I disagree, I still see more than half of tweets being replies. The original design of Twitter was for status updates, not chat, so it’s interesting that it’s become as conversational as it is. Micro-conversational, you might say.

Given that people use it like this, I’d argue that Twitter ought tweak it’s feature set in that direction, ie. proper conversation threading.

I think if you keep your list of friends to a manageable level, ie. you only add people that you’re actually interested in hearing what they have to say, it’s still a very bidirectional experience. I can’t even fathom trying to keep up w/ a thousand people/users, nor do I care to try.

Greg I think you are onto something there. There have been attempts at threading, but they haven’t worked given the nature of following. But, thinking that there is room for a laconi.ca or Yammer to fill in that gap. Also Prologue on WP should be able to do thay, yes?

Greg, i don’t agree about the need threading. Threading should be left to apps and not be part of twitter.com. usenet and forums IMO show that threading actually increases flaming and doesn’t really advance the conversation

Could it be because more and more people are now joining Twitter without an idea of what it’s for. “It’s like your status update on FB, that’s all.” So they join and they broadcast while trying to figure out what Twitter really is all about.
As a newbie, that’s how I started and now I’m following people I’m interested in, who are tweeting things to which I’d like to respond, but I’m nervous – Am I “allowed” to reply to someone who I don’t really know? As you mentioned, will I be perceived as noisy or rude?
Part of the problem could be the “What are you doing?” question at the top of the page… It almost seems to inhibit bidrectionality and encourage braodcasting.
I, for one, find the ease of conversation, of instant answers, of new perspectives is what attracts me most to using Twitter more and more. It’s how I found this article for example, which has then prompted this response.

increases flaming. i find that an interesting thought being that i’m a big fan of threading:)

I’m with tofufighting on this one. People start using twitter without knowing exactly what to do. Different tweeters are doing different things…there’s no etiquette on what to do — and that’s cool.

Like forest gump says, “… like a box or chocolates…” status updates, article links, picture links, surveys, expertise requests, etc., which I think MAKES twitter.

I personally live in twitter @ replies. About 95% of my 4000 plus tweets have been like this. I find it a great way to meet new people and love that people can jump in mid conversation to add their thoughts. Am I worried about people unfollowing me, I suppose. I mean I hate losing people I actually like because they think I am noisy but I figure if they really are a “friend” and not a “follower” then they need to accept this is who I am. I will agree that twitter needs to tweak it’s interface to allow for groups but it is managable for the twitter junkies out there.

Can’t stop the signal!

I’d have to agree with tofufighting. I’m also a relatively new user and although my first instinct is to reply to the tweets that interest me, that is immediately followed by wondering if I’m “allowed”. I’m also a bit confused about when it is too late to reply to something … Is it too late if the person you want to reply to has already moved on to tweeting something else? When is a DM more appropriate than a basic reply?

I like how twitter works. yes originally it was made for status updates like Facebook. People do carry conversations on it with the @replies though it is hard to carry a conversation on with a LOT of people. Remember you only get 140 characters.

Twitter reminds me of the IRC, just limited. Friends you follow or are being followed is like the channel you join and they join.

How I miss the old days of IRC back when EFnet was the only one around lol.

Twitter is what ever anyone makes of it. It’s bi-direction and sometimes it is not. I just don’t like seeing people who never reply to their followers and just send out updates over and over.

You follow 3 people but have over 1500+ followers? Not very social for a social environment is it? I guess that is really one way eh?

I agree with your thoughts about being “too noisy”. That is a fear I personally have. As it was mentioned above Twitter was made to micro blog what you were doing. I have not been a member of Twitter for a long time so all I really know of it is the “broadcast” aspect. Only recently have I had some true, back and forth conversations on Twitter. Putting the fear of being noisy behind me and speaking my opinion I got a lot out of it. I am slowing learning to be myself in Twitter, and look forward to many more.

Everyone – thanks for all your great comments. I haven’t chimed in because I think you all are making good points. My personal preference is to make Twitter one of the main platforms for conversation. I am quite honest in what I admitted – I don’t care if people unfollow me because I am noisy. I think that it is important to maintain a good balance.

There is no such thing as Twitter etiquette – people have written lots of blog posts about it, but seriously, what enables or give the people who have written those blog posts about Twitter etiquette the right to set a precedence? We had an online discussion about it precisely over Twitter (and we pitched a panel to Northern Voice on etiquette that wasn’t accepted).

Etiquette on the internet is always a complex thing. As I said, I’m noisy, I accept it, live with it

Interesting conversation. I haven’t looked at my twitter stats lately, but I’d say at least half the time, it’s conversations. But I LOVE conversations–I have met some really cool people via Twitter, and I really like it. I guess because it is so new, we are still establishing etiquette. I think I shy away from DMing because I feel like you never know when someone else might want to join the conversation–with an additional/interesting viewpoint.
We need a Miss Manners guide to Twitter! Raul, could you get on that??
@rebeccacoleman

fairly new to twitter. if it loses conversation/threading, it loses the peeps. imo