Anyway thanks for SM ethic tips…

Anyway thanks for SM ethic tips…

One can only do so much with 140 characters – I'm a writer, I know…:)

Yet the practice of RTing seems to be all over the place and while I'm certain there was a intended decorum in its usage, one must unfortunately bow to the popular vernacular. A good example of this is our beloved English language. There is a proper way to speak it and use it, then unfortunately there is its everyday usage which is certainly unorthodox and can be quite vulgar.

I do thank you for your comments and guidance. BTW, this is a very good post on your blog. You should consider posting it on Twitter often. Who knows you could turn this thing around…=D

Cheers!

There are a couple of problems with RT etiquette: it's an organic construct and not of Twitter's making, size limitations when @'s and via's are factored in, and (as Linda points out) the loose-y goose-y rules around attribution.

I always try to use the pipe symbol ('|') to separate my comments and that's still not enough especially when the original tweet is near the 140 limit. Barring that, I try to link to the full tweet with my comments added along — I know this just adds to the confusion and completely occludes the original tweet, and that's a bad thing, but I'm trying to balance out original intended tweet (sans edits) with my commentary. I know, this begets a whole raft of other issues like what's more important the original tweet or my commentary? Clearly the original tweet.

It would be real nice if:

1. Twitter handles were “auto-magically” not counted against the 140-char limit during a re-tweet (yeah, you can see the list of re-tweeters but it wouldn't count as part of the tweet)

OR

2. Original tweet wasn't at all counted against your reply (yep, this would definitely complicate matters on the twitter back-end)

Also, the “RT” v. “via” debate adds to the notion that there aren't any standards and it's a free-for-all after all, and this doesn't help. I would make the case for option #1 (above).

Again, great post!

I like how you have emphasized “the link with attribution” in your comment.

I have noticed more and more Twitter users tweeting a blog post's title with an shortened URL and not (a) attributing the blogger's Twitter handle, or (b) blog's title. In fact, some have used a different URL shortner than provided in the blog's embedded “Re-Tweet” button (which of course messes up the blogger's analytics).

When I come across such a tweet it appears that the Twitter user composed the post and I would not know any different until I clicked on the link, only to discover it was originally composed by someone else. A new follower who happened to be the head of social media agency was a recent practitioner. His tweet stream was loaded in this fashion. It appeared he was tweeting on the backs of others' work. I tweeted him about his practice and it resulted in silence. My response was simple…”block”.