Should I retire from the Twitter police?
December 5th, 2008 catnipTags:constructive criticism, etiquette, feedback, twitter
Posted in technology, Uncategorized | 13 Comments »
A number of times on Twitter I have corrected someone’s grammar or warned them that announcing defriendings makes them *sound* self-important. In fact, my Twitter profile currently states “I am the Twitter show-off police, if you use it to show off, you’re likely to get a sarky comment from me :)”
I see this as a service, but how would I feel, perhaps it feels more like a personal attack? Would people rather I just muttered to myself instead? Should I retire from the “Twitter Police”? I’d love to hear what others think of this!
December 5th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I think you do it very nicely, Twitter would be a duller place without it.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:53 am
i think it is good that we each feel free to pull one another up on our behaviour (that sounds so pompous when put like that !) from time-to-time, not only because it is easy to get carried away with the moment, but also to help us *not* to take ourselves too seriously.
or putting it another way, if one of us is acting like a bit of a c0ck, isn’t it better for that person to be told they are so they can come back to being a nice person again, rather than be left to carry on thus annoying people & gradually losing friends ?
December 5th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Grammar – I’m totally anal on that one too! you never do it in an ‘attacking’ way, in fact it’s always quite funny and makes me smile. I do it too – just DM’d Mr Ashton telling him off for using CENTER rather than CENTRE. But like you tend to do, I made clear this bugbear a personal quirk of mine, which just makes it amusing.
The latter – I think I’d rather know why people ‘quitting’ me because I’m ridiculously over-sensitive and I’d worry I’d done something to upset them if I didn’t know I was part of an overall, totally not personal ‘cull’. But that’s just me and I’m starting to think that, on the internet at least, I need a slightly thicker skin!
Please don’t change the way you are on Twitter, you’re like a firm but fair mum who steers us in the right direction! : )
December 5th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Agree with everything that’s been said so far.
Also, I know this is stating the bleeding obvious but, I know how easily I can forget the difference between online talking with someone I know irl and someone I don’t and I think a lot of people I follow on twitter forget from time-to-time too.
I’m not anywhere near as techy/techie/tekkie (still never know how to spell it :) as most people on Twitter. I find this frequently intimidating. I’m also not a blogger. But I started using Twitter, on the recommendation of a much techier friend, as a learning experience and that’s exactly what it has been. It has been personally invaluable to me in recent months – not least that I have been able to find clever, funny people to talk to about all kinds of stuff (work and not-at-all work related) during my work day. Since becoming a lone worker, unexpectedly, yet working for a very large and strange public sector organisation, Twitter has helped me stay sane!
So gentle nudges by the Twitter police are absolutely fine. The Twitter police needs to be especially gentle to those of us who are just getting GCSE rather than Phd Twitter :)
December 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
No no no!
Don’t change, it’s fun!
If you go too far I’ll just remind you about the grammar pendants….! ;)
December 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
When you started following me recently I looked at your Twitter Police statement and laughed. It did make me want to be all show offy and Tweet that I’d done a handstand or something equally childlike though.
And the internet doesn’t have enough Grammar Police, you’re definitely filling a need.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Well, I think you do it from a position of love and care, so what you do is fine. Nicky’s last line puts it well!
Typos/grammar are tricky in case you end up correcting/laughing at honest typos or people who have trouble writing. I tend to be pretty scrupulous in my own writing but I’ve got a foot in the ‘as long as the message carries’ group too. ouY nac daer siht ecnetnes retfa lla, m’I erus.
Anyway, I got caught out slagging off someone’s Twitter usage and didn’t enjoy how that developed so I think twice now (eg I kept it buttoned when I saw all the ‘RT and follow me free cheap free tat’ things last night).
December 5th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Well I’m not so sure about the grammar police. But I’ll let you off as long as you don’t start trying to correct lolcats.
There is definitely a need for the show-off police to be there though. It’s the deterent that keeps things in check.
Of course there’s times when people may wish to push things a little. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of cheeky high jinx and a clip round the ear will set most things straight.
Otherwise what’s the alternative. Nobody wants to see a twitter-riot do they?
December 7th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Please keep policing! There’s only so much “me me me!” we can take!
December 9th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Keep doing it. In fact, step it up a notch!
December 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I hate Twitter policing on the whole, but because I know you and understand the tone in which your policing is carried out I actually quite like it. Sometimes make me chuckle a little. To me its a question of who it is policing, a good friend I would expect to pop my ego were it ever too large. If it was someone I don’t know I’d probably wonder why they don’t just unfollow me.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I think you’re doing a grand job! Keep up the good work!
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
[...] raises this discussion on her own blog, where she asks, “Should I retire from the Twitter police?” Its particularly interesting because her policing is in fact in an effort to prevent her friends [...]