Cindy Alvarez makes a much-needed observation: Twitter is not self-evidently interesting or useful to everyone. The fact that 90% of Twitter content comes from 10% of Twitter users may not be a hard ceiling, so the real topic of her post is, "How might the proportion of Twitter contributors increase?" While you might not agree that the 90-10 rule is a problem that needs solving, it's important to remember, as a Twitter enthusiast or skeptic, that most Twitter users don't see the value in tweeting.
Cindy's best quote comes from the comments section of this post: I think Twitter puts a bigger burden on the user to figure out “what do
you want from this” and I think that’s fine - but it would be great if
they had more exposure to “What are the possibilities? How are other
people using this? What are other peoples’ strategies for learning or
publishing here?
In case you're wondering, I'm Twitter-neutral. I use Twitter regularly, but I'm not fetishistic about it. It has value for me, but I can't imagine an argument that might convince the majority of my friends and relatives to tweet.
In fact, I think we're rapidly approaching "fatweegue." People are talking about Twitter too much. In some recent discussions I've attended, Twitter got such disproportionate attention that every other form of social media became the things-that-are-not-Twitter, mentioned in an aside.
In fact, when listening to future presentations on social media, I'm very, very tempted to offer the speaker a $20 bill to avoid all gratuitous mentions of Twitter. If you want Andrew Jackson to be your friend, it must be absolutely impossible to make your argument without mentioning Twitter.
Update: Tweetcraft, a Twitter plug-in for World of Warcraft, doesn't expand the Twitter market. It's the Venn diagram depicting the intersection between two groups of enthusiasts.
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