Is your life a fairytale?
Want to see my facebook statuses for the entire year?
Facebook and Twitter updates provide a good measure of what you are thinking or at least what you admit to thinking throughout the year. (Disclaimer: Just because I never posted an update saying I was imagining how gorgeous my and Roger’s children would be doesn’t mean it never crossed my mind!). That’s one of the reasons I like to delete my old @ replies on Twitter it makes it easier to see what I’ve been posting about. More on that here. Well now there’s a facebook app to help out. My year in status will post an image that includes every Facebook status update you’ve made this year. What were you thinking about in 2010?
Note: Giving permission to the app to access your Facebook setting etc compromises Facebook privacy to the same level as other Facebook apps.
The Origin of Twitter LoveFest 2010
If you’ve been on Twitter in Australia (especially) the last 24 hours you might have noticed the #LoveFest hashtag floating around. People are saying lots of lovely things to each other (e.g., what they like about the other person) and tagging it with #LoveFest. Consequently everyone, except those with the most cynical of hearts, is seeing the best in each other. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that more often?
How did lovefest start? In the grand scheme it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people share the love with sincerity and dial down the drama. But if you want to know I have it on good authority that this is what happened. It started with a random tweet about running into someone in the store. A few others jumped in with compliments about that person. Said person then redirected the lovefest towards someone else who needed a lift. From there everyone jumpted in and it was a free for all. It's an example of how one tweet can make an impact.
@ErikVeland summed it up perfectly: LoveFest started as a compliment, turned into a support group and ended up a movement. So get involved. Say something nice to someone and tag it with #LoveFest.
Peace & love
NB: Twitter LoveFest Oct 2010 is unrelated to the SF Lovefest but we can share the love!
What do you choose?
Life is not always smooth sailing. Things go awry. People let you down (often unintentionally). Sometimes it rains as soon as you put the sheets on the line.
But you have a choice.
You get to choose how you respond. Over time those choices determine your life, your relationships, and your happiness.
Choose wisely.
Cancer: My story
Sometimes you just have to step out and do something scary. My friend Adam did it tonight and it inspired me.
Recently I shared my experience with cancer as a part of a series @nickie72 is doing to raise awareness on her blog. After I sent it off I got nervous about sharing something so intimate with the world so i didn't share the link.
Tonight, inspired by the bravery of another, I am being brave. So, if you want to read my story check it out here. Better yet, let this inspire you to step out of your comfort zone as well.
How to get more hours out of the day in one simple step
Turn of the television. That’s right; turn it off! Sure some people are restrained or don’t have TVs but that is not the norm.
The average person spends more than 4 hours a day watching TV. This equates to 28 hours a week (more than a full day!), or more than two months of non-stop TV viewing per year. Even if you watch half or a quarter of the average that is still a lot of time lost.
This week I challenge you to try one of the following:
- Limit TV to 30-minutes to one hour per night.
- Set a goal of 1-2 completely TV free nights per week (not counting when you’re out).
- Limit TV to two nights per week.
- Turn off the TV when you are doing anything (at all) other than just watching. This will break the mindless viewing cycle. Put on some music!
- Choose your two favourite shows and commit to watching only them for a week.
- Write down how long the TV is on for each day. You may be surprised.
Are you up for the challenge?
NB: I know the internet is a big time waster too but baby steps people!
BWF 2010: All heart
The annual Brisbane Writers Festival is almost upon us. If you like literature and thought provoking discussion this is the place for you! This year’s speakers include Australian author Alex Miller, Norman Doidge, and many others. My favourite is Jostein Gaarder (author of Sophie’s World) who will be speaking about his new book The Castle in the Pyrenees which is about love and ideas. There are lots of free events and ticketed events come at the bargain price tag of $16. For more information check out the website www.bwf.org.au or scroll through or download the program below (14.5 mb).
See things differently and change your world
Today is Monday. As a general rule I hate getting up on Mondays. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but sometimes it feels like the weekend is real life and the rest is just, well, the rest.
Today I came across the work of artist/photographer Ben Heine. His work reminded me that sometimes all you have to do is look at things a little bit differently, use some imagination and life becomes magical. Originally it was his Pencil Vs Camera series that caught my eye via Toxel but he has some beautiful conceptual photos as well. There are a few of my personal favourites below but if you are looking for inspiration or just want to smile you can view his collections on his flickr page. You can also follow him on Twitter (@benheine). Finally, here is a link to his most appreciated photos according to clicks on flickr. I hope they inspire you as they did me.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Ben Heine. I assume it is okay to post his art since his page requests only that people not use his pictures for commerical use.
Remember Free Hugs?
This is an old video but for some reason I remembered it this morning and the thought of it made me smile. Maybe it’s time to for you to enjoy it again too? And if you have an evil sense of humour here is the prank hug clip that came out last year in response to the original campaign.To delete or not to delete: A modern day existential dilemma
First Question: To @ reply or not to @ reply?
First Answer: Yes @ reply! Twitter is intended to be both interaction and informative. Get out there (figuratively) and meet people.
Second Question: To delete @ replies or not to delete?
Second Answer: It depends….
Today I had an interesting discussion with some other tweeters who disapprove of my current approach of deleting approach. For the last 6 months or so I have been deleted the majority of the @ replies I have tweeted to people after I know they have read them or a few days have passed. That conversation prompted this post.
Some Twitter superstars like @guykawasaki and even some locals have different account from which to send most of their @ replies or chatty tweets from but this didn’t seem feasible for me since I already have the @LiteraryLines account. Also since I believe communication is essential on Twitter I can’t stop @ replying so the next best thing was to delete old replies. I’d been doing it semi regularly since last year and so far it has worked well for me. Below are some potential advantages and disadvantages to this approach.
Main Advantages
It leaves the stream on your page full of primarily content or original tweets that don’t require clicking on additional links or extra context to understand.
This clean kind of stream attracts certain types of people (like me) who are less likely to follow people who appear to be mostly be tweeting with friends about what they are having for dinner (true this is how it was designed but I think Twitter has grown beyond this).
It can increase your interaction on Twitter. For those who want to keep streams relatively clean (i.e. 50:50 content or more) the only alternative is not to @ reply or to DM (I do that often too). Since starting my deleting I have increased the amount I communicate with others on Twitter substantially since I am no longer worried about people losing content in a mass of @ replies. Of course this only applies if you desire a relatively clean stream. I naturally gravitated to a style similar to those I enjoy in others. If you are happy with your @ replies it won’t make any difference to you.
It is much easier to see what people naturally tweet, which makes it easier for potential followers to see what you might have in common. Of course you also get a good (maybe better?) feel for someone by reading a series of tweet conversations, however I suspect a lot of people don’t have time to read conversations between two strangers. If you are already following one of the people or check their page chances are you’ll see the people they interact with before the tweets are deleted.
Similarly it is also easier for people to get an overview of what you have been tweeting about if you have missed a few days or a longer period on Twitter. Sure you miss the conversations but it is easier to catch up on key tweets and themes. I often check people’s pages to catch up and find it easier to do this efficiently when there are fewer at replies, especially as I rarely have time to read all the conversations. In fact, unless I personally know the person already I’m unlikely to check the page of someone who primarily uses Twitter for conversations. The reverse is true if I know the person though as I am more likely to be interested in the conversations.
In a similar vein a page full of @ replies can give a false impression of what someone tweets about. For example, I’m not particularly interested in hockey (sorry!) but some of my favourite tweeps are avid hockey fans. If I had come across their pages during playoffs and they were full of talk with other hockey fans I’d be unlikely to follow them and I’d miss out on following some really great people. Incidentally I tweet about more than tennis and you only know that because I’ve deleted all my obsessive Federer tweets!
This approach generates an increase in replies. Like Adam Jackson (who also blogged on this topic see credits below) I have found that since adopting this approach I often get replies to tweets I made a few days ago. This only occurs because people can see your old tweets when your stream is mostly clean. Since you still @ reply a normal amount before deleting you don’t see a decrease in replies.
It keeps your tweet count low. This is not usually an issue or goal for people but in my line of work having thousands or tweets and/or private conversations could be disadvantageous. (I even tweet under an alias). Plus I know of some people who have been asked not tweet during work. This is a good secret squirrel work around!
This is not an advantage as such but I think there are only so many @ replies you can keep track of in your “reply inbox”. After a while they get lost in your inbox after you’re read them so for the most part I don’t think the original person you were replying to is likely to miss them too much. (Although as a general rule if I know someone has favourited a reply I won’t typically delete those tweets)
Main Disadvantages
The original context of reply tweets is lost. This is annoying for people who like to go back and read old conversations, which you can only do if both accounts are public. Reading conversations is frustrating on the web interface but is very convenient on apps.
Along the same lines some people don't like the fact that when things are deleted the natural order and sequencing of tweets are lost. Deletion of random @ replies does leave holes in conversation threads which leads to some people missing out on the whole conversation if they haven't read it within a certain time period.
A stream totally lacking in @ replies seems inhuman and will turn off some potential followers who think you don’t interact on Twitter (although this can be avoided by leaving a few replies in). Basically you don’t want to get confused for a spam bot!
Similarly, some people who decide who to follow based the people with whom that person interacts rather than individual tweets. If you delete your conversations you are, in a sense, depriving your followers of finding other people they might like to follow (i.e the people who have been tweeting with). Although if you don’t delete the replies straight away the effects of deletion are somewhat mitigated.
You may potentially offend people when they notice that you deleted your @ reply and don’t know why or that you do it regularly (I generally only delete @ replies to people with whom I regularly tweet and very very rarely delete DMs). A good rule of thumb is to look out for another opportunity to chat with them after all I think the interactions themselves are more meaningful than a record of them.
Time consuming. You have to actually delete them. And, if you want to be sure not to delete replies people have favourited (I know this is not a word but is should be) you need to check for this as well.
It's possible that people will accidentally delete @ replies that haven't yet been viewed leading to the perception that someone didn't bother to reply or just having the recipent miss out on your tweet in general. I generally don't delete them until I know the recipient has been online and has replied to some tweets but not everybody checks their @ replies or DMs every time they log on so this approach is not foolproof.
Conclusions
So those are the pros and cons that came out in our brief but interesting conversation today. I’m not trying to convince you but it's an interesting topic with points in favour of both approaches. Most likely your reasons for being on Twitter and what you hope to get out of it will dictate whether the deletion approach could work for you, in particular the type of followers you may want to attract. The people with who you primarily tweet may also play a role. In cases like BTUB where a big group of people interact with each other in groups records of conversations that people can catch up on later may be more important than a set of different conversations with different independent people.
For now, for me at least, it seems to be working. Incidentally while gaining followers isn’t my goal on Twitter it certainly hasn't impacted my new follower rate at all. It would be nice if Twitter gave each profile a “View all” or “View Unique” button to avoid all this but until then I’m going to continue deleting some of my @ reply tweets after they’ve been read so if yours get deleted don’t take it personally remember I only delete replies to people who have plenty of conversations or who I already know.
What are your thoughts?
Do you ever delete?
Why or why not?
Other advantages/disadvantages?
Credit
The following people contributed to the discussion that led to this blog post: @erikveland, @almostvisible, @josstheboss, @adrianjsclark,and @beautiful_alone. These people often have interesting things to say and today was no exception. If you are not already following then you should consider it now, even if I sometimes delete my @ replies to them.
Also credit to Adam Jackson who blogged on this topic after I was already doing it but his post helped cement my approach. Read his post here.
PS Fun fact: The @ symbol does not have a proper English name other than "at sign" unlike the "and symbol: which is correctly known as the ampersand.
