as a message broadcast type thing when one of us makes a new blog post, or as a tv show reminder, or whatever. Then there's some game journalists and stuff that I keep track of. Many traditional celebrities have terrible streams, but some are interesting and/or hilarious. Like these:
Neil Patrick Harris
Rainn Wilson (plays Dwight on The Office)
Adam Savage (from Mythbusters)
Weird Al Yankovic

But one feed I've recently started following and loving is @BreakingNews. Formerly operated by BNO News, but now owned by MSNBC, it gives frequent breaking news updates from around the world.

scubadude57

Well, I joined and apparently MC Hammer is on Twitter, I had no clue.

Dog

Like many of the above, I use twitter as a glorified RSS feed, following nasa, pft, some prominent sports/film/political people. I like the fact that it's often a side commentary to the articles those people are writing, and helps me keep up on the things that I am actually interested in. I do post every now and then, but honestly I don't really see much of a point anymore.

Evil Multifarious

Pheezer wrote: »

KarolinaZisel wrote: »

I have wanted to join Twitter for some time,as have many people, but they ask for my e-mail password, when I applied to join. This is a no-no, for me. I am suspicious of anyone who asks for my password.

Either you suck at reading, you were at some site other than twitter, or you were setting up some kind of third party client I don't even know, but Twitter does not require your email password.

pretty sure what it was asking for was 1) your email to sign up, and 2) a password for you to create for your twitter account.

scubadude57

Evil Multifarious wrote: »

Pheezer wrote: »

KarolinaZisel wrote: »

I have wanted to join Twitter for some time,as have many people, but they ask for my e-mail password, when I applied to join. This is a no-no, for me. I am suspicious of anyone who asks for my password.

Either you suck at reading, you were at some site other than twitter, or you were setting up some kind of third party client I don't even know, but Twitter does not require your email password.

pretty sure what it was asking for was 1) your email to sign up, and 2) a password for you to create for your twitter account.

Now it asks for your email password as well to check if people in your contacts are on Twitter.

Slider

Raneados wrote: »

Slider wrote: »

I find it incredibly boring and haven't logged back in for months. However, I don't have a myspace or facebook account, either.

exactly

if you're all about this sort of thing then you'll dig it

I signed up and used it for like 2 days and then got bored

why would I want another application to tell the world about my day-to-day living

I have the forums for that

I finally got sick of Ben Stiller ignoring me...

Crashtard

scubadude57 wrote: »

On the other hand, it seems like a lot of twitter is just more celebrity babble, which makes me wonder how good it can really be. Also, it seems that many tweets are things like "at the mall", "eating lunch" and other things like that. If I could get some advice on this it would help a lot.

I joined twitter because lots of funny celebs were on there, and I figured it would be fun to watch. For it it was fun for about 1 day. Then I realized that it was just celebrity babble, and not particularly funny. People just post stupid stuff that amounts to, like you said, eating potatoes, at the mall, etc. The one good thing about it is that you can also follow newegg, tigerdirect and other tech places that, if you're looking for a good deal on something, certainly are worth following.

EskimoDave

I only signed up to protect my username. Fuckers all thinking like me and using my name. I just follow beer related things and look every few days. Found out some interesting things like that Phillips has some of their 08 (!) Burley Wine for sale at their brewery store along with the 09. If I lived in Victoria still I would have been down there in the morning first thing.

Dalboz

Like any internet tool, it depends what you're using it for. I've used it to connect with and follow some other writers. I also use it get news updates on things like @CNNbrk or @disinfo and some companies like @google to be notified of press releases. A few others are fun to follow. Someone mentioned Adam Savage of Mythbusters (@donttrythis). That, and I also use it to increase my web presence since sites like this actually make good marketing tools.

The news ones are good because you can get the headline with a link sent to you and if it looks interesting, you can click through for more info. This makes Tweetdeck a pretty useful tool to have if you're using Twitter.

Jeedan

My twitter friends are basically all news sites, joke accounts, and famous comedians. You dont have to put up with the "eating lunch" shit, if someones not interesting unfollow them.