Not on Twitter please
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- In a June 2016 blog post, I asked, "Is there a well-understood hashtag or abbreviation that means: Worth discussing but impossible on Twitter?"
- At the time there wasn't one. I proposed "WORDBIT" as an awkward acronym for "WORth Discussing But not on Twitter." But it was too awkward and I haven't used it.
- I'm still looking for one. Let me know if you notice that a good one is emerging.
- If I had one, I'd use it often. I'd also link to this page where I can explain myself.
- I like dialog, but I don't like oversimplification. In fact, I like dialog in part because it helps us avoid oversimplification.
- Hence, I don't like dialog on Twitter. Or I don't like it once it reaches the point when serious contributions require more than 140 characters. For most interesting dialogs, that's fairly early in the process.
- If I'm in a Twitter dialog and someone asks me a question that requires a longer answer, I'd rather shift the dialog to a more accommodating platform than oversimplify or fall silent.
- If I point to this page from one of my tweets, here's what I'm proposing.
- Send me an email with your full question or objection. I'll reply by email.
- Post your full question or objection to Google+ and I'll reply. If you'd like, I can start the Google+ thread and you can reply.
- The advantage over email is that others can watch our dialog, join in, share the URL, and so on.
- I know this kind of public, long-form dialog could also work on FB. But I've deliberately deleted my FB account, and recommend that you do the same. Let's not go there. For reasons that are similar but not as strong, I don't use LinkedIn.
- I know this could also work on Diaspora, Mastodon, and other social-media platforms. While I hope they take off and prove to be superior to G+, they haven't done that yet.