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[@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
One problem with relying solely on non devs to monitor the social channels is that occasionally questions are asked that we lowly villagers can’t answer.
Twitter is probably the single most evident example because of it’s point-source model of communication—someone has to actually be following the stream to see direct or @ replies to the account. Les Smith (and myself) keep an eye on things there, answering what we can, but we’re not developers, not even plugin developers. We’re content and design people. Community people. Our ability with the Twitter account is to start conversations, cross-pollinate ideas, and re-tweet to show there are actually human beings in the room.
This is not the first time I’ve run up against tweets I want to reply to but can’t, and thus what motivates this little rant.
Two recent examples (btw, if we had this script installed in the boards, you’d see the tweets below instead of having to follow the links, which could be one way of handling this issue I’m addressing here, though not ideally):
https://twitter.com/liamdempsey/status/187263246179385344
and
https://twitter.com/yauh/status/187406395627413505
Should these Twitter users have to come and use the forum? Of course not! Not even if they do have forum accounts. They should be addressed in the medium they posed the question, and with answers. If I reply “Uh…we don’t know, go ask at the watering hole.”, it reflects badly in the eyes of anyone else watching the Twitter conversation.
And, lest you think I’m too quick on the draw here, considering those tweets were within the last 24 hours, it’s not just about helping, but being timely too. Timing is a key element of social channels, just like websites and blogs. If you don’t update your website, people stop reading it…people will stop visiting it entirely. Twitter is even more time-sensitive. It’s used by millions who know it’s a get-answers-fast medium; now, not next week. Unfollows are common when hope and confidence is let down. They aren’t asking how to build rocket engines; questions are usually easy for the right people with the knowledge. The knowledgable people just need to be attentive.
I’m not attacking any of you devs, and especially Stef who is very proactive in a lot of things, but let’s be real about social tools, and especially this one: This project must be the only one in the industry that has four core devs, none of whom seem to want to monitor their project via the easiest social tool in the game. It’s puzzling. And it’s counter to any interest (wherever it might admirably be) of wanting to improve Textpattern’s standing in the bigger picture. A dev could be keeping an eye on the Twitter account and answering those questions that are obviously up a core dev’s alley (functional, roadmap, etc).
I have keys to five Twitter accounts. Only one is my own. I easily monitor all five (that doesn’t mean chit-chat all day). It’s not hard. Twitter’s Mac client, and TweetBot’s phone client make it dead simple. I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal to take spare minutes from each day—on the bus, having coffee, crapping….—and check the @reply stream for the dev-caliber questions needing answered.
Les and I could be emailing devs the links to such questions, or come to the forum and make them clear (like I’m doing here), but nobody should have to do that. It’s wasted effort. It’s pointless. It’s stupid. And it should go without saying, but… I’m just saying.
Last edited by Destry (2012-04-04 09:53:35)
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Regarding Dempsey’s question… if there is a character limit (I have no idea; never used that tag) for the keywords, it should be indicated in the tag page to make that clear, and I can at least do that.
(I kind of hate advocating the use of meta keywords like that, though, considering how useless they are for indexing.)
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Destry wrote:
I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal to take spare minutes from each day—on the bus, having coffee, crapping….—and check the @reply stream for the dev-caliber questions needing answered.
One good reason: I don’t have a mobile device capable of such exquisite tomfoolery — and deliberately so. Suppose I could actually, you know, use my twitter account on the desktop by signing in every now and again. But it’s almost got to the point where it’s funnier not to.
Perhaps I really should post something and get up to speed on tools that bring tweets to me instead of having to use their website to do it: I think that’s what’s stopping me using it routinely. The fear of not being able to be timely enough, because I’d miss something and get dissed for it.
Regarding the specific questions though: yes there’s a 255 character limit on keywords (you’re right, the wiki should say so). And 4.5.0 will be ready when the bugs are ironed out and it’s stable. Stephan and others can help speed things along by downloading an SVN copy and trying it out, then reporting Issues.
Last edited by Bloke (2012-04-04 10:22:08)
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Destry wrote:
but… I’m just saying.
Yes, mother ;)
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Bloke wrote:
Perhaps I really should post something and get up to speed on tools that bring tweets to me instead of having to use their website to do it
On the desktop, I use the web version of TweetDeck (needs a decent browser with loads of HTML5 whistles). Works.
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Needs more devs on the team, quite simply. No disrespect any of the current core devs but I’ve only seen direct commits by two of them within the last year.
I’d nominate Gocom if I could.
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
philwareham wrote:
I’ve only seen direct commits by two of them within the last year.
I think the other two are building Textpattern 5.
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
wet wrote:
Yes, mother ;)
Comes with having kids…and gray hair.
Thanks for the script. This will make for some more interesting conversations in here now. :)
Love,
Mom
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
Destry wrote:
Comes with having kids…and gray hair.
Same here.
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
- Rants addressing resources should themselves be focused and short
- Follow the mentions on all channels via RSS and you see the light whenever YOU want
having kids…and gray hair
+1
Get all online mentions of Textpattern via OPML subscription: TXP Info Sources: Textpattern RSS feeds as dynamic OPML
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Re: [@textpattern] Devs, where's the Twitter ♥?
How about signing up to Twilert and get notifications via email
I’ll offer to help in anyway I can – let me kow
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