Okay, I've dipped a toe. I'm AlanRain3.

If anyone twitters me, I'll reply.

I am on Twitter but don't "get" it. Doesn't work for me. I love facebook, on the whole. I never play any of the fb games, and what I love most about it is having decent conversations with people, both real friends and people I only know slightly.

I know just how you feel, debac, but having rejoined I'm determined to stay put until I do 'get' it.
I installed Tweetdeck, but couldn't work out how you tweeted from there. But Tweetdeck will, I think, be useful for reviewing tweets.

One thing that annoyed me was the requirement (I think it was a requirement as I couldn't escape) to set up people-to-follow. So I did. What happened next time I logged on? It was suggested I follow Britney Spears!!!!! (pop music / trash culture / Americana / teen-stuff - where the fck did that come from?).

Hi Alan

Sorry been meaning to tweet you but I haven't been on there lately.

Last night when I wanted to find out who had won the Women's Fiction prize and I couldn't find the result I suddenly remembered.
Twitter.
Yes there was the result tweeted by someone I follow.

You will be offered bonkers options like Britney Spears. You need to start following people that interest you. Other writers. Writing organisations. News feeds as well as individuals. Then they start to work out that you're not interested in Britney Spears.

Sometimes your on twitter and no one you want to talk to is. It doesn't come and lay itself at your feet. You have to go get it. Facebook is more about friends and family and work mates for me.
Twitter is about connecting up with all sorts of other people. Do be too British about not being able to talk to someone unless you've been formally introduced, just get in there and tweet.

Will send you a tweet of your very own?
My favourite twitters for humour (and sometimes we need it) are Stephen Mangan and Marian Keyes - always very funny.
Annette

on twitter and no one you want to talk to is.

And, that, Annette, is the crux - because talking, in an on-line sense, is not being limited to 140 chars.
Until I know differently, Twitter will be for doing tweets, rather than communicating.
Okay, I accept I'm not 'getting' it. Give me time.

Anyway, I did tweet. The urge crept up on me.
Maybe that's the secret?

Yes, I see it. You're in the supermarket, buying your carrots and washing-up liquid, and there it is - Bingo. MUST tweet!

I know what you mean, Alan, although I rather enjoy the discpline of the 140 characters. Reminds me of Sherlock Holmes's preference for telegrams: no room for waffle. It's interesting to see how much you can abbreviate and compress, before it stops making sense, at least to a quick read.

So I find it also teaches the virutes of having more room, more air in the sentence: on Twitter nuance is tricky, because all the bits which tilt the connotations in different ways, relative to the denotation, have to go.

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It's very useful for research, tho, once you've got a reasonable number of followers. I've used it for techie stuff (can anyone recommend a good programe for X) and instant translations and so on...

I follow lots of relevant, interesting people on there, and am followed by quite a few, but to me it feels like broadcasting private conversations to many. I don't feel that with facebook = not sure why, cos the same accusation could be made about fb.


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And I rarely go on there to look!

I don't feel that with facebook = not sure why,

I think the thing is that on FB you choose to let people follow you - you have to actively make friends, before they can see what you're saying (though I know settings can be changed.)

Whereas the default with Twitter is that anyone can see what you're saying, unless you actively block them.

I had an interesting conversation with Joanne Harris the other day; she uses Twitter brilliantly, and says she does it all with lists: she has lists for family, for RL friends, for fellow-writers, for everyone... So she has degrees of who she's talking to, as it were.

The long and the short about twitter is that I'm now in touch, albeit on a very casual basis, with quite a few people I'd never normally get the chance to meet. Other writers, some published, other readers, other people doing all sorts of things.

Sometimes I spend a bit of time bantering and get tweeting with all sorts and they remember you later and tweet back.

Should I ever have a book to push out there, who knows I might one day. I'll be able to ask some of these twitterers to retweet about my book or story or whatever or blog piece to their own followers. Your circle mulitiplies. Most people realise this isn't about being best friends or even making real friends.

Sometimes some of the random, I'm in a supermarket tweets, are often very funny or very zeitgesity.

Actually, Twitter is fantastic for feeling the pulse of the zeitgeist, the stuff that's bother people on a grassroots level as well as the intelligensia. As a writer, or in my other guise progamme maker, you really need to understand that stuff.

Popular culture, social culture all the stuff that people are into right now is on Twitter. I like to know all that stuff.

Yeah, your account will get hacked, and yes the odd porn star will want to follow you, not sure why they want to follow me??? But you delete them. Change your password. Make sure your password for twitter is compltely different to any other password in every way.

And the tweets to watch out for are the ones that say 'I just saw that picture of you the other night what were you thinking?' designed to make you panic and think, shit, did someone snap me dancing naked at the pub last night...
And before your brain kicks into gear & says Annette you weren't naked or at the pub last night, you've clicked on the link and been hacked.

Such larks!

Sometimes I spend a bit of time bantering and get tweeting with all sorts and they remember you later and tweet back. Should I ever have a book to push out there, who knows I might one day. I'll be able to ask some of these twitterers to retweet about my book or story or whatever or blog piece to their own followers. Your circle mulitiplies.

I think that's the thing - you need to establish the network before you've got something to push. It's a bit like being on here, in a wider, thinner-spread way: people who bounce in here and start pushing a book get short shrift. But any members who are part of the community in any real way, whatever bits of the site they spend their time in, get support in spadefuls.

FWIW, when I've been neglecting Twitter for a while, and want to get back into it, I set aside half an hour, and go through my timeline responding in some way to anything I can think of a response to - a comment, an RT, looking at other people in a conversation and following them, whatever. Then (having been visible in people's timelines for a bit) I tweet one or two things myself, and nine times out of ten someone responds and a conversation starts. I respond to them, then leave it till later in the day to follow up on any conversations I'm part of.

Twitter is busiest between 6 and 9, so you're most likely to be seen then, although one solitary tweet can get lost when people's timelines are wizzing...

Yes, Emma, I think that is a big part of the difference.

I once had a conversation about gardening with Terry Pratchett in an online forum. Not fb or twitter. Years ago.

and yes the odd porn star will want to follow you

Absolutely fascinating.
That's got me thinking.

I've been on Twitter for a while now and I'm still clueless about it.

My v. small amount of followers goes up and down - can't work that one out - and I'm getting the hang of hashtags.

I won't say what I thought #FF stood for at first. Though in my mind, there was an extra F.