louisgray.com - Latest Comments in http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Matt Searles — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:10:52 -0000

If I see something interesting, I re tweet it.. I try and be generous about it, but its always to the question of "does this have value in relationship to the values I'm trying to keep at the core of what I'm doing," does it have value to my network? My network is.. well its not like I'm purely connected to one group.. like its not all marketers.. so the guys trying to work out the future of the music business.. might find value from something a marketer was sharing.. a marketer getting into creating videos as a part of whatever.. might find value in finding out about something to do with sound or video that might help with production values.. So I don't think I'm usually a part of the echo chamber in how I re tweet.. I see it like innovation comes from a synthesis of disparate stuff.. and so I'm just synthesizing.

So I don't really see it as lazy.. I see it as curation..

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Shéamus — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:50:50 -0000

Louis, I enjoyed your thoughts but fundamentally disagree. ;) However, rather than clogging up your comments stream with a huge post, which is what I started to do, I've written an open rebuttal on my blog, which you might like to read: "In Defense Of The Re-Tweet". Be interested in your comments. Thanks.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

guruvan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:46:32 -0000

Totally learn something every day ;) Even from a retweet heh.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Shéamus — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:51:58 -0000

That's a Benjamin Disraeli quote; Twain, amusingly, re-tweeted it. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Paisano® — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:06:16 -0000

I've been struggling with this myself lately. I've gotten tired of seeing tons of retweets in my stream to stuff I've already read before. I made the decision recently to stop retweeting the most popular stuff that most people read such as techcrunch and mashable (yea I know, I write for them but they have no problems getting RT, trust me!).
I don't want to contribute to the noise pollution on twitter and want to make every tweet count. Yes, this means not sharing something that would be NEW to those few that don't subscribe to those popular blogs but so be it. I think overall it's a good move to make.
However, I will still share stories and posts to the less popular and more obscure blogs like this one, no offense, Louis! I mean in relationship to the general public and most of my followers.
I will also share pieces from other lesser known resources... hopefully sharing valuable information that MOST, not all, people would never have found otherwise or not until the big blogs catch wind of it. I enjoy breaking news and info before the larger slower outfits do.

Thanks for the food for thought. Like you said, there's no one right way to do this stuff but it doesn't hurt to share our ideas on possible methods that might contribute more to the community rather than merely serve ourselves better.

Pai

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Leslie — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:22:30 -0000

I tend to use RT to share things I find valuable. I rarely retweet blog posts, though it does happen if I see value there. I am more likely to do what I did tonight (I retweeted a tweet from Mona Numura, who has a friend seeking work - I wanted to expose her request to my network). If the person asks me for a retweet, or has "Please RT" or similar on the tweet i tend to ignore it more often than not. That also often keeps me from even clicking their link at all.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

.LAG — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:22:10 -0000

I think there's great value in re-tweeting. I don't think it's lazy if thought is given in "curating" the posts you re-tweet. Given that you only have 140 characters (less really if you account for leaving some space for commentary) I think sharing tweet and wrapping, hopefully, an insightful comment around it is quite useful. What I disgree with is people pressuring others by explicity asking for something to be re-tweeted. Let the reader decide if the post has pass-along value.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

donfuxx — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:27:09 -0000

I think retweeting is not always lazy! Sometimes somebody really twitters something amazing (doesn´t happen too often, unfortunately) and in this case I think the best way is to RT to give "discoverer" the credits he deserves.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Stan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:26:55 -0000

Strange that you would simultaneously complain about retweeting as breaking the conversational model of Twitter while focusing on a model which eschews conversation for the dispersal of links.

At any rate, I'd agree that asking for retweets is crass. Grumping about others doing it? I suppose it's about on par with people complaining about those who only seem to post links.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Rick Bucich — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:36:02 -0000

I see it as a thumbs-up for someone else's work; a way to recognize a good post or thought that might be of value to a wider audience. No sense putting it in my own words...because they aren't, especially if it is a topic for which I have no credible level of first-hand knowledge.

Another instance was the recent passing of a blogger's daughter Maddie. I felt that it would be in bad taste to post anything original since I did not know the family. Since they were trying to raise funds for the March of Dimes, re-tweeting donation requests was my way of spreading the word. Their goal was $3000 and last I saw exceeded $33,000. #maddie

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Jesse Stay — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:22:30 -0000

Louis, I do think you should try retweeting more just as an experiment to
see the effect. I've found people enjoy retweets more than they hate them.
Twitter's own flawed nature encourages disorganized noise, so most people
are used to that.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Rahsheen — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:20:23 -0000

If I'm quoting what someone said in a tweet, then that's a RT. If someone posts a link and I liked it, I'll probably just post it again. Do I have to give the original person credit in my tweet? I don't think so. I don't HAVE to. They didn't write the content, did they? If they did, I hope they linked their Twitter from their blog.

It sounds nice to give someone credit for pointing you to a resource and it's probably a useful metric if it was reliable at all, but it's kinda like citing the library as a source in addition to the book you got the information from. I file this need to give an individual credit via RT right along with people who feel they have to reciprocate everything.

Are you sharing things because you felt the information was good, or are you just trying to leverage someone else's content for your own benefit?

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:05:16 -0000

Jesse, I have heard others compare Retweeting to using Digg or Stumbleupon. Interestingly, I've greatly reduced my use of both those services of late as well. I don't send my likes from FriendFeed to Twitter either, because I've always tried to keep my noise level on Twitter low.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

maddiegrant — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:12:57 -0000

Looks like (from a later comment below) that you have no issue with rewriting tweets and adding a "via @" - which I agree is a better way to RT than a straight RT. :) Unless you are specifically quoting someone (regardless of a link) which I do sometimes with tweets that make me laugh out loud...

I also realize that from your point of view it doesn't make sense to RT since you're squarely in the 1% category of content creators... But many of us want to be editors (for want of a better term) who separate the wheat from the chaff for our more niche audiences...

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Regina — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:18:35 -0000

I'll retweet something if it makes me laugh or I think the people connected to me would be interested in it. I don't automatically retweet something simply because I see "please RT" scroll by (I mostly use Seesmic Desktop, so stuff scrolls.)

Like this comment, I've got the option to put it out there on Twitter, but who cares about my retweet habits? Well, someone might but I don't care to share it. I think that's the question, "Do I have any urge to share this with the people who follow me?"

I think Twanalysis is hilarious, but they say my tweeting is "is already tip-top! No improvements needed": http://twanalyst.com/status... , so, um of course I'm digging them ;)

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Robin Cannon — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:01:13 -0000

Sure, and there are times where I'll add a comment to a RT, e.g. "Great piece, didn't agree with conclusion". But for many articles you want to give the title (or at least context) and I think it's reasonable to provide credit to the person who found it with an @. At that point there's limited space out of 140 characters to provide additional value with your own comment.

There's definitely an argument for removing the RT chain from a tweet, i.e. "RT @xyz, RT @abc, RT@def blah blah" because then you're just taking up space by giving credit to multiple retweeters, but the article context and the original poster I think should be included in a tweet. If you have space for additional comment at that point then cool.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Jesse Stay — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:23:27 -0000

I find retweeting quite effective. I often see many retweets beyond my original retweet when I retweet something. It's a great way of promoting others' content, similar to Digg or StumbleUpon.

It's almost just as effective as a "like" on FriendFeed, and I often use the two similarly (and my likes go out to Twitter rather than me just retweeting it). It's the way I share good content that I think is deserving for others to read, without having to re-blog each one. IMO Retweets are powerful, and give you the opportunity to help, and highlight other users on Twitter whose content you like. You can't do that quite as effectively through a blog post (unless you Tweet your blog post, but even then you're taking the credit, rather than giving it all to them)

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

guruvan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:51:24 -0000

Yes, it will be measured.

Hopefully people will remember the words of Mark Twain: There are 3 kinds of lies in this world Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

guruvan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:45:43 -0000

@guykawasaki specifically recommended just this at one point. I do this often with links I'm resending.

At other times, I'm retweeting because I like the quote from a person, and/or I want that person tobe recognized for the profound or beautiful thing they said (with no link).

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:29:09 -0000

We both know that if something can be measured, it will be. How many followers? How many tweets? How many retweets? Unless we lose the ability to count, it will always happen.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:28:14 -0000

Jesse, I've seen you tweet my links, and it's quite effective when you do that. You have a loyal audience.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:27:30 -0000

Agree that this is the way to go. Perfect.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:27:09 -0000

If I get one article out of a hundred saying I'm arrogant, then those are pretty good odds, but that's hopefully the exception rather than the rule. I'm trying to help push people to think about what they do and how it could be interpreted.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:26:14 -0000

Thanks John. I know you're quite loyal, and it's appreciated. :)

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/you-have-entered-no-retweeting-zone.html

Louis Gray — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:25:40 -0000

Assuming the goal is to help distribute good content, could that be done without just baldly posting a RT and the original tweet? If I found good content you had posted, couldn't I write my own intro and send it along?