Dave Caolo

Here’s the brief, honest answer:

If you’re comfortable using Twitter and you enjoy it, yes.

If you dislike using Twitter, don’t force it because it seems like it’s what you should do. Your output will be poor and you’ll get stressed about having to do something you dislike. Instead, focus only on the platforms you enjoy and would be using anyway.

David Caolo is a freelance editor, writer and blogger who believes that the simplest answer is best.

If @machinemethods can solve your Mac issue in 140 characters, it’s free. Otherwise, it’s $25. Love it.

In a typicaly ridiculous post, Robert Scoble shares some shocking statistics:

“There are seven billion people on the Earth. So far only about 30 million have even turned on [a Twitter] account and some of my friends who are analyzing the Twitter data say that active accounts are less than 10 million … This demonstrates that getting an extraordinary amount of hype won’t help build a super business.”

I don’t even know what the last sentence means, but it doesn’t matter, becasue Robert’s math is skewed. There are 7 billion people on earth and 30 million have Twitter accounts. That’s only a valid measure if all 7 billion people have computers, internet access and an interest in Twitter. Of course, that’s not the case.

Many people of my parents’ generation have an interest in the Internet that barely stretches past simple web browsing and email. A huge portion of those 7 billion people live in underdeveloped countries where finding clean water is more important that how many retweets the’ve gathered.

Also, his Twitter/Facebook comparison is a bit apples and oranges. For me, Facebook is for people in my past. Twitter is for people in my present.

Twitter ruffled everyone’s blue feathers yesterday by removing an option that let users see @ replies sent to those they don’t follow. I don’t care if the move was right or wrong, but how they did it was a rookie parent mistake.

Let’s say I’m at the playground with Jr. and Sister. We’ve been cheerfully playing for an hour and then I decide it’s time to go. I’ve got two options.

The first is to say, “OK, kids. Time to go. Everybody get into the car.” I could do that, but it’ll elicit a core breach from Jr. and Sister. Every time. When the fun they’ve been enjoying is cut off in an instant and without warning, they flip.

Instead, I give them what I call “The Countdown.” It goes like this: “Kids, five more minutes and we’re going to go.”* Then, “OK, kids, four more minutes are we’re going to go home.” They’re able wind down, do what they really want to do before we leave and it works like a charm. Every single time. When I finally move from “One more minute” to “Say goodbye, it’s time to go,” they comply.

I don’t care if we do see @ replies, don’t see @ replies … who cares? That’s not what got everyone in a lather yesterday. A few days warning would have saved the folks at Twitter a huge headache. But that’s OK. They’re still new parents.

*Tip: It’s tempting to do “One more slide down the sliding board and we’ll go,” but if you do you’re screwed, because Jr. will just sit at the top of the slide. And sit. And sit. He can control his descent down the slide, but not the passage of time.

Twitter has started pushing out HTML email notificaitons. They’re still inferior to the apparently defunct Twimailer, but an improvement just the same.

AppleInsider suggests that Apple will purchase Twitter and announce the transaction at WWDC. I’d be surprised if this happened, despite Apple’s recent Twiter profile, as neither of these companies need each other.

Meanwhile, what ever came of Twitter’s acquisition of Values of n? I was hoping for some Sandy/Stikkit features in Twitter.

The best part of Birdhouse is that most people don’t know it’s a joke.

Today I received my first message from Twimailer and promptly fell in love. It replaces the dull, generic and largely useless notification emails from Twitter with informative alternatives. Now, when I acquire a new follower, I see her avatar, bio, name and location. Plus, her following/followers ratio, 10 most recent tweets and a big old “Follow Back” button. No need to launch a browser to decide if I want to reciprocate.

Sign up for Twimailer and use it. It’s a real improvement.

The Tweetback WordPress plugin displays mentions of your blog on Twitter along with reader comments. Setup is quite simple. I’m going to try it out this weekend.

DestroyTwitter is an Air-based Twitter app that I’ve quickly fallen in love with. Its tiny window* hides a slew of features. You can move between your live Twitter feed, replies, saved favorites and messages received and sent.

You can sort tweets by age, change your bio info, and even keep track of how many API calls you’ve made, which helps you avoid the time out issue. Finally, tweet away with the built-in URL shortener. I’m lovin’ it.

*My one wish is to be able to make the window taller. The devs note that re-tweeting is coming soon.