DU is turning into a big Twitter link.

[Atman]

Getting sick of clicking interesting sounding subject only find nothing but a link to someone's tweet, no explanation, no nothing. If I wanted to read endless tweets I'll log on to Twitter.

[NightWatcher]

1. We are living in twitter times. When news breaks on twitter how should we reference it?

You can't just relay the gist of it because people will demand a link to the source.

I feel for students who have to write thesis and annotate tweets in their bibliography and footnotes.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Yes - I notice that the many excellent articles that get posted in Editorials and elsewhere on DU

have few recs and far less views - it is a generation/information gap that has formed before our eyes. Quick bites of shallow info rather than taking the time to digest and process and reason.

Grumpy old man talking!

[Else You Are Mad]

3. I agree.

I think that if someone is going to just post a Twitter link, they should add the text of the tweet to the post becauae not all of us can see the Tweet.

[Orrex]

4. I fucking hate it

It's worthless. The people who "post" these stupid Link to tweet messages are contributing nothing. Most times they don't even give any response or commentary on it--just a blind citation of someone else's thoughts, with no indication that the target is worth clicking. It's 140 fucking characters--is it too much to ask that the poster include the actual tweet?

Worthless. Utterly worthless.

I avoid twitter specifically because it's 99.99% filled with crap: ads, celebrity bullshit, more ads, and more celebrity bullshit.


There should be a specific and mandatory subforum for this pointless click-me emptiness.

[Orrex]

5. Let me rec this OP 100 times.

[highplainsdem]

6. When even people as thoughtful as Krugman and Reich use Twitter for commentary

rather than waiting to do a full column, then it would be wrong to look down on tweets.

And sometimes even a single, unlinked tweet can provide a devastating critique that should go viral.

And experts like national-security expert John Schindler can respond much faster to developments on Twitter than in published columns.

I will admit I've been guilty a few times lately of posting just the link to the tweet, rather than the link plus the text, when I've been rushed or interrupted. Usually I try to include the text as well, and after seeing some complaints lately from people who can't use the links to Twitter, I'll try to make sure that I include the text so everyone can see it, and easily.

But with so much news + response having moved to Twitter, I'm not going to ignore it.

[octoberlib]

9. +1

I follow tons of journalists, politicians and pundits and hardly ever see a celebrity tweet unless it's RT'ed into my timeline. Love it for breaking news, too as all my news sites are aggregated into one place. I just went through all the OP's in GD and just saw a couple linked tweets.

[jmg257]

7. Yep..those...and opinons based on "reports" based on someone else's reports...

Layered so much you can't tell the actual facts from the musing.

Opinions - everyone has 'em.
But facts are more fun.

[shraby]

8. Not only what Atman says, I can't watch any videos that happen to be

in the tweet.

[Denzil_DC]

10. It's not going to go away.

But the recent changes making it easier to post direct twitter links are a novelty, and people are still getting used to that.

I may throw a bare Twitter link into a thread as a throwaway comment - usually something I consider comical, perhaps a visual, rather than anything you're likely to need to pay serious attention to - but I'll always add my own content to anything I post as an OP unless it's a direct post of the statutory four paras from an MSM article or whatever that I want to share.

I haven't actually seen any OPs which are just a Twitter link, but then I don't click on everything. If it happens, I'd put it on a par with those one-liners we often see referring to something that's currently being broadcast right then that none of us have a clue about unless the OP enlightens us - hey, we're not all sitting in your living room, folks!

Those who're railing against it because all they see is "Link to tweet" either need to figure out their browser configuration or their online habits, say at work. I do think it's a good idea to add a text transcript of the Tweet if time allows (Twitter was down briefly last night, and all the direct Twitter links here didn't work - a salutary reminder that tweets aren't necessarily a permanent resource, just like any other online content).

It's a useful facility to have. There are loads of other useful facilities here that are misused. Short of clamping down stringently and risking stifling people's input, we'll all have to live with the situation and the occasional frustrations.

[fleur-de-lisa]

11. Agree 100%!

And I use Twitter.

If I am accessing DU on my phone, it takes forever for a tweet to show up. I hope this is just a fad!

[bdamomma]

12. K&R

[Doremus]

13. I don't mind as long as the context is clear.

Twitter posts aren't always reader-friendly, especially to non-users. In the past I've asked an OP to post the actual verbiage so as to make heads or tails out of it and the OP told me to figure it out myself in so many words.

If you're going to post about another site at least have the courtesy to make it understandable for the posters at THIS site.