It’s been just over a year since Rob Morris’s Ace coverstory Why Twitter Matters.
Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine includes a post, Twitter Made Me Hate You.
In it, contributing editor, Doree Shafrir makes the case “People you like and admire can be total idiots in 140 characters or less.”
On her list of Don’ts:
- iPhone/iPad obsessions (“Once, I’ll give you. More than that, you’re cut off.”) She probably doesn’t mean discussion surrounding Scoops though (does she?);
- high-class problems (fitting into a size 4? inability to get to the summer place often enough?);
- linking to foursquare updates;
- shameless self-promotion (e.g., authors who constantly recount their novels-in-progress or obsessively link to reviews).
We shared a few more in Tweaching 101* . Tweaching 102 or TwV2 is due out this Fall.
This part still holds up:
“Twitter Etiquette is really pretty simple, and it boils down to this: don’t be a jerk. (That’s been edited. In real life Tweaching Sessions, we use a better word than that.)
Twitter is a friendly community, so treat it that way.
It isn’t a broadcast forum for mini-press releases, and, contrary to a host of websites and local “Twexperts” who will advise you otherwise, you should not be there to sell stuff.
Think of it as a Cocktail Party.
Are you the guy who walks in and does nothing but talk about yourself?
Well, the same thing will happen to you on Twitter that will happen to you in real life: no one will like you.
Would you walk into a cocktail party and immediately try to sell everyone a house?
If you did, people would stop inviting you to cocktail parties.
Would you argue loudly with everyone at a cocktail party?
Well, if you would, stop it. It’s trashy.”
We also advised against Direct Messaging (and still do).
*Urban Dictionary defines tweaching as 1. a slang term for stressed-out teachers who instruct their course while “tweaking” on crystal meth, or 2. teaching others how to use Twitter. (We meant the second.)
And now: back to Scoops.
