Long time readers may recall that I’ve discussed this before, but for the benefit of anyone unaware, it’s worth repeating.  If you have something to say about a post at Simple Justice, twitting about it is not the way to engage in a conversation.  The phrase I’ve come up with to gently make this point is to respond that twitter is fleeting; leave a comment.

This occurred to me again yesterday due to some reactions to my post about Joel Rosenberg.  There were a number of very kind thoughts expressed about Joel on twitter, but few would ever know.  More importantly, Joel’s wife, Felicia, would never see them.  If anything, my hope would be that Felicia would know that Joel’s memory survives, and my guess is that the twitterers would want that as well.  So what are they thinking?

A twit* about a post makes no sense.  Twitter is a different platform, as are Facebook and, for the three people who just joined the internet last week and don’t know much about it, Google+.  It’s not that it’s evil to use a platform other than the one where the thing about which you’re commenting exists, but that it’s ineffective.  If there is a conversation happening in one room, talking in another room is a waste of time. You aren’t part of the conversation.

Twitter is particularly worthless when it comes to offering thoughts, deep or angry, nice or angry, about a blawg post.  Only people who follow you or to whom you direct your twit will ever see it, and then only for an instant.  Then it goes down the list and fades into obscurity.  So you’ve got a really cool thing to say?  If no one sees it, then what’s your post.  Think, “if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no on there to hear it,” sort of thing.

I have tried, in my inartful way, to make this point over the past few years, to no avail.  Some people have reacted poorly to my suggestion, outraged that I am attempting to dictate where they are allowed to comment on my posts. Others can’t be bothered. Twitter is easy, far easier than expressing fully formed ideas (especially since the new, horribly difficult captcha that my program provider has rammed down my throat). 

But twitter is fleeting.  It’s there, then it’s gone.

My initial antagonism toward twitter has given way to my occasional use, and it can be fun at times.  While I have accounts on Facebook and Google+, I never use them and they’re merely placeholders.  If someone writes something to me there, I will never see them. But I usually see twits directed to me.  I’m not unappreciative of the twits that react to posts here, but it just seems to much more useful to post a comment, so that anyone reading the post can see the thought as well.  Maybe it’s a great idea. Maybe not. But it just makes no sense to me for someone to try to discuss a blawg post on a different platform.

And while we’re on the subject, twitter is a really lousy platform for discussion.  Any idea that requires more than 140 characters is lost, or become the content of the dreaded serial twit, which defeats the whole point of twitter.  This is particularly true of people new to twitter, who twit to people they don’t know and come off as either antagonistic or demand a response that would require 10,000 words.  They don’t get the medium.  I just ignore them.

But if you’ve got something you think is worthy of saying about a post at SJ, I urge you to do so in a comment here rather than a twit.  I, and many others, usually enjoy the conversation. It’s one of the features here. If you talk about it elsewhere, then it contributes nothing to the discussion and as far as anyone else knows, it never happened.

* It’s become my habit to call those things we do on twitter “twits.”  I didn’t like the word “tweet” in the beginning, and still don’t. You may think me a complete jerk for doing so, but that’s what I choose to do.

I’ve been informed, usually be a youthful reader, that they aren’t called “twits,” but tweets, because they assume I’m either too old or stupid to realize.  I’ve also been informed that my choice of calling them “twits” is so disturbing that they can’t bear to read my posts.  Anyone who feels this way is urged to go elsewhere immediately, for both our sakes. I call them “twits” and plan to continue to do so. I am not 12 and do not favor cutesy internet lingo. You are not my tweeples. If you can’t get past it, we have nothing more to discuss.