Having a Bit of a Twitter and the Fall of Democracy

Posted by Stropp on April 15, 2008

Twitter is one of those Web 2.0 things that has been on the edge of my radar for quite some time now. I don’t remember where I first heard of it, but lately there has been a lot more fuss about it. Apparently Twitter has gathered quite a few followers and has reached a sort of critical mass and is now a force to be reckoned with.

For those of you who haven’t looked into it, Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking tool. It’s designed so that a user can’t write Lord of the Rings in a single post, it has to be a short, less than 140 characters message. Here’s an excerpt from their FAQ.

What is it?
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

The idea is that Twitterers would post lots of messages about what they were doing, where they were going, and follow other Twitterers doing their own things. In my case, I won’t be posting when I feed the cat, go to the bathroom, or do the ever more exciting going to work — aside from the fact that my employer has blocked all social networking, dating, and games sites from the office network. Doh! Can’t even check Stropp’s World at lunch!

I’ve been wondering for a while if I should be including any of the social networking applications in Stropp’s World. I’ve played with widgets like MyBlogLog in the past, and have done some stumbling with Stumbleupon, but not much else. With the growth of Twitter, I thought I’d give it a go.

You can expect to see me twittering about this blog, what I’m playing, and perhaps what I’m doing in game if I can Alt-Tab myself away for a few seconds.

Twitter has a number of widgets that can be added to web-sites. I decided to use the Flash version in the sidebar. It’s just above the Poll. You may need to enable or install Flash to see it, if you haven’t already.

Speaking of the Poll, now that I have the forums installed, I am considering moving the monthly Poll from the front page of the blog to The MOG Life board. The reason is that the Democracy plugin simply doesn’t have the features I’m looking for. It’s a reasonably old plugin, and the creator hasn’t done any work on it for well over a year now. The polls that the Simple Machines forums provide are light years better, not to mention I can have more than one at a time. Forum users can add their own as well.

So April may be the last month of Democracy.

I’d also like to hear from you regarding the forums. I’ve put a post up there asking you to contribute some ideas about what you would like to see in the Stropp’s World forums. I’ve got some ideas that I’m working out, but I’d love to hear yours.

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