drew - Latest Comments in How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Mark Douglass — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:21:15 -0000

Couldn't agree more. The change itself I can live with, but not the way it was communicated.
Twitter absolutely sucks at using their own product for community management / customer service.

Nice post Drew.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Jim "Genuine" Turner — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:28:18 -0000

They have those? Dammit I keep missing out on the "checks are written here" line.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

motownmutt — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:13:08 -0000

Exactly why I'm hesitant to promote the site to others; it's too unpredictable.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

drew olanoff — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:38:16 -0000

Makes sense technically, why not take 3 extra minutes to explain that? :) Don't eff up and ask for forgiveness, fess up, get feedback and go about your business!

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

andy — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:23:04 -0000

You have more important things to do than read this blog, like post a reply to it? You must be a very busy man... we're all very impressed.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Sold Out Activist — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:11:44 -0000

The actual reasoning for Twitter's removal of @replies to people you don't follow is that it reduces the work load. Originally, when a power user (scoble, obama, cnn) replies to someone, hundreds of thousands of timelines were updated with that tweet. With the new system, only a handful of timelines are now updated for @replies. Simple as that.

Yes, if those power users make non-reply tweets, it would still be sent to the same hundreds of thousands. But Twitter is hurting for any decrease in their server load.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

drew olanoff — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:00:06 -0000

Thanks :) Point being is I don't work for Twitter. I don't get a Twitter Thank you check in the mail.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Gilles M. — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:53:12 -0000

"I’m going to keep this brief, because I have more important things to do."

Stopped reading right there. If you have more important things to do than share your thoughts, I have more important things to do than read them. I'm sure whatever you had to say was terribly interesting and insightful though.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

israel — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:39:52 -0000

It's a tradition of Twitter to remove or add features that Evan or Jack evaluate as the "best" option for users.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

drew olanoff — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:34:22 -0000

It's the smugly part that gets me. Like I said...it's not my company, what do I know? But to be a Google, you better act like a Google. And to me? Google knows how to communicate.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

Louis Gray — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:27:22 -0000

I think most of us agree that the change itself is relatively minor. It's a pain and not preferred, but not critical. What is a problem is that this is more gasoline on the fire - showing how Twitter's execs seem to be out of touch with how their users are utilizing their product, and smugly telling us they know best. As you said last night, you (and I, honestly) want to champion their product, but they keep making it hard through foolish mistakes and dunderheadedness.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

RexDixon — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:24:16 -0000

Who knows what happens these days Drew. Community management here at Bit.ly is busy these days! :)

Rex
Bit.ly Community Mgr.

Re: How NOT to manage a community - Twitter Style.

alizasherman — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:22:55 -0000

good rant Drew. Totally in agreement as are so many Twitterers. I blogged about this too on @webworkerdaily. The bloggers are buzzing!