What’s The Big Deal About The New Twitter @ Reply Changes? Share how they are affect YOUR Twitter experience

UPDATE Twitter makes a compromise after learning a lot from YOU:

“First, we’re making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account. This will bring back some serendipity and discovery and we can do this very soon.

Second, we’ve started designing a new feature which will give folks far more control over what they see from the accounts they follow.”

Is this enough? What needs to happen next?

Corvida Raven

There’s plenty of hoopla surrounding the new changes to Twitter @ replies. For those that are unaware, Twitter has announced that you’ll no longer have the option to decide whether or not to receive all @replies. Previously, you could either receive them all or only those that consist of individuals you’re following. The latter was the default, but the former option has now been completely removed.

Community Concerns

You may think that not many would even be concerned, yet it’s currently trending on Twitter (twice!) in part because of Mashable’s request to #fixit.  In doing so, more users have been made aware of the feature and some are questioning whether Twitter was right or wrong for removing the feature. While Twitter recommendation memes such as #followfriday could be affected, Mr. Tweet users won’t experience a complete loss in new valuable recommendations. 

Both Sides Of The Coin

We understand that the option for some was great when it came to expanding your network from trusted sources like the people you’re following. On the other hand, the default option helps a lot of new users control information overload and filter tweets that can be irrelevant from time to time as topics of interests in followers can overlap. If you’re following the same people, you may be more likely to take interest in those messages. Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb does a nice job of summarizing the potential cause and effects of the changes for long-time users versus new users.

UPDATE: Kevin Rose says the new changes are making his Twitter stream cleaner.

Share Your Thoughts

Despite the uproar, Twitter is listening to your feedback and seems to be taking it well. We’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this will affect your Twitter experience in any way.

  • We’re you previously using this feature? Do you want it back?
  • If you’ve just found out about the feature, would you like it back?
  • What are you thoughts on the way Twitter is handling the situation?
  • Any suggestions for Twitter on another way to implement the feature?

Category: Uncategorized

  • I always had my settings so that I only saw @ messages between people when I followed both parts of the conversation - I can't for the life of me see why anyone would want to see half a conversation - it would be like listening to half a phone conversation!

    But, others loved it, and lots didn't even know that they could change their settings, so I guess Twitter has to try and appease them somehow (although I do disagree with myself on that front sometimes - it's a FREE service for goodness' sake!).

    I wrote my thoughts on it here: http://businessontwitter.co.uk/twitter/2009/05/...
  • How many times have you joined in on a conversation based on hearing only half of it in real life? I do this quite often. It's a way of networking, even on Twitter. That's exactly what this feature was like for some of us.

    Looking forward to reading your thoughts Nikki and thanks for the workaround.
  • If you see half the conversation, you then have the option to go to the new person & see the other half. And, you make a lot of new discoveries in the process. That's the joy of it.
  • Dani
    I don't know when it started to be the default to only see @replies from people you follow to people you follow, but for me I've always seen ALL @replies, and while I knew I could change that, I didn't want to.

    Skipping the much talked "it's a good way to find new interesting people", the thing that never made me interesting in changing the "see all" setting was that I often find very useful information in @replies. Sometimes someone answering another person's question might have information that is interesting to me.

    I don't see why take away a CHOICE. The other way everyone could see what they want, now people that liked @replies can't see them all, and people that didn't want to see @replies at all are stuck with some @replies.

    I feel like I'm missing so much, and it's been very annoying to have to check a lot of the key users' profiles that I like to follow the most to see what I'm missing.

    The alternative solution that they want to do is not satisfactory either, but maybe the other one (per-users settings) will make it better. I guess I'll have to wait, which in the internet era, it's pretty damn annoying.
  • I agree. The feature was useful not only for networking, but for information that wasn't directed at you, but still of interest.

    At least you'll partially get to see them now, unless someone is replying to a specific tweet.
  • As far as I am concerned, they have gutted the essence of Twitter, that open, random ability to bounce from one friend to another as you follow interesting fragments of conversation, explore new profiles, and network.

    The interesting part is that they are saying that the "all replies" feature does not scale, yet at the same time that they are saying that less than 2 percent of the users had that option enabled. What does that tell you about the future and stability of Twitter as a whole.

    Years ago I heard people (that know more about such things than me), talk about the initial Ruby or Rails infrastructure of Twitter and how it did not scale and how it was going to come crashing down at some point, I think we must be rapidly approaching that point. Twitter is now amputating key features to delay the crash. That is my take.

    Maybe this is for the best, maybe we all better start weaning ourselves off of Twitter now, before it goes down hard and we all have to go cold turkey w/no twitter.
  • Very interesting take on the scalability of Twitter infrastructure. We're already getting plenty of "Twitter is overcapacity" messages when Tweeting. My assumption was that it is correctable when it becomes a larger problem, but . . . who knows? At least I have the demonstrated ability to quit habits cold-turkey. :-)
  • This is upsetting. Twitter is now about 1/3 as interesting as it was. I like hearing from the people I follow but the @replies were where I "met" new people and saw new information.

    Now it's a more closed system. For that, I have Facebook. The beauty of Twitter was it's openness. I hope they restore the ability to "evesdrop" on others' conversations.......
  • Honestly I think people are getting way too upset about this-- partially b/c many don't understand what it actually means.

    It is only tweets that START with the @reply to someone they don't follow that will be affected. For example if I follow @User but not @MrTweets I will NOT recieve this tweet:
    User: @MrTweet is the BEST, you should all follow him!

    (That's a dumb way to phrase it anyway, tho, since the vast majority of twitter has always had this optional feature turned OFF to begin with... which is why twitter then turned it off permanently since most didn;t use it and many who did didn't understand it)

    However I WILL receive this tweet:
    User: I love @MrTweet you should all follow him!

    See that? Not so complicated. As long as you start the tweet with something OTHER than the @username every one of your followers will see the tweet.
  • You are completely wrong. First this is an option you had to turn on which meant 90%+ of the people who used did know what it was for. Secondly, despite the 14% usage that was being claimed 14% of tens of millions of people is a huge number of affected users. Last but not least when you consider less than 1 in 3 people acutaly use twitter after getting an account, that 14% of total users could be as high as 40% of active users and probably as much as 80% or more of power users who are affected. This affects those who use twitter the most the hardest, it wasn't some background change that no one of importance knew about.
  • Exactly! The change was a hindrance for power twitter users and those of us who've been on the service for years. Twitter didn't think we would have explored ALL of its features by now?
  • That only works for people who are actively trying to get all their content & comments read. Your example uses a general statement, not a comment to a particular user:

    @fitprosarah Did you finally buy the house?

    Obviously, this is not a dumb phrazing. So, now you have to be actively aware & actively trying to get around the system:

    ! @fitprosarah Did you . . .

    That is irritating, takes up unnecessary characters & requires that you know about the new un-feature. When all they have to do is bring it back.
  • Bob
    I was a big user of this feature and find the removal of the option facility very STALINISTIC of Twitter.
    Twitter should at least give us the choice to be in or out, I thought the idea was to bring people together this just makes them go elsewhere.
    Several of my Twitter friends have already intimated they will return to FaceBook rather than stay and be dictted too like this.
    Not a good marketing strategy Twitter!
  • jrep
    I was a user of this option ("see all replies"), up until yesterday when it was taken away from me.

    Your paragraph "both sides of the coin" makes exactly the case for having an option ("some want it, some don't"), and hence exactly the case against what Twitter has just done: remove the option.

    Twitter is handling this very badly. Very, very badly. I get the feeling that Twitter was not aware of the actual value of the feature (hence the zero-notice removal in the first place); OK, that can happen. But I haven't seen any explanation at all of why the change was made in the first place ("Whoa! Feedback" says "technical reasons," but that's not an explanation). As a result, I can't suggest other ways for Twitter to do this, because I don't know what "this" is!
  • You could be right about whether Twitter was aware of how much value this feature had for those that DID use it. The zero-notice removal is really what got my blood boiling. Can I get a week's notice?

    The technical reasons are the other side of the coin (Twitter's side). You don't believe it?
  • jrep
    At the time I posted, Twitter had not provided these "technical reasons," only waved that phrase. Or indeed, since the whole business moved at the speed of twitter, they might have been posting the explanation while I was typing the comment, or maybe it was even up a few moments earlier. At any rate, I hadn't *seen* it, and I had definitely been looking. So, at that moment, I had nothing to believe or dis-. That was my objection.

    It's Twitter-ages later, now, and there is some info available. I'm still dubious at the sound of the technical semi-explanations they're giving, but I'm not going to call for a detailed code review, 140 characters at a time! ;-) Far more importantly, the Twitter team have responded very well, now, putting in place a half-way repair that they claim strikes a balance between scalability and community growth, and promising as well some serious thought, design, plan, and implementation to achieve both well. At this point, I'm not throwing brickbats any longer, I'm giving major props!
  • Peter
    it's idiotic; tweets like these will only reach MrTweet:

    @MrTweet is the BEST, you should all follow him!

    The viewing reply's to others was the whole beauty of Twitter: people can always use a DM if they want privacy; the networking aspect of it is GONE without open @'s.

    also, it's pretty much the perfect way of finding out about new people. if I see my friends sending messages to @personX, I am inclined - of course depending on the kind of messages being sent - to check out this personX.

    It's not interesting reading celeb-replies to a million fans - but most of my regular friends have friends that I might be interested in following. Now, how will I find out?

    And another reason: I'm just bloody curious.
  • I don't use that feature myself. Still it is a pity that such a community centric service took such a unilateral decision.
  • Chris I thought it was pretty weird too. I mean, can we do a community vote next time or maybe get a heads up? However, I've read that's it's more a technical issue as to why they removed the feature.
  • Rainee
    An important point is missed here: previously, there was an option that allowed you to choose EITHER ONE. If someone WAS overloaded, and wanted to clean off their feed, they could choose not to see other people's replies.

    They're not changing it so much as they're taking an option away, and that's the uncool part. :P
  • tattooed_mummy
    Very true - I used to use the feature to opt out of all @replies - now I see too many and because of this I have already stopped following two people, whose updates I enjoyed but don't want to read their general chat. I'm sure I will end up unfollowing more as this continues - it's sad.

    I enjoyed the pure, clean status only updates - it's the thing I liked most about twitter.
  • Nick
    Exactly right, Rainee. Makes no sense. Very un-Web2.0.
  • I had thought something was *wrong* with twitter when I realised that I was missing tweets from my fave actor, @dhewlett. Then I realised that there was a function that I could change that was defaulted to the "don't recieved twitters @ people yopu don't follow" -- so I changed it so that I *would*. I did this ON PURPOSE. I WANT to recieve those "not @me" tweets -- not just from David Hewlett, but others celebs and friends as well. It has greatly enchanced my Twitter experience -- I have found a lot of interesting *news* that was directed to specific people, as well as found cool new people to follow. To me, getting connected to new people is half the point -- and I should be able to choose whether or not I want that option! If people want to tweet things to specific people that they don't want others to read, they can DM -- or email -- them instead! Restricting our personal timelines seems to be antithesis to what many of us use Twitter *for* -- a news aggregator. If it's a default for new users, what's the problem? Things would be no different for them, and still allows us "old-times" the freedom to use Twitter as we wish to. If Twitter is so concerned about confusion, just make sure the issue is well addresed when people sign up. I mean, I assume that people who use Twitter have decent reading comprehension, ya know? ....
  • Cyril Bioley
  • Thanks for the update. It's a nice compromise.
  • I was using it, and I've followed few new good contacts because someone I knew was following them and they had a discussion that was relevant to my interests.

    If the default setting was to have it turned off, that takes care of newcomers, so why remove the _option_ that you previously had to _manually_ turn on?
  • I've made a short post about how the @replies could have been explained better:
    http://bit.ly/confusion

    Basically, I think this became a problem because the settings-page just offered a drop-down-menu with no further explanation.

    @idaAa
  • Twitter stated it was more of a technical issue with the way those particular @replies worked. I thin the one-line explanation in the drop-down menu said it all. Like seriously, what was so confusing?

    Very nice article on explaining the confusion surrounding Twitter replies. I'll add it to the post soon :)
  • It seems to me that this is exactly what the mentions feature is for, anyway. If I want to see people @replying me that I'm not following, I'll click on that on the web site. I don't want that stuff on my phone, and I don't need it in my RSS feed, either. The only time I'm concerned with that is when I'm on the web site, and I can filter to that immediately, anyway... my two cents.
  • dann
    I have a bad feeling that twitter is going to revert back to the way it was... I like the way it is NOW Maybe an option in the settings?
  • tattooed_mummy
    wow Dann, I guess you missed it - the option was always there! that's what they took away
  • Joan White (Bennett)
    I would like the choice back please. Best thing about Twitter was the chance of random meetings of likeminds. If I didn't like someone I could always block them. But now I might never get the chance to find out.
  • Did the removal have an impact on the way you use Twitter to network?
  • Joan White (Bennett)
    If I saw a reply that piqued my curiosity or seemed to be from someone on the same wavelength I had the option of checking them out and maybe following them. Now I will never know who or what is out there in the multiverse.
  • artemisthethird
    I'm against this switch. Mostly because it's going from a choice, of which people used both options depending on what they were looking for from Twitter at any given time, to no choice. Especially if the only-people-you're-following option was the default for new people anyway, what exactly was the problem? Why did it need to be "fixed" by taking away options?

    I personally switched back and forth from one option to the other frequently depending on whether I wanted to expand my awareness of people the people I was following knew or whether I wanted to stick mainly to what my friends were up to. It is my opinion that my experience of Twitter as a networking tool is lessened due to this unnecessary change.
  • Joan White (Bennett)
    People are getting upset because this is just another choice that is being taken away. We are stomped on enough in real life without the good guys turning Twitterworld into a nanny state.
  • sara
    why did you mess with an option like that????I don't want people who I'm not following to be able to @ me!!!
  • They can do that regardless just by...well... @replying.

    This is about receiving twitter messages that consist of people you don't follow. Some people found it confusing to only hear one part of the conversation. Check the comments; it has its pros and cons.
  • Joan White (Bennett)
    If someone wants to follow me then that's their CHOICE. I lose nothing by their seeing my comments. If I was worried about that I wouldn't be using Twitter. If I think someone is creepy then I can just block them and that's my CHOICE. CHOICE it's a good word. Learn it, make it, use it.
  • Stephen Hultquist
    I did use the feature.

    It was an incredibly poor decision by Twitter to unilaterally remove it without pre-notification of the Twitter users who use it.

    It will greatly change my ability to add new people to those I follow because I will not meet a vast majority of those in the way I have been up to now.

    There is no reason to remove it. None. It was optional, it was not the default, and it wasn't particularly easy to find or change if you weren't looking for it.
  • I was using it. I am selective of who I follow and have a fairly slow moving stream. I frequently will read it all, even the half conversations, and have been intrigued enough to follow them to new people often. I want it back but my understanding is that it was actually taken out for technical reasons so I understand if they can't just turn it back on. I do hope they find a way to bring it back, though.

    Michelle
    @couleeregion
  • Dagmar
    I used the feature and found interesting people to follow. I want it back - badly!
    I see no reason for this "Small Settings Update". Twitter lives by it's users, should carry out a poll BEFORE making such drastic changes. This way I feel patronized.
  • I used the feature and found it great for expanding the network and getting a better feel for the conversations the people I was following were also involved in.

    I use tweetdeck to separate out the different types of tweet information into separate columns to help with the information overload problem.

    I would definitely like the feature back.

    Have a great day,
    Brad.
  • its_Andrew_
    I'd like it back.
  • I liked the options to read replies from people I'm not following. I don't have the time to read everyone who follows me, but I am interested in dialoguing with them - especially when they have an answer to a question I've just asked.

    There was an opt-out option, that should have been sufficient.
  • My Comment? How dare they censure my replies!!
  • Pat
    Wrecked RT's!!! I heavily depend on those @replies. I use them to flag people I would ordinarily not have access to in a visually direct manner. The lure of Twitter is to "overhear" those comments at the party and to be able to put 2 cents in when welcome. The greatest thing on Twitter is when someone actually notices what you are saying, even if it is to someone else, and when it is TR'ed it nearly a high, so GIVE IT BACK please!!!!
  • I'm disappointed that Twitter decided to make the change in the @ reply settings. It's not nearly as much fun, when these replies can't be seen, and it decreases my ability to seek and follow interesting people that I otherwise can't find. I hope they change back to the old way.
  • Scott
    It is hard to imagine my ability to care less about this. This is almost as unimportant as what happens on American Idol
  • I have found that not only are people NOT seeing the answers I am offering to their questions if they don't follow me, but when *I ask* a question on Twitter I can't see someone's answer either, unless I am following them. This limits interaction and frankly, makes Twitter infinitely less useful to me.

    If Twitter users DON'T want to see every @reply addressed to them, THEY as a user, should be given the OPTION within "settings" to set a filter to "ONLY SEE @REPLIES FROM THOSE YOU FOLLOW" or something.
  • Todd Ruth
    I just found out about the feature and would like it back.
  • Jamie
    I'd like the option back. It was the main way i found of following new people, and was also fun following arguments between someone i followed, and someone i didn't. Now all that's gone.
  • ericinadelaide
    I was wondering where all the juicy gossip went - this place is going to get boring REAL quick!
  • Grooveecar
    I miss it as it was a good way to expand my twitter network and it means I am missing valuable info unless people retweet
  • interesting take on Twitter's reply policy insanity (the photos are funny) - http://cli.gs/dumb #twitterfail #fixreplies
  • Dave Zawislak
    What the change did was remove a choice I had before. I can no longer use Twitter like I see fit, but more impatiently, the way I had been using it. I don't care how the change makes things better for some random individual*+, just that they too don't get to choose how to set things up.
  • forbetaorworse
    I actually thought of a way we could use this bug as a feature. I posted the idea here: http://forbetaorworse.tumblr.com/post/107454358...
  • It was a good way to find people whom you did not know about but might share common interests (since you had common friends) - why not restore the option?
  • I think it sucks from an internal conversation standpoint as well as an external "find new people" standpoint.

    I was having a conversation with someone the other day an realized that he would be the only one to see my clever comments and I wouldn't be drawing in more commentary like I'd hoped I would.

    If I wanted a private conversation, I'd use Direct Messaging.
  • Dennis Magnusson
    One-sided conversations make no sense ANYWHERE and that's all Twitter is now. I used Tweetree to see who members of my community were talking with. It was a way to expand my circle with more people that interested me. Useless now.
  • I loved the fragmented conversations. If a person a follow answered something interesting to someone I don't follow, I could quite easily check what was the question etc. It was nice way to find interesting conversations and sometimes interesting people too. Actually some of the people I follow I've found through these fragmented conversations.

    Yes, it has changed my Twitter experience. Now Twitter seems less fun, less interesting and well... Much more quiet. Now it feels more like I'm talking to myself. Also it seems like all the people I follow are talking to themselves, like they didn't have any conversations. I don't like it at all. Actually, I hate it.
  • bigkelleh
    Twitter isnt fun anymore without seeing other peoples replies. Its kinda boring now. I might delete.
  • jhblifestyles
    It makes no sense why you removed an option based on the reasons stated above. The default could have just been turned off for new users and then manually turned on at a later date if one wanted. That option is what networking is all about. I have a sneaky suspicion that will will show up as a option in a paid version of twitter?
  • janetwro
    Twitter has been boring me to death since the @replies change. I'd say the people I follow post two to three times as much in reply to others as they do to the world at large, so I've lost a lot of tweets. Although sometimes inscrutable, those tweets in reply to others were interesting to read a lot of the time and a good way to find new and interesting people to follow. Granted, I don't follow thousands of people, but there are lots of people on Twitter who don't follow tens of thousands and for whom the @replies were never overwhelming or confusing.
    It's a loss for me, although I can't say yet whether I'll adapt or move on to some other amusement. The way they handled it makes me think moving on would be smarter ...
  • MaryAnne
    I found a lot of really interesting people reading my friends' @replies -- Where's the open, community network if I'm only seeing feedback from people I already know? Give me back the choice to see @replies!!!
  • Charles
    If someone starts a tweet referring to someone else - someone I might want to hear about - I don't see the tweet. I had chosen to see all; now that's broken. Don't like it. End of. I might have been one of a tiny minority, but it mattered - and now I can't actually see how broken it is because I never see those tweets, so *I don't know what I've missed* - except in a few cases where people have RT'd and so I've seen what I've missed. It's a complete screwup for me.
  • Tsaksonakis
    Utterly ludicrous. If this is to protect new users, then they would have had to have been pretty savvy, or pretty damn stupid to change the default in the first place.
    The biggest concern new users have, is that of NOT being seen, this will just exacerbate that situation! It's an incredibly dumb decision from the Powers that Tweet, but should put them in-line for a Darwin award!
  • Jersey_Gyrl
    I Hate Twitter for the new changes... I won't be on as much.
    Twitter=FAIL
  • I feel left out of the loop and would like the feature back. Hopefully Twitter will listen and bring it back. It would be nice if you could choose who you want to opt out, some tweets are just trying to sell you, where as it is nice to know when your being mentioned.
  • Some people are confused about what they changed. People can still get @ replies from people they don't follow and can send @ replies to people who don't follow them. I've gotten many in response to my #fixreplies messages.

    What they are calling a feature used to be the default behavior. I never changed mine so I was always getting all replies. Watching the one sided conversations and checking out the other person is how I found the majority of the people I follow (including Corvida). Now people who are very conversational, I can't see at all. It doesn't matter who they are talking to, I want to see it. Recently the "majority" of people don't use this feature - the only reason for which is that the new default was to set it off.

    I read somewhere that the average new Twitter user abandons the account after 30 days. I'm wondering if it's because they don't get to see all the conversations that are going on and get bored. A former classmate of mine joined Twitter a few months ago, I suggested she follow some of the people that I talk to. I had no clue that she couldn't even see the conversations.

    I'm not for it only because they took it away. I actually used this functionality. Removing it takes away a good deal of the value of Twitter.
  • Teresa
    I can see both sides to this issue. Yes, there were some whose tweets were ALL @replies. If it was just one-sided replies and that's all they ever did, I would just unfollow that person. That's not adding any value to my life or my reading time. It was interesting and helpful in meeting new people, though. We are "attracted" to others like us. If those we follow are replying and following others, we may have a common interest, as well.

    I think the proper resolution would be to give users the option to choose their preference. As some have said, you can't give a feature that is widely used and take it away without option or notice.

    A blanket recommendation for Twitter changes in the future would be to send a mass Tweet or DM to every Twitter user notifying of upcoming change. Similar to the recent maintenance messages. This might help avoid ridiculous amounts of blasting Tweets filling up our boxes.

    Good luck
  • Debbie
    I used the feature for a bit but quickly decided I didn't like it and quit using it. So, no, my Twitter experience hasn't changed and I don't miss it. Networking is not gone without it. Only the clutter is gone.

    The reason this feature was taken off was apparently a technical issue, so instead of complaining bitterly, I'd suggest that people come up with a way to have their beloved "all @ replies" option back that doesn't have technical issues. That way everyone can be happy.
  • Denise
    Twitter is a way to network. How can one network if that option is taken away from those who tweet?

    I saw any @ reply that had my name listed. And I can say that I've followed several more people who were in on the conversation, that I never knew was on Twitter.

    As a previous commenter stated, if someone wanted to clean up their stream, they could have simply chosen the OPTION to receive only those @replies that he follows.
  • Rebecca
    I miss seeing all the @ replies. It is like overhearing conversations on a bus. It would be really nice to be able to select who we receive all their @ replies or who we don't.
  • Monica
    Many things have been said bellow. I am just a "junior" twitter addict (2 months now) and besides certain people I wanted to follow from the very beginning, this option that has been deleted actually helped me a lot in choosing new people to follow. The solution with putting any word before @reply is fine with me (as my replies are rather rare), but for people who interact like every 5 minutes (especially those with thousands of followers) would be really annoying. Today I had a quiet and sad twitter page. I had to check many times my favorite persons to see if they got involved in any conversation and on what subjects. Twitter can do anything afterall, as long as their platform is for free now and we are just tolerated. I respect that and I accept any decision they make. But in the future, Twitter might want to make some profit and the users will turn into cutomers. At that point in time I will remember this day before taking my own decisions.
    P.S. I do understand the reason of filtering too many tweets, but there are lots of tools to help you do that at least at decent levels.
  • Bonnie
    It seems that Twitter is becoming more of a celebrity playground and less about social networking. I'm guessing this latest change is somehow catering to their needs. They want thousands of followers to massage their egos, but they don't necessarily want to be bothered with their tweets. I wonder how many new users Oprah brought to Twitter the day she signed on? You can't tell me the people at Twitter don't listen to the rich and famous.
  • So you think it's a conspiracy to please celebs on Twitter?
  • the originals
    It made me stop using Twitter period. I think that was a stupid change. Just when I was getting use to Twitter they change it.
  • novantadesigns
    It spolis the fun of twitter especially the "Whats your favourite......" questions asked and definatly makes it harder to expand your network of followers.

    BIG mistake to take it off - may as well go back to Facebook !!!!!!!

    Bring it back please Twitter XX
  • We can still see them by clicking the @replies link to the right of our stream though right? So i don't see what the big deal is.
  • You should, but if one of your followers replies to someone else that you don't follow, Twitter won't send you those tweets.
  • Forgot to add - you can get around the change anyway by typing something in front of the @ - so:

    Hey @ecoelf - great link!

    Will go into your stream as normal and not be treated as an @ message in the usual sense.
  • Salena Mikos
    We’re you previously using this feature? Nope

    If you’ve just found out about the feature, would you like it back? Yes- It seems interesting to try out.

    What are you thoughts on the way Twitter is handling the situation? Sounds like they're working on a solution, which is great.
  • It was definitely a good way of expanding your network, in addition to getting a deeper understanding of the person you are already following. Oh, I didn't know they were interested in . . . (insert topic here). Cross-fertilization is always a good thing in my book!

    Twitter needs to bring it back -- it was implemented perfectly as an opt-in, opt-out feature, except I would make seeing all @ replies the default.
  • Toni Bogart
    I am relatively new to Twitter and did not even know there was a reply option, or any of the other simple things like RT, (which I thought stood for “write”). I am still not sure I quite understand what this article is referring to about the changes on the reply back. Is there a website that you could recommend to all new Tweets which has a basic instruction sheet and glossary for terms such as “RT”. Fortunately, one of the posts led me to this site, and I have learned much today by stumbling on his link.

    I don't think though that hiding peoples address sites is good though...the one think good about Twitter is the ability to float around and be introduced to interesting people and interesting links. FaceBook and MySpace are more controlled for friends primarily, but Twitter helps me find people of interest that are not necessarily in my circle of friends, and that is what makes Twitter unique. Please don't lose that edge...Thank you, love Twitter
  • rrmb534
    Alô,MR.Twet eu sou brasileiro e leio alguma coisa em Inglês e me viro para comunicar-me com voces e agora eu resolvi escrever em Português ,para ver se voces sabem a minha língua Mater!Muito bem ,estou às ordens para discutir tudo sobre este louco Mundo que estamos vivendo!Abraços do Ronaldo.
  • Tish
    I've been using the feature and want to keep it. I'd hate to think everyone was getting all my @replies if they wanted only general tweets! (If I understand this correctly.)
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