Comments on: Public timelines: do we need them?

By: Metablogging.gr » Blog Archive » Θεωρία twitter

Metablogging.gr » Blog Archive » Θεωρία twitter — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:30:18 +0000

[...] Public timelines: do we need them? [...]

By: vrypan

vrypan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:24:37 +0000

@nikan: Well, this is up to the developers to decide. Does it matter in resources? I don’t know. After all, it’s just one of the millions of pages a service like twitter has to render.

There are smart ways to create it using less resources than the rest of the pages that are personalized. Plus, you get the RSS feed apps like twittervision.com need.

Oh, and if I were a twitter developer, this would be my favorite page. A “console” where I see what is going on. An overview of the universe I created.

By: Nikos Anagnostou

Nikos Anagnostou — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:15:11 +0000

@adamo Valid point!

By: adamo

adamo — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:47:02 +0000

Not an everyday use, but a public timeline on a service like twitter may be useful to determine who did something first on a certain subject. Sort of like the old days when people were photographed with a newspaper showing the front page and date clearly, just to prove a certain position in the (general) timeline.

I am sure though that the above is not what the twitter public timeline is designed for.

By: Nikos Anagnostou

Nikos Anagnostou — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:13:37 +0000

@vrypan Why can’t a flash movie serve this purpose? Think of the server loads that the public timeline causes and the educative outcome of its existence and you will agree with me that it doesn’t worth the cost.

By: vrypan

vrypan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:46:38 +0000

We need them because they are the first thing a new user sees. It lets newcomers get a feeling of what this service is about, how people usually behave in it, and the possible uses of it.

To put it in a different way: if you don’t have your own (and friends’) timeline, the next best thing is the public timeline.