Thanks Mike Arrington for taking us off the rails into Twitter idiot land

I think what we’re trying to find here is an equivalent to the Technorati Rank, which is based on incoming links and is (or was) considered a measure of authority. But the number of followers is not equivalent to incoming links; it’s equivalent to blog visitors and feed subscribers. The equivalent of incoming links is the number of @replies, I think.

So “Authority” sorting could be based on the number of @replies (bearing in mind that everything can be gamed with multiple twitter accounts).

However, it doesn’t really hurt if we can sort by number of followers too, does it? It’s as useful a weighing/filtering criteria as any other. We should just not be confused about its meaning.

But what I really want from Twitter is a good directory so people can find Twitterers in the place they live, or in the place they are going to visit. That would make my little service for Switzerland obsolete. I’m looking forward to that.

The comments for this post seem to be posts by themselves!

Twitter and its ecosystem seem to be growing by the day. A mere 140 characters can change the social networking scene on its head!!

this all thing is kinda meh

Great post Robert! Thanks.

Drama and gossip has always worked best for attention in any news.
Only a minority of the worlds population is willing and able to have smart conversations.
As the user base of the internet is getting bigger and getting news over the internet is getting more popular, gossip news will be a big favourite. I dont think Mike or any other person has to do with it. People will look for gossip and they will find people that deliver!
simple and plain.
I just hope that you and others will never stop putting the good stuff out there! Cause the smart people will always be there too and appreciate it.
I certainly do.
Hopefully some late adopters will get the grip too.

All the best from Germany,
Kahlil

Thanks Robert for writing these comments.
Looks to me like M. Arrington and Loc Le… are just out to increase their click rates. They don’t care much about quality but publicity and here is their problem. I have a fix for them: why not use more the S.E.X. word in the blog headings guys, I suppose that would increase your Comscore ratings over night and then you could attract banner ads from appropriate companies too?

Robert,

The message of your post can be boiled down into this phrase: A social network should create and produce better connections.

I’m with you man. I want to learn, to teach and to have amazing conversations.

If I want entertainment, I’ll go to a movie, concert, play or turn on the TV. Pandering to the lower common denominator is, to me, grossly unoriginal and a major turn-off.

Yes, there will always be a market for both. But I personally want to be a provider of the gold, not the crap. And I want to support and listen to those that do the same. Thus, I’m now listening to you

Robert , you speak the truth, nowadays be popular is the main goal, I call it the “Hollywood Syndrome”, but they are still people outside trying to change the world, trying to innovate, trying to learn new things and this kind of people is the hope for the rest of the world.

Your timing is excellent on this post, because I was getting ribbed by an employee over his rapidly climbing Twitter rank vs my slow growth. The same goes for his LinkedIn & Facebook networks. While I get a chuckle out of the “competition”, I’m really more interested in building a network where I can learn from listening and where I can add value when appropriate. I don’t have time to cull through billions of “I’m out walking my dog” or “I’m having a bad hair day” tweets and in the process overlook something that might have been a real asset to me or my company…or that I can share back with my followers (and both of them are relieved I said that, I’m sure).

I always enjoy reading your stuff, Robert, because I always find it of value. BTW, how’s the intervention coming?

I like your blog!

http://racheteapaintersdiary.blogspot.com/

I like your blog best. The other stuff is too busy.

Dude, it’s the same land that elected Barack Obama, did you expect anything less?

One has to wonder if the words Twitter and idiot weren’t in your post title if this post would have gotten so much love as well…

Is it a bad thing that thanks to your blog here I am now following you on Twitter?

I certainly think that you have some interesting things to say. And I happen to agree that I would rather read interesting information and learn something new, as opposed to “chatting” in Twitter.

At least there is the occasional nugget of good information if you can take the time to find it.

Hey Scoble and readers. We’re continuing the discussions over Twitority here – come check it out and let us know your thoughts -

http://tinyurl.com/7akqlc

I’ve blogged about the Cult of Twitter here:

http://onproductmanagement.net/2008/12/12/the-cult-of-twitter/

I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone. Twitter is a tool, a feature of a larger communication mechanism in reality. It has value but also limits. The hype around Twitter reminds me of the hype around ICQ way back when.

By this time next year, Twitter will be replaced by the next “new new” thing.

People should deal with that. I’m glad Scoble is speaking out in agreement.

Saeed

It’s funny, the other day defending yourself against The Intervention, you said that you could use the number of followers you had as a pitch to get business. You know what I mean. Clout, advertising, Seagate, *wink wink*.

In my world, you have no authority, you’re just a loud mouth to stupid to realize how often you’re making a fool of yourself, and that’s where the entertainment value is. You get access to areas others who live in different parts of the world, and who work in different circles do not. That’s why people follow you. Don’t worry, I’m quite sure nobody thinks your a genius. What genius sits up till all hours of the night, chatting in the worlds biggest chat room? How many billionaires in this world work as hard as you ‘work’. You have to work smarter, not harder.

I know you still think there is some value in knowing about news events 45 minutes before the mainstream media report them. But ask yourself, “What did I really gain from that?”. You put your life on hold, just to find out. Little or nothing, if you’re being honest. Because you were sat in front of your computer all that time. So what if you found out when most people do? So what?

Your behavior is extreme and out of touch with the average web user, so it leads to you having opinions that simply don’t scale down. You don’t lead a life thats even remotely similar to the average web user.

I’m a tech geek like everyone else here, but to hear you insult others for their interests that don’t match yours is so juvenile and immature, it’s embarrassing.

How many heads of Fortune 500 companies do you see behaving like you and Mike Arrington etc? Really, think about it? Public bitch sessions that make soap operas seem like sunday school. Yes, I know, they’re out of touch ha ha. Because they don’t have a FriendFeed room.

“But no one cared, which is why that post didn’t show up on TechMeme.”

Like I said, your perspective is out of whack. And you’re such a hypocrite it’s sometimes infuriating.

Perhaps this is all over thought? Scoble, Le Meur, et all are simply rich nodes in the network. I follow both, and many more “authorities” on Twitter.

I think the ultimate power of Twitter is in emphasis of the many to many relationships, not the many to few; however, like a crystal, the network needs something to grow around.

Enjoy life and don’t worry about it too much. There are no more idiots in the world today than yesterday.

Eric

There’s a lot of people out there (like me) who don’t use Twitter to gain notoriety, large numbers of followers or anything of the sort.

Twitter for me, is a bit of a space between spaces… I started using it to promote my blog, but then, its something I write anonymously because the content is very personal. My initial friends on Twitter were people I knew from Blog Catalog actually. They know my blog, not me personally.

Yet, I am a hybrid geek, working in a geeky world. So then, once people I knew from my ‘real life’ started following me, I stopped promoting blog posts that way. Hence, no backlink from my Twitter page to my blog.

Eventually I used tools like Mr Tweet to find people in related geeky industries to follow and learn things from.

I haven’t locked down my feed because I don’t think anything I’m tweeting is so important that I need to. But that does mean even someone as lowly and unimportant as myself… attracts the odd ‘idiot’ who follows people so they will reciprocate.

I’m with Nick (somwhere above in the comments) where he says his follow list will grow slowly. I’d add to that, my follow list will grow based on my own interests and not ‘just because’.

Bravo

What didn’t you like about my comment Robert? Too close to the bone? A little too accurate?

I was with you until the word(?) incent.