An unfortunate product decision ... A good product manager should have really fought this battle for users ... Sounds like it's going to be released before being truly ready to create a solid user experience. This will simply add to newbie confusion with two formats existing side by side and the official one lacking annotation features that users have demanded. Is anyone creating a legit PRD anymore? An opportunity lost by Twitter ...
xericwit
· 2 months ago
"...primarily to get people comfortable with the concept of retweeting in general." - Really? I know "people" are a little slow somtimes, but what regular user of Twitter isn't already familiar with the concept? Any noobs wouldn't know any different & would probably wonder how some people are adding comments on RT while they can't (cuz they're using the button).
Josh
· 2 months ago
So very true! Who knows a regular Twitter user who doesn't already know all about retweeting? Even new users should be familiar with it within a few hours (If I'm not exaggerating, of course).
Andy Cc
· 2 months ago
RT @Josh So very true! Who knows a regular Twitter user who doesn't already know all about retweeting? Even new users should be familiar with it within a few hours...
beley
· 2 months ago
I think this is going to create a lot of confusion at first, but then you also have to think about what percentage of Twitter users retweet right now. I don't have numbers, but I'd imagine it's pretty low and consists mainly of power users. So for the majority of people, implementing this feature will be their first real introduction to retweeting and they'll likely be just fine with it.
I'm interested to see how third party apps implement the feature though... I rarely visit the actual website. I think their implementation of the feature is far more important to how it is received.
maique
· 2 months ago
i'll keep on using the (via @xxxxxx) format, and adding comments along the way. that's the way i've been using it, that's the way i'll keep doing it.
Kat Nagel
· 2 months ago
Without comments, most (not all) retweets seem like lazy excuses for not posting something original. I prefer to add value when possible, so will certainly continue to use traditional retweets, even if I have to do it manually with copy/paste.
jaycclee
· 2 months ago
People who use twitter already know what is a retweet/RT. For the new comer, they can probably pick up retweet real quick. "...to get people comfortable with the concept of retweeting in general" is totally bullshit.
lars_christian
· 2 months ago
So they are essentially just copying the Facebook "Like" feature? It seems somewhat pointless in my opinion, and I can't see how it will add much to the community other than confusion, especially for new users who aren't familiar with the classic retweeting standard as created by the community.
I also agree with the sentiment that instead of encouraging discussion it will numb down people and make way for a whole lot more pointless retweeting and on the whole create more clutter.
Baylink
· 2 months ago
Lowest Common Denominator, my ass. UberTwitter, on my blackberry, *shows me* what a posting is a reply to, which the website can't be bothered to do.
Ernesto Priego
· 2 months ago
I would keep using the "classic" one. I do not always comment when I RT, but I like the possibility to do so. Also, retweeting something does not automatically mean one endorses (or even "favorite") a tweet or link. This would also make people think that attribution (or even thinking about the material you are retweeting) is not important.
Wolfefan
· 2 months ago
If you can't comprehend the concept of retweeting within about 10 minutes, then Twitter is probably too complicated for you to use at all.
Mike Koehler
· 2 months ago
Why they making it more difficult than it is on my iPhone with TwitterFon?
dez
· 2 months ago
what are they going to do about the classic (via @someone) method when you want to add a LOT of your own commentary to a tweet but still give credit for a link?
richrecruiter
· 2 months ago
That's good news, I'm in favor of no commenting on retweets. And the people that can't adapt to the official method I'll just unfollow.
jebswebs
· 2 months ago
I have always used the convention of adding 2 colons then comment (RT @name... :: my comments), but only if there's room. I guess I would welcome the opportunity to add more.
Andrew Hazlett
· 2 months ago
For some reason, my thick skull had not allowed me to realize that "classic retweets" might still be possible in the new regime. To be honest, I could see myself using both forms quite a bit. Sometimes no comment is necessary, other times, I just want to give credit before reframing someone else's tweeted link.
As long as they are *adding* functionality without subtracting "older traditions" of twitter, I have no objection.
Shannon Whitley
· 2 months ago
But in many ways I think it does subtract from old functionality. It changes the overall experience. You'll suddenly see people in your stream that you don't follow. You'll probably see a lot more tweets in your stream. There will be quite a few changes that may subtract from our traditional use.
@jaycdunn
· 2 months ago
I guess they don't want to confuse new and casual users with something as mind bogglingly difficult to grasp as comments. But we'll still be able to use the current retweet format, so it's not a problem for me. I suspect a lot of power users will not use the new retweet feature until comments are enabled. I wrote a short tongue-in-cheek blog post about this yesterday.
Social Mix
· 2 months ago
Will Twitter be any better off with people who don't understand what a retweet is and think syntax is a tax on the stupid?
jeux pc
· 2 months ago
If there’s more than 100 retweets, a sensible API would offer paginations. Failing that, they should at least give you the count of retweets, but the mockup image (which MG linked to) says “100+ users”, so they oddly don’t even give you that.
There’s the potential for Digg-esque mashups, but only if the API provides you with the retweet tally!
richardmin
· 2 months ago
definitely will continue old syntax for a while.
Marla Erwin
· 2 months ago
"...the reasoning behind excluding the feature at launch was primarily to get people comfortable with the concept of retweeting in general. Once the feature is ingrained, he said, adding in commenting functionality to the native retweet function is a very high probability..."
Translated: "We're going to break this feature, then slowly introduce fixes, because we want you to do it the new way before we let you do it the old way."
All Comments
I'm interested to see how third party apps implement the feature though... I rarely visit the actual website. I think their implementation of the feature is far more important to how it is received.
I also agree with the sentiment that instead of encouraging discussion it will numb down people and make way for a whole lot more pointless retweeting and on the whole create more clutter.
As long as they are *adding* functionality without subtracting "older traditions" of twitter, I have no objection.
There’s the potential for Digg-esque mashups, but only if the API provides you with the retweet tally!
Translated: "We're going to break this feature, then slowly introduce fixes, because we want you to do it the new way before we let you do it the old way."