When Twitter changed the behaviour of replies exactly one week ago, my initial reaction was one of bafflement. The rationale they gave, “… receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable …”, simply didn’t cut the mustard with me. This “undesirable” behaviour was one of the reasons I loved the reply mechanism as it functioned. I understand Twitter’s need to adjust the way it delivers massive amounts of data to users, I really do. But removing a fundamental (and wonderfully serendipitous) method of discovery and interaction from the service, regardless of the fact that only “… 3% of all accounts had ever touched [it] …” was cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Twitter seems a bit too quiet now. I’ve resorted to following dozens more people just to maintain a fraction of the conversational threading that the previous iteration of Twitter afforded. Twitter didn’t set out to maliciously break replies, but they made a deliberate change without any consultation, ultimately affecting tens of thousands of users.
A quick peruse for the #fixreplies hashtag indicates that I’m far from alone in my thoughts on this topic. I’m not expecting that the old replies system will magically return, but I am hopeful that Twitter will come up with a better solution than the unworkable duct tape and bailing wire patch that’s currently in place. Until that happens, perhaps this simple little site I slapped together will help track the status of the situation.
Has Twitter fixed replies yet?
Enjoy.
Riccardo Mori says:
I absolutely agree with you, Grant. My reaction was quite similar. I've made some nice finds thanks to the way Twitter replies worked before the change, and now I feel I'm missing out on conversations and serendipity in general. If nodes can't fully communicate among themselves, what's the point in having a network, anyway?
Love that little site you put up, by the way.
Cheers and have a good Sunday,
Rick
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