If by "cornerstone" you mean "annoying thing that people do" then yes. Begging for retweets is the twitter equivalent of the chain letter. The only reason the pleas don't have "forward this to ten people or you'll catch airborne herpes" is because that won't fit in 140 characters. If it's good stuff, people will pass it on. You don't need to beg.
morb01
· 5 months ago
funny as hell I might just have to RT that
ElbertF
· 9 months ago
Great idea. Funny how this got launched shortly after I launched http://plzRT.me which does pretty much the same thing. What is it they say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"?
Robert Drugal
· 9 months ago
Holy crap. I just tried it - this is so simple.
I'm a little scared this is too easy for the scobles of the world - we'll be getting these all over the place now.
I use Tweetree that, unlike the genuine Twitter website, allows retwitt(er?)ing. This said I don't see the point of using yet another website for only this purpose; like someone already commented here it looks like the perfect tool for chain letter, enough noise on Twitter already.
ReTweet
· 9 months ago
I like it.... but I don't like giving out passwords to third party sites
Zackatoustra
· 9 months ago
I've tried retweeting this post As you said, Ben, there are pros and cons: Pros: 1.the RT is pretty : "Ben Parr just wrote this". That is cool. Cons: 1.The functionnality should be integrated into the twitter clients. I, for instance, rarely use the twitter website. I don't know what are the stats about twitter clients usage, but, 2.You need to provide you twitter password: ok, that will probably be fixed by integrating some sort of paired authentication between the two applications 3. That makes "chain retweeting" easy. We don't have this plegue on twitter. Really, do we want to give not-smart-twitter-users the power of recreating this on twitter?
Hum. Not sure I'll use this service. Sorry. (Ok, I'll give it a try, though)
zohaibusman
· 9 months ago
so the science of retweet is very simple now
richrecruiter
· 9 months ago
Great, another way for me to easily recognize retweets and ignore them.
harold
· 9 months ago
I just tried it out. The link works as explained and is dead simple.
Additionally, if you are already logged in to twitter( in your browser) it's even a much nicer experience.
netlatch
· 9 months ago
I would like to mention that Krumlr ( http://krumlr.com ) already does something like this. When you click on a link that a Krumlr user posts to Twitter, anyone can RT the page using the small header opened at the top of the window. A shortened retweetable URL is created and the original tweets username and comment are populated in the input box. You don't have to be a Krumlr member to do this either. Simply input your Twitter username and password and click retweet. (Krumlr doesn't save this info). Krumlr makes its easy for its users to post tweets about any page in this retweetable fashion with an easy to use toolbar link.
netlatch
· 9 months ago
As a follow up here is the link to this post I just tweeted to Twittter using Krumlr. http://krumlr.com/3c3bxg
Fulvio Minichini
· 9 months ago
Two links in a 140 characters message are annoying and most of all. This service would be great as an extension of some real-time social bookmarking service connected to Twitter, like Twitturly, Buzzable, MicroPlaza etc...
Anyway very useful job Tnx
GrowMap
· 9 months ago
The Tweet I originally received from @BenParr had two links in it and neither one worked. Perhaps they're still working out the bugs. I know some hate RT, but I see retweeting the best Tweets of others as a service to both those who shared them and those who benefit from seeing them. Since research shows that the average Tweet only lasts five minutes at Twitter and seeing duplicates is pretty unlikely I don't understand why some dislike them so much.
Haven't you ever seen a RT that you WERE interested in or that led to quality content that benefits you?
Felicia
· 9 months ago
I see Mashable is using this now and I don't know why, but I find it incredibly irritating. It's one step up from spam, or at least feels like it. I dunno. maybe other people love it.
Just my opinion.
Ben Parr
· 9 months ago
Felicia, we like to try out everything. But your opinion is duly noted.
I think the last time I saw you was...the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. That was back when I first started for Mashable. So, what's up in 140 characters or less?
mashable
· 9 months ago
Felicia,
We're not really using it...we tried something similar ("quick RT" links) on a few tweets the last few days, but I'm not a huge fan. Might use it very selectively going forward, but generally people seem to retweet on their own if they find something interesting.
James Pyles
· 9 months ago
Except that when I click in the username and password fields, I can't enter my information. The text "username" and "password" is static. No work on Firefox 2.0 on Ubuntu 7.10?
menuiserie lannion
· 8 months ago
Same problem, I don't really want to use my passwords on another website.
Lea
· 7 months ago
I enjoy TweetDeck, which not only makes it possible to RT tweets in real time, but I'm also able to see all friends tweets, replies to me and my direct messages in real time. Your Twitter ID and Pass is required with TweetDeck too, but I haven't encountered any problems from that and many people use this app.
vcao
· 6 months ago
Hello, I am newbie here, This is a nice website Welcome to my website: http://www.asf-converter.net Thank you very much.
Kathy
· 2 months ago
It's nice knowing that are so many options that exist to make social networking easier...especially when you learn them BEFORE you really need them. Thanks for sharing!
All Comments
I'm a little scared this is too easy for the scobles of the world - we'll be getting these all over the place now.
As you said, Ben, there are pros and cons:
Pros:
1.the RT is pretty : "Ben Parr just wrote this". That is cool.
Cons:
1.The functionnality should be integrated into the twitter clients.
I, for instance, rarely use the twitter website. I don't know what are the stats about twitter clients usage, but,
2.You need to provide you twitter password: ok, that will probably be fixed by integrating some sort of paired authentication between the two applications
3. That makes "chain retweeting" easy. We don't have this plegue on twitter. Really, do we want to give not-smart-twitter-users the power of recreating this on twitter?
Hum.
Not sure I'll use this service.
Sorry.
(Ok, I'll give it a try, though)
Additionally, if you are already logged in to twitter( in your browser) it's even a much nicer experience.
Anyway very useful job
Tnx
Haven't you ever seen a RT that you WERE interested in or that led to quality content that benefits you?
Just my opinion.
I think the last time I saw you was...the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. That was back when I first started for Mashable. So, what's up in 140 characters or less?
We're not really using it...we tried something similar ("quick RT" links) on a few tweets the last few days, but I'm not a huge fan. Might use it very selectively going forward, but generally people seem to retweet on their own if they find something interesting.
http://www.asf-converter.net
Thank you very much.