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Justin Yost posted a message on Twitter
RT @hackernewsbot: Why Retweet works the way it does... http://bit.ly/DuNfi
November 10, 2009 9:12 PM - Sign in to comment - Link
Evan Williams Explains Twitter’s New Retweet Feature —

Great explanation of the thinking behind a major new feature.

One thing to keep in mind is that Twitter, having reached the size of a pop-culture (rather than mere tech-culture) phenomenon, is going to stir up loud complaints every time they change anything, regardless of the merits of the change itself. Good for them for not being afraid to keep moving the service forward.

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Why Retweet works the way it does - Louis Gray
Seems like it's basically a like feature. - Holly Rae
Which means twitter now has two features that implement effective the same functionality, except one puts its output in your stream rather than in a hidden stream that no one looks at. - Andy Bakun
Evan Williams | evhead - Justin Yost
"I'm making this post because I know the design of this feature will be somewhat controversial. People understandably have expectations of how the retweet function should work. And I want to show some of the thinking that's gone into it. I've been a big proponent of this particular design internally at Twitter, because, while it won't serve every use case, I think it offers something new and powerful." - Justin Yost
twitter's philosophy: if it works for the community, break it. I've never seen more arrogant, high-handed behavior than what I see from them. this 'feature' is a metric. it serves no useful purpose to users whatsoever. - Karoli
1UP Karoli - Josh Haley
i don't see a problem with what they're doing... you can still do the old way, but why would you? to add a notation? that's about the only drawback, and he said they're probably going to implement that in the next code revision - Chris Heath
Chris, the whole concept behind what they just implemented is silly, and more importantly, it's a horrible user experience. Imagine explaining to a newbie that that Retweet thang they just used for the first time really did send it out to their followers, sort of. of course, their name probably never showed up on that retweet and someone else's avatar popped up in their friends' timeline, but hey...it's how ev likes it. - Karoli
I actually agree with @ev - RT @name RT @anothername RT @ANOTHERname With cut off Tweet = NOISE. - Mona N
Mona, lots of people don't do it that way but they do use the Rt feature as a conversational/contextual tool. - Karoli
Why Retweet works the way it does - Jason Goldman
I like how tweetdeck does RT now, hope they don't break it - WarLord
Karoli, what's silly about the concept that they've implemented? and how is it a horrible user experience? I think it makes more sense, so newbies will understand it better and start using mentions in a more purposeful way than just echoing, but the rt will still be there to provide that echo chamber anyways... - Chris Heath
Chris, I beg to differ. What a newbie will see is the avatar and name of someone they never followed, with a tweet. Underneath is the retweet text, but it's in 'tiny text', the bits people *don't* look at much. (I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell people how to tell what client a person used) - TxVoodoo
What TxVoodoo said, +1 Twitter is confusing enough for newbies. Chris, this feature is not a social feature. It's a marketing feature intended to locate swarms. I presume those swarms will probably evolve into a marketing tool which, like anything else, will be gamed wherever possible. - Karoli
And I just realized another reason to allow us to edit tweets-removing hashtags in original tweet. There are times when, if a certain hashtag is left in, certain individuals will engage, and I'm just not always up for that. (Yes, I'm being semi-cryptic to avoid offending anyone, but you can look at my twitterstream for clarification) - TxVoodoo
its not like anyone is paying to use twitter, or cant type rt and cut and paste, it just adds another way to interact with their system that they bought and paid for, we are kind of guests - Robert Higgins
Evan Williams | evhead: Why Retweet works the way it does - Igor Poltavskiy
Evan Williams: Why Retweet works the way it does. http://r2.ly/netz - Dave Winer
Why Retweet works the way it does - Rob Diana
Sharing: Why Retweet works the way it does http://bit.ly/1mjv4H - Rob Diana
Tx & Karoli, i guess we'll have to agree to disagree here - Chris Heath
Evan Williams @eV, CEO of Twitter, explains the thinking behind the new retweet functionality, and I have to agree. http://bit.ly/4mFQeV - James Mowery
Also, I made a blog post, in case you missed it. The thinking behind Retweets: http://bit.ly/DuNfi - Evan Williams
@Rober - others have used tha rationale before with the many other free services. However, without their users, they have no value. If Twitter were a tiny service, they wouldn't be able to have deals with other firms. - TxVoodoo
Why Retweet works the way it does - Niklas Sjöström
@TxVoodoo we can all agree that the users add value to twitter, I disagree that the concept of being able to follow anyone you like, without reciprocity has no monetary value. Although, it is beyond my ability to establish a monetary value, of the novelty of that knowledge breakthrough. I am positive if Twitter died off tomorrow, the founders would still be in demand for their insights. Fundamentally, the question is will you keep using twitter if they add more functionality into their product? Are features like Search, Lists, ReTweet bloatware? I am pleansantly surprised how @ev describes reTweet because it does have some novelty and it does differentiate itself from other services. While at the same time I can choose to ignore it and not change my ways if I like. - Robert Higgins
+50 to both @Karoli and @TxVoodoo for your comments here re:Twitter arrogance in new RT design and the visibility issue. If it's between an image and small, grey text, the image wins every time. The minimum they should do is show both avatars/pics similar to the way that it's done in search.twitter.com for the @ reply conversation threading (BTW, how come Twitter has never brought the convo surfacing to the main web UI? Would seem like a no-brainer to solve one of the bigger gripes with Twitter..make the changes USEFUL.. - Alex Schleber
@sw You know, it was already being polluted, and you have more control now. Perhaps I can interest you in a blog post: http://bit.ly/23o4Vm - Evan Williams
@ian_greulich Thanks. It gets less jarring. And you already have text from people you don't know via old method. More: http://bit.ly/23o4Vm - Evan Williams
@IslandBookworm Thanks. We may add commentary. I don't agree about the avatar. More info: http://bit.ly/23o4Vm - Evan Williams
Evan Williams | evhead: Why Retweet works the way it does http://bit.ly/5qkUYm - Kenichi Matsumoto

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