During last night's VP debate, i was struck by a blinding flash of insight. No, it wasn't anything declared by the penultimate candidates from the respective parties, it was that Twitter is not IRC.
What sparked this bit of insight occurred when i noted that this VP debate was exactly like every other VP debate i've ever seen:
Question: How would you address a current problem of note?
VP#1: My candidate can beat up your candidate.
VP#2: Nuh-uh!
VP#1: Uh-huh!
VP#2: Nuh-uh![repeat]
Possibly with a few quick soundbites thrown in that will be replayed endlessly. So, since it was a needless bit of information, i decided to twitter it.
That's when i discovered Kent Brewster, Mookie, Ian Kennedy and Ricky Montalvo all posting their own comments about the debate, along with a vast army of others. "Coolies!" thought i, "it's like pub-night on line! A chance to be all snarky with friends!
Only it didn't work out that way. A few comments in Twitter decided not to mix in my friends posts along with mine, which really reduced the amount of enjoyable cross sniping. It was then that i realized that Twitter isn't about discussion. It's the equivalent of reading the bathroom stall. You go in, read the comments, possibly post your own, usually while doing something else. It is not an immediate conversational medium.
Still the thing that Twitter has going for it is a sense of semi-permanence. Comments are trackable, loggable and referable. You can (kinda/sorta) thread conversations with Twitter, and perhaps that's the ultimate appeal of it. But then, couldn't you just keep a page that stores the IRC log (possibly with line tags so folks could point to things midstream?
Yes, i'm having another stupid idea that i need to see if i can build. Kind of a MST3K web service, or digital peanut gallery app. Friends and family invited to join in, spammers, not so much.
Dammit, why can't i have more time to work on crap like this.
Isn't that a lot like irc?
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The "bathroom wall" angle is really the reason why I never got into Twitter. At first blush it's a lot of people shouting absurdities with all the quiet dignity of a J-pop thread on 4chan. I think a bit of structure would be welcome, but too much structure and you lose the freewheeling spirit and just have another facebook clone.