Threads

Onboarding newcomers into Twitter's threading culture

9 tweets · April 2019 · 77 likes · 4 retweets · read on Twitter

I'm introducing @QiaochuYuan to twitter, and I'm like "find some meta-rationality people to follow in the list of who @utotranslucence is following", & also follow @visakanv & @GRITCULT to learn threading. "Seriously, this is important for understanding the power of the medium."

Then read this lovely doc:

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv ·

twitter_rpg_strategy_guide.txt

And make sure to actually see the meta-threada at the bottom:

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv ·

Interesting conversation with a writer friend earlier about the fragmentation of information. We both agreed that fragmentation isn't actually a bad thing - what's missing & needed is better threading. Twitter threads are a specific instantiation of a solution to bigger problem

And this thread of mine is probably overkill for your current level of understanding, but it kind of explains when you might want to quote-tweet versus retweet-&-reply

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean ·

As I continue musing on how I'd design a #TwitterReplacement, I noticed that something really messy happened with a thread of mine from a month ago. It started with this reply to @cosimia_ twitter.com/Malcolm_Ocean/…

And then—don't worry about it too much and just play with it:

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv ·

This is actually a FANTASTIC description of a VERY natural human behavior – "fiddle with it and see what happens". Programmers do this. Musicians do this. All of our tools should be optimized to allow us to do this better, because it's the most natural way to make sense of things

Was sharing this intro thread with @Timer_22 today and found myself noting some subtle changes even just in the 7.5 weeks since I tweeted it. The first is that it's not just @visakanv & @GRITCULT that I'm seeing doing dense inter-linking now. Myself, @QiaochuYuan, @Conaw...

And not just a few individuals, but a sense that a growing number of people are creating a more generative culture on twitter than has been seen here before. Curiosity, discussion, play! Threads on this:

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean ·

1/ I'm reflecting on this tweetstorm I wrote a couple days ago and noticing that while I still stand by the content that's in there (and many people resonate with it) it was incomplete: It gave only one sentence to why I'm excited about the thing! twitter.com/Malcolm_Ocean/…

Also, @KevinSimler describes a general form of the thing I did here for Qiaochu > Grassroots "getting started" programs for new Twitter users over here:

kevin simler @kevinsimler ·

Alright. I've been sitting on an idea for a couple years now, but finally realized I'm never going to act on it. So I'd like to "open source" it here. THE IDEA: Grassroots "getting started" programs for new Twitter users

Welp, haven't even read it yet but I'm sure this thread needs a link to @visakanv's new thread about the types of threads he makes:

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv ·

the surge of emotional energy from a venkat compliment is giving me the Useless Fellow Power I need to attempt make a thread about the different kinds of threads I make. 106am, let's do this

quoting @vgr: @calcsam @diviacaroline @visakanv I do it by accident though, while visa does it on purpose, so his threads are a much better model than mine. My threads are basically failed/non-starter blog posts, and my frayed/tangled threads are failed serialization attempts due to actual inc