As most of you readers know, we regularly cover stuff related to Twitter over here on TechCrunch. When we do, we often get bashed by people in comments for writing about the startup and the slew of applications that make use of the Twitter API so much. Sometimes we’ll get e-mails and – ironically – messages on Twitter from people who are downright angry or disappointed in us for doing that.
So we wanted to take some time to explain why that’s the case, and why you’re likely going to continue reading about them on this blog. We should note that this post was fueled by Allen Stern from Centernetworks, who published an article yesterday about why he doesn’t write about Twitter every day that hit Techmeme shortly after.
For the record: we don’t write about Twitter related news and applications every single day, just more often than most startups. Also, we’re not the only ones doing that (ReadWriteWeb, for example, had three posts related to Twitter up yesterday, four if you count the Ginx coverage too).
So why is that?
I’ll tell you why it isn’t first. It’s most definitely not because Twitter is currently the hot Silicon Valley startup with known faces running and backing it, because they raised millions in funding or because they almost got bought by Facebook for much more money than was invested in them. Heck, I work and live thousands and miles away from San Francisco and I don’t know any of the people tied to Twitter well enough to be biased because I would have a blind spot somewhere.
But I am an avid Twitter user, and I see its value and potential growing every day. We all do here at TechCrunch. We see an ecosystem of developers swarming around the Twitter API like moths around a flame, and the quality of applications that come out of that ecosystem is limited only by their creators’ imagination (well not really, but you get the point). We receive e-mails in our tips inbox and profile submissions almost daily about Twitter related tools, and most of the time we take a mental note but don’t write about them. But sometimes something resonates with us and we want to share that with you.
Why would you expect us to write about small startups getting seed funding (most recently FrugalMechanic, Diddit, Pollsb and Tvinci) but not if it’s for a Twitter desktop application (TweetDeck)? Why would you want us to cover e-commerce related startups (WujWuj) but not if it’s tied to Twitter (TwtQpon, Dell, Tweba)? Why wouldn’t Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey joining Ustream.tv as an advisor constitute as tech news? And ask yourself: if all the talk about Twitter’s business model is so irrelevant, why does a post about its potential revenue-generating plans garner 175+ comments (and counting)? If nobody cares about Twitter, then why does a Kevin Rose guest post on how to get more followers trigger no less than 365 people to share their thoughts in comments?
If it’s the Twitter downtime posts that bother you (just yesterday, it was out for about an hour), why not just skip reading them? It’s not like the titles are misleading or anything.
Point is, Twitter has grown into far more than just a messaging or status updating service, and anyone who really uses it or develops for it knows that. It’s where news gets broken and what more and more celebrities openly turn to to start getting social with the community. It’s an almost perfect crowdsourced Q&A tool. It’s a place where companies can do business while people can choose to engage only with their peers instead. It triggers and support the organization of worldwide charity events (e.g. today’s Twestival).
Basically, it’s as social as social networking services can get.
And it’s still growing like a weed, too.
That is why we like Twitter, and why we don’t intend to stop writing about it anytime soon (and we’ll mix the positive with the negative too). You have the comment section to give your opinion, as usual, but try and keep it classy.
By the way, you can follow TechCrunch on Twitter (with the occasional update from Mike Arrington) as well as TechCrunch UK, Crunchgear and Crunchbase, and these are our individual accounts: Erick Schonfeld, Jason Kincaid, Mark Hendrickson, Leena Rao, Mike Butcher, Roi Carthy, Steve Gillmor, Serkan Toto, Henry Work, John Biggs, Greg Kumparak, Asad Akbar, Peter Ha and myself (Robin Wauters).
(Image from Darkmotion – no link because the original image contains a word that is offensive to many)
Update: our sincere apologies to all who were offended by the original image that we took from another blog, we genuinely didn’t notice that there was such an offensive word on it until 30 seconds after we published. Obviously, it still got caught by some RSS readers, so again, we’re sorry.
Update 2: apparently, the icon used in the image we embedded is from the hands of The Iconfactory)
Again a post on .. Twitter ! sic
I completely agree with you Robin! Twitter is one of the best services around and it helps keep information flowing!
I’m a twitter addict myself. You clarify about frequent posts on twitter, but I’ve gone a step further to Profile all the Cool Twitter apps on twi5 . This is my way of showing love to twitter and all things related to it
I don’t care if Roger Waters says she’ll write about Tweaker anymore! Check out my hip hop record.
I’m out.
Twitter so lame, just wait to see what’s next!
OK…. I just opened a Twitter account a few days ago. I can see right away things that are missing.
Now I could be wrong, and just because I am new I may have missed this somewhere.
Why can we not see what people are tweeting on the main page. Why do we have to sign in to see this?
When signed in, why can’t we see what people are tweeting on a main page somewhere. I know you can do a search and get all the tweets.
(Update! I found this when signed in http://twitter....public_timeline)
Why do they not have featured tweets, that everybody can see when not signed in? Why not charge for a feature tweet?
Should Twitter be categorized? I think if it was categorized, they could generate revenue for specific add placement and more.
I see huge potential, for awesome residual income for Twitter company.
MAN! I wish I was the owner. I would blow it up and pass Facebook in a year…. lol lol lol
“Cheers” Everyone!
JP
Can we please have some filters please.
What is most appealing to me about Techcrunch is when it discovers new companies doing new and innovative things.
I understand that other people come to Techcrunch for other reasons, but I come to it for new companies.
These days, three articles each day seems to be about twitter, facebook or porn.
(Sigh)
A twitter/facebook/porn filter would be much appreciated. I really am not interested in any of these topics … and if I was, there would be plenty of other places on the Web to get a fix.
Anjali Sen
I find it annoying to be honest. I get Twitter. I really do. I get the off spring of aps and the whole world around it. The facebook news isnt that bad (and there is a lot of it) because its relevant to business and the industry at hand because Facebook is staple of this industry. Twitter is a luxury. Nothing twitter does or ever will do will have any devistating effects on the advancement of the technology industry.
I truly and honestly do not think it will be a fad. It is a micro blog. Why dont you report on the advancements of Wordpress, Blogspot, or any of the other blog sites out there? I think you should really tone it down a notch. We get it. We all have accounts. We are all fans. Its time to move on. If they do something revolutionary. Get bought by facebook, yahoo, or apple. Then report. Imagine if you reported on every facebook app that was out there? Please TC lets move on
Techcrunch writes about Facebook and Google more than Twitter..
Check out the most popular orgs mentioned by Techcrunch recently
“We receive e-mails in our tips inbox and profile submissions almost daily about Twitter related tools, and most of the time we take a mental note but don’t write about them.”
LOL…That’s vicious cycle, buddy..
More people are creating a T***r API (I don’t even want to take that word” than for any other application, and more importantly, more people are submitting the T***r application for review simply because you guys seem possessed..obsessed with T****r..
And we’ll need a lot more. Thanks for heavily covering Twitter!
Thanks for the split infinitive.
Sorry for being pedantic but i couldn’t help myself.
That is not a split infinitive. The split infinitive requires the marker “to” acting on a verbal noun.
Furthermore, split infinitives are not necessarily poor grammar. The most recent consensus holds that, since the majority of English speakers are not accustomed to this construction, the use of the split infinitive is valid in most situations but should be used only with an understanding of the potential response of the audience.
Sorry for being pedantic, but unless you are 100% sure you are right please don’t be pedantic.
Twitter is here to say! It has a great following and a wonderful ecosystem around it.
Just look at what Twestival has managed to do. Just with Twitter!
The numerous applications being developed using its APIs is just another example of how popular Twitter is becoming.
I too am a big fan of Twitter; and Twitdom is my response to it. A Twitter Applications Database that tweeple can browse through to find just the Twitter Application they are looking for.
Now please explain to us why you write posts that explain why you post about Twitter.
Thanks.
Thanks for pointing out techcrunch reports so much twitter information. I usually just scroll through these articles in my reader.
Now that I realize the majority is coming from techcrunch, and since it doesn’t benefit my needs, I can just unsubscribe and save my mouse wheel.
Thank you for this wonderful and informative post.
Yeah didn’t you know? They got added to the Twitter recommended list on the previous day. They have to reciprocate.
All these guys have stakes in Twitters success. X(
“Twitter has grown into far more than just a messaging or status updating service ..” Of course! Twitter will REPLACE email in the next couple of years. Wanna bet?
http://www.tweetube.com
Yes, I want to bet you. Right now.
Yes, you hyperbolic moron. Put your money where your oversized mouth is.
Well, considering the character limitations on Twitter, how could anyone replace their email with this service? Twitter is used to update people on your status – something that Facebook will soon replace. Facebook did it with IM and will eventually improve their status updates to replace Twitter. It’s only a matter of time.
I think in the end, twitter has the upper hand. To access Facebook, I have to go through a long process, including logging in with my email address.
Whereas in the case of twitter, I start posting upon reaching the site, that’s in addition to brevity, which everyone conforms with due to character constraints.
No only that: Despite Facebook’s ‘inmail’ service, hiccups remain. Quite a good bit of Faceboo users ar still ignorant about what applications it offers. Twitter is self explaining. A visit to their blog undoes your headaches!
Twitter crowds understand what they want and they are bound to be brief.
Thanks,
MM
Twitter’s been going up and down lately. I’m liking it less after the lack of any improvements to the system, and more severing of phone networks.
Now that every idiot in the world is on twitter, it’s not as close knit as it used to be before the iCelebs and Regular celebrities came in.
Oh well, I’m sure a bigger and better service will swallow it one day.
(:p yay for using my silly image)
For the record and for all the people complaining, I have Gay friends.
The phrase is something that’s been tossed around for eons about anything nerdy in my parts of the world.
I’ve had it said to me – “Oh you use twitter? You fag!” “wanker”, “gay as”. I was joking about the ignorance of people who’ll actually say words like that, and it’s something that I’d never find myself saying!
http://www.yout...h?v=C8tRieaLeyE
I’m sorry if you seriously thing I am a ‘bigot’, but don’t hate anyone, and I’m far from it.
I could change it to ‘wanker’ if it would make the people willing-to-get-mad-at-anything because they think I am obviously predjudiced able to sleep better at night.
I think this it is also best explained in “Vincent’s” comment here: http://www.towl...runch-post.html
“Looking at the post and the context, I think the graphic was directly addressing the reeeeeally common bullshit of commenters of geek sites- “Ur so ghey”, or “Twitter is 4 fags”. I think it’s horrible, but yeah, teenage geeks call each other fag ALL THE TIME on anonymous message boards.
The intention of the graphic seemed more about addressing exactly that- the fanboy types who say “fags”, or lame, or “ghey”, or whatever. It’s speaking to them in their language, even making fun of it.
IT’s awful, juvenile, homophobic, yeah. But stupid punks talk this way, they do call each other ‘fags” in comments, all the time. It’s pretty abstracted from actual gay people it’s a schoolyard insult.
Devils advocacy over. The writer says he pulled the piece quickly, and it appears he did. Let’s not get too hyped about this.”
And yes, all I ever got in the schoolyard were those 1 dimensional insults without any real understanding of it’s derivative.
Oh an my last word on the ‘issue’ is that if you are seriously going to complain about Robin’s lack of moral values, then you are seriously way too quick to draw the gun.
Robin obviously had no idea about the issue, and even sent me an email asking for my reasoning. If you actually understood the rationale, maybe it wouldn’t be so blown out of context.
Knock it the heck off and give Robin a break. I think kicking up a giant fuss about something which OBVIOUSLY isn’t directed in a manner to be offensive is much more damaging.
Oh I didn’t get the sarcastic memo about bullies, so I’ll get this person fired.
Great!
4 posts in 3 days ..
http://www.crun...y/twitter/posts
Good post. It’s a hot company, how could you not write about them? Shouldn’t a Tech blog write a lot about hot Tech companies? Wouldn’t that just be intuitive?
Why did you include a homophobic line in the image that accompanied the post that went to your feed? That was a disturbing thing to have to see and was not appreciated.
I took the image from another post as indicated at the bottom of my article. Didn’t notice until it was published.
So if you did notice it, you wouldn’t have published it? I don’t see what difference leaving a note at the bottom does. You’re still choosing to use this image. Why don’t you find one that says Facebook’s not for n***ers in brown text and use it in your next post? Don’t forget to credit the source at the bottom of that post too…
You probably didn’t pay attention, but I changed the image after 30 seconds or so, after I noticed.
What’s with the catty, defensive response and utter lack of responsibility?
Maybe “Thanks for noticing and we sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by it” would be appropriate.
or maybe “Gosh, how embarrassing that I don’t do 2 seconds of visual due diligence when I p2p pictures.”
It’s stuff like this that makes me really resent that TechCrunch is a must-read. I wish it wasn’t.
relax buddy
Be that as it may, it showed up in my feed reader with the homophobic image. A little contrition would be nice.
I think the appropriate thing to do here would be to a) apologize for inadvertently offending people and b) take the five minutes to upload a new image so you can remove the credit link and stop providing free traffic to a bigot (DarkMotion), instead of just saying “hey, i blurred out the ‘fag’ part, relax!”
ohdeargod, what are you guys talking about?
I feel left out, I didn’t check this as soon as it was posted!
(Though I could have if I twittered… heh)
I also was dismayed to see the original image for this post in the feed. The original image is still on TechCrunch’s servers: http://www.tech...witter-lame.png
Given the offensiveness of the image, simply attributing your source exacerbates the issue. It drives people to the original and continues to alienate your readers and encourage bigotry.
Please remove the original image, your modified version, and the link to the source. I’d like to believe this was truly just an oversight and not a lapse of judgment.
For an organization that prides itself on integrity–with regards to coverage, advertising, NDAs, etc.–I’m surprised and disappointed to see any delay in fixing this.
Image deleted, link removed.
“Lame” is offensive to paraplegic people, please correct this immediately, tia
Updated the post to reflect how sorry we are. Not at all our intention to offend anyone, and I honestly missed it when I embedded the original image.
You just don’t get it, do you?
YOU SCREWED UP. BAD.
You are still giving the author of the “NOT FOR FAGS” image credit by using his picture, even if edited. I would recommend using a different picture instead of blurring that one out.
I appreciate you removing the links and all. It’s sad that someone would create that image. Thanks for addressing this.
Come on! You seriously think he would have put that up there if he saw anything offensive? He didn’t create the image.
You have no idea how annoying some of you can be. TC doesn’t require you to read every article, feel free to skip the ones you don’t want to hear about. People just love to complain about not wanting to hear about certain topics and about how it wastes their time but then they of course have to post about it letting us all know that their time really isn’t that important.
Why don’t you angry nerds step away from the computer and go get some sunlight.
It’s not about what articles you like and don’t like, it’s about common decency. The word ‘fag’ is HIGHLY offensive to gays. It would be like writing “Or for N*****s” to refer to African Americans. But it’s used everyday as a derogatory word, and that’s frustrating. Cause most straight people just don’t get it. They don’t hear or see all the hate that’s directed toward gays on a daily basis. It sucks. And we’re tired of dealing with it. So yeah, we’re angry.
I’m not saying that it isn’t common decency. I’m saying it was most likely an accident. Maybe gays don’t make mistakes?
@truestory – you won’t be saying the same thing if he put something about your mom and then said “we are sorry if it offended you”…..and Robin looked even more of a douche with that insincere apology….
even Obama said “I screwed up”…..
so next time make a mistake….own up like a man and move on.
Just for the notice, Robin is from Belgium and in our national french radio we have a gay show every week called : “Bang Bang, l’émission pas pour les pédé”, which literally transaltes to “Bang Bang, the show not for the fags”. It is runned by gays and is a great show.
No offence, I think the picture is disturbing, but it’s not easy for a foreign person with a different culture and language to fully understand impact of it !
My 2cts
its “growing like a weed” partly due to the fact that one of the most popular tech blogs with millions of readers covers (and pumps) it up every day !!!
Welcome to TwitterCrunch!
We love twitter…
right now we read more than tweet-
It’s a great way to stay plugged in…
Tweet…Tweet…Tweet!!!!
Send us a tweet @businessethos
Bring it on! Post on twitter daily. Who else has something going that’s really worth constantly talking about?
How about the zillions of ACTUAL startups. What exactly defines a startup here? Christ Techcrunch still awards Facebook!
Keep them coming. I appreciate the Twitter related articles.
When Google was an up and comer the tech writers focused on them too.
There was a reason for that.
Twitter is not quite Google but it’s the most exciting product since….
Interesting insights… I might add one: people get so addicted to type 140 characters or less, they sleep, eat and walk twittering
– Tweet convo has never been this… embedded 
i used to balk at twitter, but its clear that it has projected a change in communications habits through the market. call it micro-broadcasting, whatever…it seems to fit nicely into our ultra-short attention span culture.
One doesn’t have to read about Twitter in the news everyday to know what a valuable and fun tool it is.
Twitter is even chaning the way we do searches. Give it a try it. Go to twitter search the next time you are looking for something and compare the results to Google. For more read: Google’s First Real Threat? http://lewmoorm...eal-threat-twit
Fags, written out in pink? Excuse me?
You’d of preferred a different colour?
Clever, Sarah. Is yours representative of the quality of the great minds to be found here at TechCrunch?
Pretty much, and thank you
How about if I write “Sarah, you’re a c*nt” in red letters?
Twitter means that when you post you post to a world as big as you have made it or others have made for you. Now that is intellectual capital that some can leverage in the right hands. It might be a more powerful tool than Linkedin or Facebook. Facebook and Linkedin requires one to either get or make the introduction. It’s about membership, it’s about being a paying customer, it’s about exacting limitations and manners and rules. Twitter is on the borders of the frontier of the wild west and has the look and feel of the Internet before the naive masses arrived
Twitter is simply an AOL chatroom from 1997 that uses text messages. Being able to share a link to a group of friends, or strangers, or have a remote online meeting is nothing new. In 2001, we had 80 person dev meetings via Yahoo IM.
Just like chatrooms, the vast majority of traffic is crap. Now it is just crap via Blackberries and a lot more people happen to be online these days.
It only gets hyped for the reasons you mentioned (i.e. Evan Williams, etc ), IMHO.
Robin – big thanks for the link and for commenting on CN yesterday. You (and the others) write about twitter so much because, partly, it’s easy and it’s what you know. It’s also the hot thing in the valley so it makes sense to provide more coverage to it for those in the valley (you are in the valley by paycheck ha) Nothing wrong with that.
The Kevin Rose post got so much attention for two reasons – let’s be honest here mmkay?
1. he got the post on digg even tho the initial digg commenters said it didn’t deserve it
2. he got the comments because the post was silly and wrong – getting followers for kevin rose is easy – all he needed was one tip “be kevin rose”
The most important thing is to remember that what we write about is what people think and act on. Would so many developers run to create twitter apps if so many blogs didn’t write about it every day? Nope. If we all wrote about healthcare apps, developers would create those. I am fearful that we are sending a batch of developers down a road that will never payoff for them. Similar issue as with the iphone and showing off app after app who made money – it’s like a late night infomercial.
Every resource/blog/site has to make decisions on what they cover. I have made the decision to cover apps (esp. as many nyc apps as i can) that are generating revenue and/or provide utility. Sadly I know that my choice won’t get me the traffic or eyeballs that covering a mix (like you do) of twitter/iphone apps and other startups does but I am ok with that.
I don’t buy that bloggers writing about Twitter drives more developers to create apps for the utility. I think Twitter deserved that on their own and we just turned a bit of attention to it. (e.g. I know some developers of Twitter apps in Europe that don’t read TechCrunch).
Other than that, fair points.
If those developers know that blogs are favor to Twitter applications, then sure they will drive to develop for it.
In Crunchbase there are a ton of companies added there daily. Coupled with the intake form here at TC, you can’t tell us that there are not enough new start-ups out there for you guys to show us daily.
We write about plenty of other startups.
Remember that no matter what we write about, we always get bashed by someone who feels what we’re doing is somehow not the way TechCrunch should be catering to his blogging needs.
It’s the Here and Now Web: of course we’ll see more about Twitter. {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/wrevvQl8uz_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”It’s the Here and Now Web: of course we’ll see more about Twitter. ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/LGHVqPfp7f”}}}
Twitter is good and I do love how places like CNN has used it to raise their cool factor, but seriously, all of this free push I just don’t understand.
Did they give shares in to top bloggers, so if they sell for a billion, everyone comes off?
There are many start-ups doing much bigger things than Twitter in terms of valuation and products are concerned, but for the past few months of coming here specifically, it has been a Twiiterwhorefest.
We get it, Twitter is really cool as it bridges RSS and instant messaging… ok.
Why would start-up readers be irked?
My personal example: here it is, we totally revolutionize the zip format but yet I get to feel that we as a start-up are not doing nothing relevant to get TC attention because we did not make application that allow users to “tweet” each other using their Tivo.
Some company brews a Twitter app overnight based on a comment by what Mike A. says he wish someone would make, and BOOM, TC frontpage love.
I was about to incorporate Twitter into our application, because there are still a zillion uses that no one has thought of yet, but why should I help raise the value of this company when they seem to already have all of the behind-the-scene guys rooting them?
At the end of the day, great features, users, and a good API will need to transform into money, and not only selfish money that only the company makes, but Twitter needs to figure out how their users can make money.
It amazes me how Twitter gets more press here on TC than even Facebook (and apps), and that is something really weird to me.
@Allen – Totally agree. Only a handful of the twitter apps will ever be a success story. Just like the whole fb app “revolution” – only a handful are very profitable. Same with the iPhone and whatever else comes down the road.
I agree that Allen has taken a more focused on the NYC scene, and that is great. The coverage he gives companies is fair and balanced, and that isn’t anything to do with FoxNEWS!
I personally like reading about different companies that are doing something outside of twitter, fb apps, and iPhone. There is a lot more to the tech startup world than the next twitter app.
Keep doing what you are doing Allen on your blog CN, it’s what people need to read. Not saying that TC shouldn’t be read, but we all need some diversity – otherwise all blogs would resemble TechCrunch and how boring is that???
Rex
I don’t mind the twitter coverage, but try to keep it under 140 characters
classic!
+1
+1
~LOL~ 1 million Kudos!
“why twitter is not lame or for fags” . . . ????
so now you’ve resorted to writing articles on twitter about why you write articles about twitter?
Just admit Twitter pays you for coverage and get it over with.
I’ll admit I didn’t get the value of Twitter at first, but after following the right people I’ve been able to stay updated on very important things in my industry and market. I don’t have time to visit 20 blogs a day but looking at Twitter posts for quick updates is easy.
It’s also allowed me to update others as well.
so don’t go to 20 blogs, learn the value of an rss feed and use a client that doesn’t suck (google’s reader).
You can even embed on you igoogle page so you don’t have to open another tab to get there. 140 chars is not enough for anything interesting. Period. If you are so ADD you cannot read an fing article, maybe you need some time away from the computer and twitter is only fueling your inability to get shit done.
Twitter is definitely a hot startup and a useful service. Its here to stay, techcrunch rocks and if you don’t have a twitter account…get one!
http://twitter.com/cliffdailey
Okay thanks
Absolutely Sarah!
Meh…
Twitter is not and will never be cool, know how I know? I checked with highschoolers and College kids and universally got blank stares.
Twitter is technology masturbation, only good for technologists and bloggers to communicate with the people that hang on their every mental diarrhea.
Blogging I can get, tweeting is like text messaging a bunch of people I don’t give a f*ck about, so Fap away TC and tell you self its worthwhile. I predict that in 2 decades that the only thing of twitter that will remain the memory of the fail whale, and a snicker for the fools that wasted so much time trying to convince us it was worth a damn.
Keep the coverage coming. There are new services every day for Twitter. You can write about them a few times a day to keep up (but don’t
)
I came across a new service myself today that I am sure will cause a little controversy. It is a way for you to get thousands following you in a short amout of time and is a legitimate service although some will definately frown on it. Here it is, comment on what you think about it:
http://tiny4.us/gamstn
And no its not my service. It is all over Twitter today.
What say you?
Sharing short bite sized updates about my life or the live of people I “know” is not meaningful to me in the slightest, my day is busy enough as it is.
Adding meaningless details such as whether or not someone I know is getting a coffee at Starbucks, or if they are a baseball fan, or they are reading an investment book, who cares!
Even less important to is how the service changes from day to day, or blog post to blog post…
Twitter is becoming a buzzword. Every Day I am experimenting with some new Twitter based web services or desktop clients
@John how about experimenting with our geo-tagging twitter service?
Wait, we gotta shove green in there, and the cloud.
How about a green, geo-tagging, cloud-based twitter service that effectively leverages the user base for a seamless ….
Whats happening to twitter is just like what happend to the web
banners and add’s
every post i get on twitter from someone i like to read is just a add for someting…
twitter is becoming crap…
I generally have no problem about articles about Twitter itself.
It’s the apps that build on Twitter that should not receive so much attention. Please, guys.. there are soo many other stuff happening that deserve attention. Twitter apps are NOT a business. Sure, they may be cool and useful, and sure, you can write about 1 of them a week, but all this constant news about them? Gimme a break..
It’s amazing how much people can write about Twitter when it’s a site with a limit of 140 words.
You obviously have completely freedom to write about anything you want – after all, its your blog.
My personal experience is the following: I used to love techcrunch as some place to read ‘hot startup news/opinions’. Reading about useless things like twitter downtime (come on .. how is that quality news?) has turned me away from techcrunch – I read it once a week now because I have to sift through a bunch of junky posts.
Its your choice – whether you want people like me valuing every post you put out and waiting for the next useful piece of news, or you want to publish what you know and are ok with users losing interest.
I don’t think any reader has problems with posts regd twitters business model etc. Its those useless once a month twitter downtime posts. In our company we joke that twitter does not need a blog of its own now.
I totally agree. I’m close to ending my RSS subscription with TechCrunch. Just too much noise.
Honestly, I wish you had an RSS feed with only the most popular stories – or some other sort of filter – maybe by author.
TC needs to realize that readers and VIEWERS of their site are the only reason why they are here. We come to this place to stay up to date on important news in the tech industry. Our time is valuable and should always be taken into consideration. Useless drivel should be cut out. It’s insulting.
I agree I don’t get the whole twitter thing either. If I want to read something I want to read a whole article not a blurb.
Twitter helped me get friends. Now I can be socialized like my mom
Twitter has become a huge tool for journalists. It’s why we cover Twitter all the time tool. It’s an immensely useful social network for personal and professional uses.
In fact, just the other day I made a screencast and post about how to use Twitter for reporting.
It comes down to this: ignore Twitter at your own peril.
TwitterCrunch.com
That’s a new url for you to utilize all of your thoughts on twitter. The people that complain about your twitter postings, like myself, remember the days when techcrunch wasn’t filled with postings about twitter. But now it seems daily, you have twitter posts.
Listen to your audience TechCrunch, i’m sure you think this little twitter controversy has increased views, but it’s turning readers like myself off. I used to visit you guys daily – now it’s more like once a week. That’s the difference and the real reason you should watch repetitious subject matter.
But i guess it’s a balance… if your interest in twitter is greater than your loss of views on TechCrunch then i guess it’s worth it for you – Blog Away!
Thing is, there’s no ‘audience’, every reader feels differently about these things on different occasions. And we have yet to see a loss of views at TechCrunch, trust me.
It may be seen more as a plateau in growth than a loss. The reason I’m frustrated is that it seemed TechCrunch used to be a place all about start ups and great ideas. Only reporting on the big companies like Google and Yahoo frequently because of their relevance.
I, for one, miss the inspiration that this blog used to excite within, by sharing new and exciting ideas taking place throughout the tech world. I think bloggers are more excited about twitter than anyone else, because it’s a giant distribution network with no middle man.
Tragically, the wannabe hip techsters on here have missed the point. Twitter is exactly what TC should be reporting on – it’s the most exciting property on the web at the moment.
TC should be reporting on exactly that – whether it’s a startup or an expanding monster.
I think most of this grumbling is because Twitter is a) a Marmite product – people love it or loathe it and b) no long the preserve of the hipsters (ho ho) who post replies on TC.
Actually, this reminds me why I rarely read the comments on this site.
No reason to be defensive Ben – It is what it is.
Twitter is nothing but a website for stalkers …
How about you do a research about how many sex-offenders are on twitter… and let people know about that too ….
Fact: On the crunchbase there are over 300 companies/websites that utilize twitter in some way.
Twitter is news now but it won’t be long before it’s full of fodder just like everything else that got popular. Myspace anybody? The fact is, for every good thing that results from sites like twitter there are too many bad things they cause. It provides journalism, help, direct customer service, updates and info on sports and news. However for the average person it causes anti-social behavior, lack of communication skills and a whole mess of complications with self-awareness and the perception of reality.
Spending hours of your day updating and reading tweets does not make you social or sociable. It’s just destroying your ability to face to face and that’s the majority use of twitter. This is coming from a computer nerd. I thought I was sheltered and anti-social. I was way more active and involved in high school and college than most kids are today. It’s odd how geeks are now more face to face social than the typical popular people.
I appreciate all the Twitter posts personally. I like to stay on top of all the new startups and mashups. Keep up the good work guys.
Robin, I completely agree with you. Twitter is definitely one of the bigger “up-and-coming” social networking tools on the internet, and more. Twitter is where I receive some of my news, (aside from RSS feeds from Google Reader), it’s where I list all my recent updates to my followers, and it’s where I find out about what’s personally going on in some of the lives of more famous people.
Personally, I can’t wait until I see more booming applications to use with twitter. I really only use SMS updates from twitter, the website itself, and then twitpic, as far as websites associated with twitter, but I recognize the vast potential that the API has. I enjoy reading about all the technological updates here on TechCrunch, not just the non-Twitter related ones, and I look forward to reading more, whether they be Twitter or non-Twitter related.
FYI, I would follow you guys on Twitter, but I already get pretty much all the updates through Google Reader.
Keep up the good work!
–Dru89
But, why do you write about why you write about Twitter? And, will you continue to do so?
I’m thinking about writing a post on that.
fuck twitter news any more,I feel boreing!!!!!!!!!!!
“the original image contains a word that is offensive to some” – I guess Twitter is only for cunts like you.
TOO LONG DIDN’T READ.
There’s a movement demanding your resignation after the “fag” advertisement. What if you would have written N****R in brown like you wrote fag in
pink? This is outrageous. How can someone even think about doing something like this in this day and age?
I found your original image disgusting by it’s use of the word “fags” and reckless on your part. Not to mention, you make no apology for the mistake but instead are combative in your responses. Repulsive.
I did apologize, and before reading this comment.
Umm, you chose to say “we” apologize. You didn’t claim any responsibility for you being the one that fucked up.
I agree with another poster here, Twitter isn’t for bigoted cunts like you.
You must be TechCrunch’s very own Ann Coulter.
Yeah, that really doesn’t pass muster as an apology.
Your “apology” sucks.
“twitter isn’t for fags”… but I guess cunts have free rein on techcrunch.
Robin, thank you for your apology–but I find it disingenuous in that you say you didn’t notice the word when you nabbed the graphic from darkmotion. In the original graphic, the word ‘fags’ is no fainter than the word ‘lame’, so if you could read the graphic at all, it would be hard to miss.
What’s more, you and a few of the other posters on here don’t seem to grasp that a) gay people use the internet; b) gay people can be found in abundance in the tech world; c) gay people, like blacks, latinos and women, are rightly offended and upset by certain words used to describe them, and those words are common knowledge. Using the image and the word was not an oversight, it was a choice.
I’ve already left a comment on Pasquale’s blog. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by this kind of ignorance, but it’s the last thing I expect to see manifested on a site like this.
I, too, am often sorry when I get caught.
Now try some ownership.
Your apology says:
We’re sorry we offended people.
Your apology should say:
We understand and empathize with the offense we caused.
Robin – I believe the right title is “Why often we don’t have anything to cover at TechCrunch so we write about Twitter”. TC readers don’t need 25 posts everyday, however each should have value and should be meaningful.
Best,
Mike
Word
Most writers in TC are excellent, even Leena Rao who just started. Robin has a looooooooong way to go to get to their level… Just compare articles.