I love twitter. I like knowing when Cali posts a new GeekBrief. I like Merlin Mann‘s skewered observations. I like seeing what my friend, Holly, is doing in her awesome job as director of Grad Studies at FullSail. I love the “flow” across my screen as much as anyone. I especially like the FireFox plug-in, TwitBin, which adds a Twitter “pane” to my normal FireFox window; very convenient and more consistent that Twitterific.
Anyway, one thing that was bugging me today was when someone posts 5+ posts in a row ’cause they can’t get their point across in Twitter’s 140 character limitation. One consistent violator, the scobleizer, usually threads together 8 to 10 tweets in a row, pushing the other tweeters off my main page. Chris Pirillo often gets close to the unwritten Twitter etiquette, but I know that his posts are probably connected to some Internet broadcast in progress. Anyway, I decided to express my frustration with the Tweet-hogs and was surprised that I got an immediate response from tech obsessive-compulsive Robert Scoble.
Over 6,000 “friends” and he noticed my blip? Kind’a like when Patrick Norton & Robert Heron answered my question on DL.TV, I was amazed and saddened at the response. Basically Scobble’s thing is that “I have a lot to say,” then he suggested that I “unsubscribe” to his feed. I’d already been thinking that, but also thought that occasionally he does point to something interesting. Damn.
But this does point to a problem often commented on by web-critics. Problem is that there are some who lack the self-editting gene that enables them to realize that not all of their shit is golden. Then again, some of us suffer from the opposite malady, not speaking up when we should. I think my mom would say that the problem is that some fall too much in love with the sound of their own voice. She used to say that about me. Ack. So Robert Scoble will go about his merry way doing his play-by-play on every thought popping into his head, confused as to why ValleyWag continues to make fun of him and I will try to discern the gold from the abundance of shit flowing through the tubes. Ain’t life grand. jbb
“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.” Robert Wilensky
BTW, my twitter handle is @jbb
Music: Mac OS Ken: 10.12.2007 from the album “Mac OS Ken” by Ken Ray
I have used twitter off and on over the months and have liked it – but hated having to log on to do so . . . also never really liked twitterific, so after reading your blogpost I grabbed twitbin and really love it . . .
So then the next step was to check out your frustration . . . so I subbed to scroble’s feed and YIKES . . . wondering if the man has a life at all, almost seems any spare time is spent making sure his photo is prominently displayed in my twitbin (brings new meaning to the first part of that made up word . . .)
Other than that, I love it!
– g
So follow-up to my previous post, woke up Sunday morning, beautiful morning, wrote a wistful note about the day and my future with my church band, then saw that Scoble was clogging the ‘Tubes” again with 13 posts in a row. So made a brief “OMG” comment with a link to my blog. His response: “Scobleizer @jbb points out AGAIN that I’m breaking Twitter’s unwriten rules. A friend of mine has an answer for this: he blocks anyone who complains.” twitbin, indeed.
Love twitbin, could do with a bit less of one particular twit (and it’s not leo laporte!). jbb