Twitter’s Poor Implementation of new RT functionality

Posted 7 Nov 2009 in Twitter | 1 Comments

Logging into Twitter yesterday evening, Twitter informed me of a new RT functionality:

Hi there, you’re part of a beta group receiving this feature, which means you may start seeing retweets in a new way. People who don’t have this yet will see your retweets prefaced by “RT”.

Beta-Notification
I also noticed that when following new users I was given the option of either opting in or out of receiving their Retweets.  I thought this would be useful functionality where many of the people you follow overlap and know each other.  It is not uncommon to see the same RTs on many occassions within certain sets of people.

Logging in this morning and seeing the new RTs in action has been a letdown though:

1. Retweet Display

what-rt-looks-like

Image 2: What a RT now looks like

  • The profile pic of the original poster is shown in your timeline & you only see a small text attributing the RT to the user you follow. I think this is mistake #1.
    • I trust the people I follow before I trust people I don’t know.  It is disconcerting to see unknown profiles show up in my timeline.
    • I shouldn’t have to search to see who sent the RT -  I should see the profile pic of the person I am following.
    • The above example was Retweeted by @Eirepreneur, a Twitter user whose input I value and whose RTs I am likely to read.  However I see the profile pic of someone I have never heard of (no offence to mikebutcher).
    • This indicates to me that Twitter don’t realise how users read Tweets.  I scan quickly for anything of interest, I do not read all of the Tweets or RTs in my timeline.
    • Logically, I should see @Eirepreneur’s profile pic in my timeline and only the username of the Retweeted user.

2. Retweet Functionality

rt-button

Image 3: Automated Retweet Link

  • There is a new “Retweet” link underneath each Tweet as per image 3 above.
  • However this “Retweet” option is not as handy as it first seems unfortunately.
    • The Tweet is automatically send to followers without giving users the option of editing or commenting on a RT!
    • I can’t stress enough that this ability to edit and add to a RT is a fundamental part of the spirit of Retweeting.
    • Users recommend articles, ideas, users etc to their followers.
    • Users comment on RTs.  Users compliment, ridicule, discuss, debate, encourage.
    • Ideas propegate and develop via creative use of RTs.

We can still of course use the ‘old-fashioned’ method by copying and prefacing with the letters “RT”.  That’s what I’ll be doing until Twitter listen to the feedback and make some changes before they roll out the new functionality across the board.

These are my initial thoughts.  Any other comments, compliments or gripes about the new functionality are very welcome!

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