If you ignore all replies you miss replies you acutally want to see, and if not, you may have to wade through spam to get to those replies. It’s a possibility at least and one that’s not been mentioned by those touting the benefits of following who you want and getting DMs only from who you approve of.

It hasn’t been a problem yet that I know of, but, at least given the current structure, it’s a possibility as more users and spammers come to the site.

All one needs to do is check out some of the Twitter-meme-sphere analysis that’s being done and you will quickly realize that there’s an amazing emergent organic quality to the Twitter community. It is the most dynamic (in many ways) social network out there.

something better will replace it

That statement betrays both a poverty of imagination and an indolent curiosity. I don’t follow people to find out what they are “doing right now”. I follow people to find out where they are directing their attention. I’ve found more useful content through links posted to Twitter than through RSS, search, or social bookmarking. And timely, too.

People who only post their personal trivia and never link to useful content don’t get followed very long. But there are plenty of generous intellects out there who just want to share their joy in discovering new or at least novel information. Many of them are acknowledged thought leaders, others are simply astute and accretive by nature. Too bad you don’t know any.

Not sure what ev meant by “normal”, but I expect it’ll turn out to be people like Marco, who, fifteen years ago, could only see the web as a bunch of vanity pages.

People who can only see the superficial aspects of something they don’t understand illuminate their own inability to think creatively. At Wal-Mart, they’re called “customers”. On the web, they’re just exudate.

–Ax