DISQUS

skgirl · 3 months ago

We must be able to add comments or this is all just a fail!

Jon Lim · 3 months ago

The comments were what I liked about RTs, definitely support your comment.

Andrys · 3 months ago

Right, and let us add them in the front so those following our alerts can see why we want them to see the retweeted item.

Paul in London · 3 months ago

a retweet API that doesn't account for comments is broken in and of itself

ilishe · 3 months ago

Who retweeted is more important to me than who tweeted to begin with. The original tweeter and other retweeters should be in small print, not my tweet that's retweeting. Also, best part of RT is the 2cents added, it turns it from a vague retweet, to a valuable retweet. The 2cents are the "why" of the retweet. To me all that's broken is the excessive @ness to weed through, and the space out of the 140 characters the retweeter loses in having to include "RT @ ". 140 is perfect.

Jennifer Van Grove · 3 months ago

I totally agree with your first sentence. The identity of the RTer is tantamount to me.

Montserrat · 3 months ago

I'd like to retain the ability to comment - add my own two cents when I retweet too. A danger in retweets I noticed when spammers RT my tweets is that they can add URLs and text to my original tweet to make it seem to be my words (same with non-spammers). So presently, because we can make changes, there's the possibility of confusion and misrepresentation.

Gabe · 3 months ago

I agree with skgirl, if I can't add additional commentary to the original message that eliminates at least 50% of the reason I retweet messages in the first place. Sometimes adding a personalized message to a not so thought worthy original tweet is what makes it retweet worthy in the first place.

darlanne · 3 months ago

I agree with Gabe (and skgirl), many RTs would be boring without the added commentary. Often times retweets are used to comment back to a person's original tweet and now I'm not sure how that will look. We'll have to RT their way and then tweet again, our reply. I'm not at all sure what I think of this yet. I'm all for simplifying if that's their reason but to me this new type of RT seems like it will take away from the individuality of the person doing the retweeting. If retweeting a news story or link that's fine, but that's not the only purpose of RTs on Twitter.

Instead I wish they'd work on threaded conversations.

kegill · 3 months ago

+1

chrisdavid42 · 3 months ago

what about users who sort their tweets by sender? How will this affect groups in different twitter clients?

kegill · 3 months ago

Very good point, ChrisDavid42. Related to ilishe's point that the person who RTs is important to most folks, not the original author.

codex24 · 3 months ago

The ReTweet API function descriptions leave a lot of gray area but there are things to like and not:
Like: Twitter manages the chain of retweeters, not the user; and the names, the '@', and the 'r' or 'RT' tag don't take up valuable space from the all-mighty 140 char message length limit.
Like: Inclusion of the original tweet verbatim, and presented as a stand-alone tweet, not buried as an in-line quotation inside another. This may help slow down tweet-plagiarism (uncredited retweets).
Like: Presentation of the retweet as a full tweet from another user not in the follower/followed relationship. This facilitates discovery of new followees.

Dislike: First-class citation of the retweet appears (at least in the mock-up shown) to diminish the appearance of contribution by the re-tweeter, even disregarding the value-added comment issue.
Dislike: Clearly, the implementation will have to include a means of adding comments, as simply pointing to another user's verbatim content has little value add for the retweeter's audience. I would prefer to see this implemented as another case of linkage between tweets, so the retweet can actually be a whole, first-class tweet unto itself, and be associated to the original tweet.

Don Richardson · 3 months ago

Even if the new system ignores my comments which add needed info to many posts, so many more retweets or via's strongly benefit from my rewrites to improve vague or misleading original language.

Jeremy Rutz · 3 months ago

I like this - it saves characters by not having to add RT @username, especially when that username is looooong.

John · 3 months ago

they'd be smart to build in the ability to add in your own commentary, and here's why: if users aren't able to, they'll simply revert (RV?) to the old school manual copy/paste RT method.

richrecruiter · 3 months ago

Let's hope it's an end to the retweet spam as we know it. Maybe it will force serial retweeters to add something original instead of contributing to the echo chamber. I'm sick of seeing RT in front of every other tweet.

Gus · 3 months ago

One step closer to a "Like" button.

JorgeMartinez · 3 months ago

I was thinking the same thing Gus. Personally, I always thought Facebook handled this in a much more elegant manner.

Shitij Nigam · 3 months ago

Couldn't agree more. Next up, Tweeted comments? Threaded conversations?

lagspike · 3 months ago

there's a 'conversation' thing in twitter search

Lawrence Wang · 3 months ago

Sure. It makes sense. With the new homepage, Twitter's repositioning itself as the place to go to find out about important news & trends. So they're formalizing the RT convention to use it in a voting algorithm. The more something gets RT'ed, the more "important" it must be.

laurie · 3 months ago

This reminds me of something Facebook would do -- like the Like button. I enjoy Twitter analysis before or after a RT -- also, how does this affect when someone basically retweets but then puts "via @whoever" after the message? I think a lot of us might paraphrase tweets and add via to keep the same flavor RTs have now.

Brian · 3 months ago

Paving the cowpaths.

Heather Henderson · 3 months ago

I don't think I like this. What originally attracted me to Twitter was its simplicity in comparison to other sites like Facebook. They're making things more complicated than they need to be. RTs are fine the way they are.

Shannon Whitley · 3 months ago

+1

naelshawwa · 3 months ago

+2

kegill · 3 months ago

+3

Cullen Henshaw · 3 months ago

"They're making things more complicated than they need to be. RTs are fine the way they are."

With respect, but the new RT will be 1) Hover over Tweet. 2) Click "Retweet". 3) Confirm. Compare that to the original (and current) way of RTing 1) Copy Tweet. 2) Type "RT @username" Paste Tweet.

Let's face it if Twitter had built this new system from the start and then suggested removing it and replacing it with the current way of doing things the resulting mashable article would have way more comments than this one and all of them would be negative.

kegill · 3 months ago

Hi, Cullen, you've just described how I RT with TweetDeck. I don't use the web interface, so I don't have to copy-and-paste. Implementing a "click to RT" feature on the web interface is separate from the other (more complex) portions of this announcement. I'm pretty sure no one is complaining about having a "one click" RT from the web.

Diane Brooks · 3 months ago

Great job of explaining a concept that can be a bit confusing. I am excited by the new possibilities! Thanks.

Kayla · 3 months ago

I'm not a fan of this. At all. I'll probably just do it the hard way. Type RT @whatever and copy and paste it. In your face, Twitter!!!

Jen · 3 months ago

I may be missing something, but I think I've read the last few posts correctly.. we still don't know how it functions when you click "retweet" other than the "are you sure?" Maybe it will behave like "share on twitter" links work elsewhere on the web. It throws the text into the field, completely editable for you to add in extra comments etc.. Forgive me if I'm in another world and completely missed something.

Lee · 3 months ago

keep it simple, ain't broke, leave it alone. also, it's important that we can see instantly and obviously in the tweet who tweeted the RT. this is a large part of twitter networking. i don't want to have to stop and look at that light grey tiny print when i'm scanning down a hundred tweets. fast and simple is what makes twitter great.

traeblain · 3 months ago

I liken the Retweet API to the FWD button in email. It sounds good and seems like it will serve a good purpose but most people (outside of business) completely ignore a majority of their FWDs. By not having true adoption it requires additional thought for people to retweet, therefore making them a bit more worth listening to. The smart people and Twitter power users have the ease already in their clients, but due to the way it shows up know not to retweet just for the sake of retweeting. The new setup makes it too easy to simply hit the button whether it's worthwhile or not.

I'm not excited about this change but I think it's a step in the right direction.

philmiller · 3 months ago

sometimes adding the RT @******* took up too much space and would not allow for the entire tweet to go through. That is one thing I like. But I also would like to add something to the tweet if necessary.

@_cce_ · 3 months ago

My one concern is this: Part of what I love about Twitter is that it allows me, essentially, to control my own content by allowing me to choose my followers. Most of the people I follow and that follow me have the same interests as I, so there is no problem there – kudos, Twitter’s setup – but that’s not true of ‘everyone’ I follow nor, I’m sure, of everyone my followers follow. I’m a little nervous that, one day, I’ll log in to find some disturbing image or unabridged tweet staring back at me from my time line. In particular, it’s the pictures that concern me – there’s some raunchy stuff out there and frankly, I don’t want to look at it.

Overall though, I’m glad to see Twitter embracing the RT. I do wonder though, how this will affect the @ search on the home page… will RTs even show up there after the change? Hmm…

Andrys · 3 months ago

If someone you've chosen to follow would re-tweet a "disturbing image" or "raunchy stuff" then it's probably time to reconsider following that person when you're bothered by those things. You wouldn't be seeing those on your home stream except for the person you'd already chosen...

Lou Stejskal · 3 months ago

first benefit that comes to mind is allowing more characters for the tweet itself.

Lou Stejskal · 3 months ago

First benefit that comes to mind is allowing more room to comment in the 140 charcter box.

Jeff Brown · 3 months ago

Why are @ev and @biz intent on fixing what isn't broken?

@zkinslow · 3 months ago

I think some organization is definitely in order.

I mean, Twitter users have created their own rules since the beginning, and it just caught on and spread virally. We adapt very easily to change. I think we'll manage.

Plus, if people are bothered by having the tweet originator's name displayed rather than theirs, they'll probably just stop adding the retweet aspect altogether and avoid attributing a source to the tweet. Many people do this already, acting as if they wrote the article that they're linking to, when there is usually an @author to give credit to.

Oh well. People hated the "New Facebook," too. And look what Facebook did. They kept it. Just because people fear change, doesn't mean a company has to bow down to them. It's important to listen to your audience, but I'm sure whatever Twitter has planned for these new APIs is most likely a good idea. Hell, they've done pretty well so far. I trust their judgment.

@zkinslow · 3 months ago

by the way.. I'm gonna retweet this article, the old-fashioned way, while I still can!

Nancy Heltman · 3 months ago

One other benefit is you get the extra characters that a RT takes back. So it may be less challenging to shrink those longer tweets. Hey, if we don't like it, we could always start a RT with a different character and trick Twitter like come folks have been doing with replies (starting with a .) to undo the damage the last time Twitter changed the way we relate to each other.

Keith Morris · 3 months ago

I bet much of this design has been driven by a desire for scalability improvements. Retweets make up a pretty significant portion of content on Twitter. If they can reduce those down to mere references to the original tweets, I'm sure that is quite a bit more scalable than duplicating all of the content.

Kellie · 3 months ago

RT Lee @ 6:41pm: "keep it simple, ain't broke, leave it alone"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

abilitydesigns · 3 months ago

What happens when there are HUNDREDS of RT's to a tweet?

Andrys · 3 months ago

Pull down menu, probably

GeoArm · 3 months ago

Necessary Improvement, but i do agree that they need to somehow save the original forwarded email with a comment aspect.

Kirsten · 3 months ago

Don't change the retweets.... i see absolutely no reason. They work just fine for me.

RENE' WOOD · 3 months ago

I like the formalized retweet u r working on but, u need 2 find a way 2 allow for our comments. We use comments occassionally to explain relevance/import of retweet or to give our opinion of the info and we also post answers to questions asked in the form of reteets. We need this option to maintain the high quality of retweeting. Thanx 4 ur consideration.

codex24 · 3 months ago

u nd to lrn to spell when not usg twtr!

Gautam Ghosh · 3 months ago

very interesting - and I'd like the ability to add my own comments to retweets - I think that's singularly important. But yes, I like the ability to make a retweet much less cluttered!

wbw_Jeff · 3 months ago

I'm sure that they will allow for the ReTweeter to add their 2c; they aren't stupid. Facebook/FriendFeed are already way ahead in terms of hosting conversations; Twitter knows that they need to catch up and they would be foolish to make such change and merely have users parrot back what they've heard and not be able to add to the conversation.

ClayFranklin · 3 months ago

I like the idea of twitter evolving and providing new functionality. The ability to add comments to retweets is nice and will probably be added later. I usually do not find a need to comment on retweets but who wants things that we have taken away? Has twitter replaced email? I like it better and use it in place of email whenever possible.

Crystal Meadors · 3 months ago

Things are just fine the way they are. I see no need to change things around. I now you've heard if it's not broken then don't fix it, or in other words leave it alone!

extraterrestric · 3 months ago

Thanks to Jennifer Van Grove for that post. Good job.

I like to use the following method. #my comment# #your comment# #url# via OR by @yourUsername
And if I got you right, theres no problem expected, cause I work with copy & paste. There was no retweet button on twitter until now. Means, I didn't miss such a button and I won't use it in case the Project Retweet evolution of the bird we love so much brings up the disadvantages Jennifer wrote of.

Bujio · 3 months ago

I do NOT want the new Retweet format. :(

themashazine · 3 months ago

makes sense. RTing now is sometimes quite painful

ruby pond · 3 months ago

I think the new benefits from this approach are great, but not at the expense of the features your mention (adding commentary and losing clear visibility on who retweeted).

geezi · 3 months ago

What happens to the comments I add before retweeting something? Sometimes its only relevant to my followers with that comment attached..!

Jojanneke v.d. Bosch · 3 months ago

Hi,

Good covering on this issue. I'm curious about the length of the retweets. Sometimes I
have to shorten someone's sentence in order to write 'RT @username' (and maybe a short
conment) in my retweet. This has to fit in 140 characters. I always shorten it in a
respectful way (for example changing 'one' into '1' or changing 'indeed' into 'idd').
Will the integrated RT service shorten the original writer's tweet in a less respectful
way (i.e. just chopping text off after the 140th characters)? Those services that allow
you to use 140+ characters are not so, well, populair with me and my tweeps.

Thanks! :-)
Regards,

@jojanneke

josephgelb · 3 months ago

I like where Twitter is going with this.

anatoly · 3 months ago

I implemented and launched the exact same idea exactly 1 month ago (see retweet/reply screenshot):

http://blogs.x2line.com/al/archive/2009/07/12/3...

on my twitter client (fosimo.tr).

colinfitz · 3 months ago

The best thing Twitter could do is create a Favorite Followers filter in the sidebar. I have about 1500 followers but I really only want to timeline 1% of my followers. I'm in the process of unfollowing all but my favorite 1%. Also I retweet to add a comment- without that what good is it except for the lame attempt to get more followers and Google juice?

kegill · 3 months ago

This is fairly easy to do with TweetDeck groups.

Stephen Robinson · 3 months ago

Don't like it, can't add comments like you said. I won't use it if it becomes this,I'll still use RT:

annaomgz · 3 months ago

Because "copy/paste" is SOOO 2008. Just keep it the way it is. If twitter on the Web changes, will that mess with everyone's phone apps as well?

siamshopmarket · 3 months ago

+4

miataylor · 3 months ago

Interested to see how this all pans out!

Alexander Bickov · 3 months ago

Great post

Cari Yuvan · 3 months ago

It might just be my lack of coffee, but none of this makes a whole lot of sense to me. I can see where they would want to try to streamline things, and somehow make it all look more professional, but it just seems a little unnecessary.

So instead of 'Yourname' RT @Someone (possibly RT@SomeoneElse) [Tweet], there's just going to be 'Someone' [Tweet] and then a list of everyone that's retweeted the message under it? (I think I'm barely making sense myself). Putting aside for the moment that my example might be confusing, what's MORE confusing is that when the RT shows up, it's going to look like it came from someone else other than me; I mean, my userpic will still show, but someone else's username will be there?

And if people stick to typing RT @Someone, will it automatically convert it into the new format, or are they just going to let it alone?

I think it's time for some caffeine, yes? Either way, I'm going to miss you @ sign. D:

SimoneIcough · 3 months ago

With the new RT system, what if say 10 people RT that particular tweet but the tweet itself was already at 135 characters? Will some names be missed?