Back on the silly microblog

[jducoeur]

In case anybody cares: I've gotten myself back onto Twitter again. I've actually had an account there for ages, but haven't checked it since their IM integration broke months ago. (It's been at "we'll fix it Real Soon Now" ever since, and I can't be bothered to go to their website.)

But in my business, Twitter is kind of expected (you're not anybody in social media these days if you're not on the thing), so I finally downloaded a decent client (Twhirl), and I'm up and running again. I still think it's essentially a toy, but it's one of the few services in approximately the same space as CommYou. (That is, easy semi-realtime conversation.) It serves as a good constant reminder to me of what I'm trying to do better.

Anyway: I have my usual handle over there; feel free to friend me...

Comments

[jrising.livejournal.com]

After avoiding Twitter without much difficult for quite a while, you piqued my interest with "twitter is expected in social networking circles". That's one of the areas I'm going, so I'm curious how it's used there. Anyway, I'm on now-- jrising.

I don't think I want to juggle another communication client, though. But I think I've found some alternatives: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/pidgin-2-0.ars/4 has a Pidgin plugin for using status messages as Twitter statuses, and I'm sure there's a RSS-to-Pidgin plugin somewhere. Alternative, http://code.google.com/p/microblog-purple/ might be replacement for the latter piece or the whole thing.

[jducoeur]

Anyway, I'm on now-- jrising.

Okay, I'm now following you.

Interesting -- I hadn't come across microblog-purple yet, and that might suit me better than the alternatives. The ones that use status messages kind of bug me, actually, because I think it's a misuse: while people talk about Twitter and status in one breath, I don't think it's quite the right paradigm for this. (That is, I find Twitter at its best a bit more conversational and interactive than a status message.)

What I *want* is to treat Twitter as a single IM buddy (much like CommYou's interface with IM). This sounds like it might be along those lines, so I'll have to check it out. I may or may not use it -- Twhirl is quite nice -- but at the least I'd like to see how it works. Thanks for the pointer...

[jrising.livejournal.com]

Tell me if you try microblog-purple-- I haven't yet. My motivation for equating IM status and Twitter was because I have more of a vested interest in reviving an up-to-date IM status life than in a new time sink. But I recognize that they're different-- one of my first reactions to Twitter was, ooh, personal zephyr instances, I've been wanting those.

But I'm reasonably desperate for more integration in these time sinks. I only want to write a status message (or blog entry) once, and the more places it can offer to update the better.

[jducoeur]

Have you checked out friendfeed yet? IIRC, it has some replication capabilities that might suit you in this case...