What’s the problem?

In case you didn’t happen to notice, here’s the change in a nutshell:

When a user “tweets” in reply to another, they normally put that user’s name (with an “@” sign) at the front. For example, consider the message, “@3parfarley you just went nuts over this twitter update!” This lets the world know I’m addressing my “tweet” to 3parfarley, but it’s not a private communication (what Twitter calls a “direct message”). Everyone else who follows me would be able to see that message, as would anyone visiting my Twitter profile or using search. This was described in detail by @ev last year.

Now, Twitter has always long had an optional setting which would hide this kind of “@reply” when they were sent to someone I don’t follow. So if brento doesn’t follow 3parfarley, he wouldn’t have to see that particular tweet from me if that’s how he wanted to set his account. This would cut down on the conversational nature of Twitter, returning it more to its initial vision as a broadcast-type micro-blog. But this option was off by default was confusing, so many users didn’t even know they could hide conversations between their friends and strangers. @Ev claims that 98% of users didn’t even use this.

The change was a simple one: Twitter now hides @replies to people you don’t follow. Effectively, Twitter switched this simple setting on for all users. The problem is, they made this mandatory: It’s on for everyone, and there is no longer even an option to turn it off!

Although some initial reports suggested that Twitter was hiding all “mentions” of other users, effectively killing the #followfriday meme, this turned out not to be the case. But the core issue remained: This minor change stifles conversation and discovery of new users to follow.

Why did they do it?

My first question on waking up to this new Twitter environment was “why?”

They couldn’t possibly have done it to respond to user confusion, as Stone initially indicated. Twitter is darn confusing as it is, and this change is minor in comparison to the weird and wonderful way of speaking that has evolved there.

The fact that they eliminated the option is one clue. Twitter could easily have simply turned this option on for all new accounts (or even for all accounts) but allowed us to switch it back off if we wanted to. No, they must have believed they had to get rid of this option for some reason.

The real reason is lurking in Stone’s mea culpa: “there were serious technical reasons why that setting had to go or be entirely rebuilt” and “a new, scalable way to address this need.” In other words, exposing @replies was taking up too much computing power, so Twitter wanted to turn it off to help meet user demand.

I don’t know anything about Twitter’s underlying architecture. But this seems both weird and plausible to me. Since @replies show up even to folks who aren’t following you, there must be something special about them in the Twitter software. And whatever this is, it must take much more CPU power than merely exposing a stream of updates.

The problem is that Twitter’s Stone was entirely disingenuous about this change. He blamed the newbie users, suggested that @replies were bad, and called this kind of tweet “fragmented.” He did everything but admit that there was a technical reason to shut them down.

Out of control

This is called not being honest with your customers and it is the real reason people should be mad. Twitter is desperately trying to keep up with the exploding use of their system, but this wasn’t a good move.

The nature of this change exposes something else about Twitter that I’ve been trying to put my finger on for a long time. We’re all using Twitter wrong! It was never meant to be a global “stream of consciousness” conversation. It was supposed to be a tiny blog! We were supposed to post fully-formed thoughts and links and read the same from others, not hold conversations with @replies.

But history has shown that companies can’t control how their customers use their products! Ever use duct tape on a duct? Or masking tape for masking? Or bailing wire for bailing? You get the picture.

Once people get familiar with a tool, they tend to figure out a way to use it that makes sense to them. And these are often at odds with the originator’s intent. The most successful companies accept what their customers want and adapt to this reality. They realize that their health tonic can be sold in bulk as a popular soft drink or that their farm vehicles are popular for dropping kids off at school.

Twitter didn’t intend for us to use @replies all that much, so they didn’t build it to scale. But most of what we post are @replies today, stressing the system. The answer is not shutting them off. The answer is making them work!

Update: Twitter has sort of reversed course, in the most confusing way possible!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Twitter Loses Control Of Twitter
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday.

Balancing work and life has never been easy, and this is especially true for the knowledge worker. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that we keep our jobs in our heads at all times, and modern electronics like the BlackBerry and laptop tend to keep it at our fingers as well. When our jobs require us to travel, work can effectively separate us entirely from our lives for days or weeks at a time. Road warriors must consciously try to focus on life, even as work pulls their attention away.

Always On

First, let us focus on the element of time: How many hours do you spend on work? White collar “knowledge workers” enjoy great flexibility when it comes to scheduling – most of us can pencil in an early exit, long lunch, or late arrival with just a little shuffling of appointments. But we also tend to work at odd hours and locations, firing up our laptops for a late-night spreadsheet session or taking a call from the UK (or farther East) before dawn.

Flexible schedules mean less delineation between work and non-work, and those of us who are focused on excellence in our work can find ourselves saying “sure, I’ll be there” even when we ought to be focused elsewhere. It can seem almost selfish to ignore a call when driving, resting, or playing golf, but this is exactly what we must do to avoid always being on duty.

This is especially true when it comes to friends and family. We owe them our focus when we are with them, and must consciously turn our attention to them and away from work. Of course we must sometimes sacrifice personally if the urgency of work is too great, but we must not always decide that work takes precedence over life.

Out and Away

When work requires us to travel, attaining balance is doubly difficult. We are tempted to maximize our effectiveness while on the road, since we are away anyway, and can easily put in extremely long hours just to have something to do. But again, we must turn ourselves away and focus on our own lives and loved ones.

My first rule of business travel is to remember those at home. Time zone changes make calling to check in especially hard, but entering an appointment can help remind you of the time at home. Before you go, try to get a list of important events happening back home so you can continue to be involved just as you would be if you were not on the road. A little interest and concern can go a long way!

My second rule is to always find something interesting to do wherever you go. Hotels, office buildings, and airports are largely identical, and chain restaurants thrive on their predictability. I recommend looking up local museums and musical performances, since these vary greatly from city to city and also tend to take on some of the local character. Ask your hosts to suggest a local delicacy or independent restaurant to visit for a literal flavor of the city. Consider vegetarian or ethnic restaurants for some real variety, and use yelp.com to find top-rated eateries.

All considered, don’t let yourself be taken advantage of by work. It is acceptable to give exceptional effort to your job, but far less so to have this become the normal expectation. One should never settle for accommodations or treatment from work that we would not be willing to offer to ourselves.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Out of the Office and Away From Home
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.