As I’m sure most of you are aware, @ttcu_community currently re-posts tweets using the #ttcu hashtag without attribution. That way, when @ve3xls posts something like “Quick St Clair update: NB–forget it, get a cab. SB–light crowds, only waiting 10 or so mins for a bus. #ttcu”, all of his update makes it through to the TTCu feed. This was, I felt, the best solution to an annoying technical limitation in Twitter.
However, it has been suggested to me that seeing who posted the information, with some of the tweet potentially being cut off, would be more useful. For example, a tweet from @ttcu_community might look like this: “@ve3xls: Quick St Clair update: NB–forget it, get a cab. SB–light crowds, only waiting…” Since Twitter automatically links usernames, you would be able to visit @ve3xls’ account to see the rest of the tweet.
So my question to you, the community, is which would you prefer? Do my favour and let me know using the comments on this entry and the poll below. Thanks!
6 Comments
Good idea, but won’t you have to add the “.” at the beginning so that EVERYONE sees it. Or am I mistaken here?
Give Credit where Credit is due.
This idea can be abused, sort of advertising spam….post fake delay to get their twitter name out there which the profile has the website…..
@Justin Right now, that may be the case but when Twitter has updated their new Retweet capability, that won’t be necessary. In fact what this means is that we’ll see the retweet without sacrificing extra characters.
Brian, that might render your particular tweet attribution moot but ttcupdates would still need modification to incorporate the new Retweet API before that happens.
Here’s the original implementation post: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/project-retweet-phase-one.html
and the current state of it: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/11/retweet-limited-rollout.html
@Justin Kozuch: That’s a great point I hadn’t thought of. Thanks!
@Miroslav Glavic: I don’t quite understand your comment. Are you for or against the idea of adding attribution?
@victor Chan: The new retweet API is interesting, but it would require that @ttcu_community be following each and every person who might contribute to it. The current version uses Twitter’s search API to find tweets — allowing ANYONE to contribute and have their tweet be found.
The thing is, if you truncate some pertinent information, there are people (like me) who do not have a data plan, and thus do not have access to the rest of the tweet. I am having twitter send the tweets to my cellphone because incoming text messages are included in my cellphone plan, but otherwise it would cost me money to click on the url and connect my cellphone to the internet.
Perhaps you could split tweets such as 1/2, 2/2? It may be annoying, but at least that way it would make it easier for individuals in the same circumstance as I.
@Q: That’s a very good point, and one I hadn’t considered. Thanks for bringing it up, I’ll keep it in mind.