I may be one of the only people who doesn’t use a Twitter client to use Twitter. Aside from the Android app for when I’m “on the go”, I access Twitter via a web browser, as God intended. So, now that the second New Twitter has come around, it’s greatly affected my virtual life. Fortunately, I like to complain about things. So, in honor of Festivus, here are my New Twitter grievances: The Left Sidebar Isn’t Fixed When I scroll through my timeline, why is….
Patriotism isn’t symbolic. It’s not the flag or a lapel pin. It’s not emotion either. It’s not love for your country or hope for our future. Patriotism is action. It’s participation. Asked what kind of government we formed in our early days, Benjamin Franklin responded, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” That is what patriotism is: the act of keeping our republic. A republic functions on the principle that elected officials represent the people. There are and always have been threats to that representation…..
I’m following several of my favorite celebrities on Twitter. After all, that’s the one true point of Twitter, isn’t it? Unfortunately, this sometimes means I’m let down by their online behavior. Usually it’s nothing major. Seth MacFarlane cracks a stupid joke. Jason Alexander references something of his that isn’t Seinfeld. Stephen Fry says something too Britishy for me to understand. Today, though, one celebrity really got to me. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise, since that’s what he’s best at, getting on people’s nerves. That….
Just last night, I called bullshit on US bloggers. Several self-proclaimed news sites reported on this same story about China launching a “Communist Twitter”. For some strange reason, not a single one of these sites (Engadget included, which posted another pointless replica today) included a link to the site in question. That left me wondering if this supposed “Red Microblog” truly existed. Well, after more and more research, enlisting the help of the China subreddit, I finally achieved my goal of finding this elusive propaganda….
The Internets have been all atwitter lately with a rumor that China has released a “communist version of Twitter”. Unfortunately, no sources were included in the articles. Is this just crappy journalism or a fabricated story altogether? Doing some research into Chinese microblogging, I came across a fantastic little site called fanfou.com. If you could buy knock-off microblogging sites in Chinatown, this is what you’d get. It’s a near-perfect replica. Though this is likely not the site rumored to have launched lately as it has….
For whatever reason, people who prefer Twitter to Facebook (yes, they exist) often claim that Facebook stole the tweet concept from Twitter and rebranded it as a status update. Well, now Twitter has stolen the Like button. Their version was just launched today. It’s very similar to TweetMeme, but with integration directly into Twitter. I’m not giving up on Twitter entirely, and I think with their Promoted Tweets and Trending Topics, Twitter is becoming a serious player in online communication. However, they’ll likely always be….
At long last Twitter has come up with a way to make money! I always imagined they’d do it by opening up little shops across the globe and installing tremendous loudspeakers in them. Then, they could have Leonard Nimoy read your tweets to all of mankind! I’d easily pay a dollar for that. And if even half of its 100 million users did so, they’d make….a lot! Surely enough to pay Leonard Nimoy.