BELLAMYBUDIMAN

Replying with RT in Twitter? Then You’re Probably an Idiot

Monday, August 31, 2009

Twitter has somehow found its way to Indonesia’s mainstream social networking level. Thousands, and literally thousands of internet-connected people have jumped to the bandwagon of this microblogging service. Is this something good? Yes, it shows that Indonesia’s online users have grown significantly compared to the previous years. But is this actually something that is good and flawless? No, having stubborn and clueless people that thought the internet is without a set of rules is something we — as early adopters — diss.

One of the matters involved here is as simply as what is the proper etiquette when you are replying someone else’s tweets, and whether you should use RT to reply or not. Let me give you the ground rules of proper manners on tweeting.

What is RT? And why is it such a big deal?
RT stands for ReTweet and NOT Reply To. And if you ask us if this is something that we made up or not, then the answer is NO. It is written in Twitter’s help guide, and let me quote that for you:

What does RT, or retweet, mean?
RT is short for retweet, and indicates a re-posting of someone else’s tweet. This isn’t an official Twitter command or feature, but people add RT somewhere in a tweet to indicate that part of their tweet includes something they’re re-posting from another person’s tweet, sometimes with a comment of their own. Check out this great article on re-tweeting, written by a fellow Twitter user, @ruhanirabin.

So you see, even if this function is not yet available officially in Twitter’s API, they support this is as one of the community’s culture, and they encourage it that you use it correctly.

When we — early adopters — see new Twitter users used RTs for replies, we often suggest them — in a polite manner initially, of course — so that they could follow the culture and try to change their point of view on what RTs really are. RTs are meant to forward your friends’ tweets, something that is worth checking out, something that is worth reading, an important and useful information, some might say. But not for replies. Why? Because most of the time, we don’t give a shit on what you’re talking about in your replies, and when you’re engaged in an conversation with your fellow newbie friends. RT-ing would subconsciously trigger avid Twitter users to treat that message as something useful. And when these messages turned out to be just regular conversation, in which you misused RTs, then you’re polluting the timeline, and we just wasted a few seconds off our precious time to read everything that has no importance whatsoever.

So what do we do? Should we stop using RTs for replies?
Very much yes. Ignorant users may disagree with me, and some of my friends who suggested them to stop using RTs to replies even get disses from these users. Some responses from these ignorant-is-my-middle-name users include:

“Why don’t you just unfollow me? I don’t like seeing people mad about RTs in my timeline anyway.”
“Are you a Twitter cop?”
“Do you think you own Twitter?”
“I think it’s up to me. Besides, it’s only Twitter.”

And so on, I could give you tens of dumb reasons, but you get the big picture. Okay, actually, we don’t mind passing the culture to new adopters. Most of them probably don’t know and that RT is obviously easy to be misunderstood as “Reply To”, and we really appreciate when they know what to do and what not to do as they earned our respect. We don’t, however, respect those who are ignorant and instead of understanding the whole concept of what the Twitter culture is, they decided to fight back with the wrong thing they believed in.

I agree completely that the internet is a free world, but being free is not without rules, and on top of that, you’re not the first retarded bozo that knew Twitter. The Twitter may not be ours, but we followed the culture right on from when it was established. And since this is a social networking service that requires us to interact socially, I really think that you should follow the “rules”.

If your reason to RT is to keep the conversation thread, let me tell you this. As long as you reply directly on that specific tweet, Twitter will keep the thread logged, and you can see that conversation take place in your Twitter client. So your reason is no longer valid.

Who often use RTs for replies?
From what we’ observed, the main culprit for this utterly-dumb manner, apart from new and ignorant Twitter users, are probably celebrities. If you follow them in Twitter, I can assure you that at least 90% of them used RTs for replies. Some of them even abused hashtags with improper uses, such as this. At first we really thought that this is because UberTwitter’s failure to design an easy and understandable software, because most of these incidents came from UberTwitter uses. But no, every major Twitter client available in the market, although some suck in designing a proper user interface, provide the means of both RT-ing and replying. So unless you are purely an idiot or you have your excusable reason, then it’s just you and your lack of intelligence.

Can we rely on Twitter to reduce this madness?
I sure do hope so. In the coming weeks, unless hell froze over, Twitter is going to launch Project Retweet. That is making RTs into their official API, and hopefully reduce the number of the misinformed, and have them use RTs and replies properly. But personally, I don’t think that this is the ultimate cure. From what I see, an ignorant is always an ignorant.

And oh, some reads that you might find interesting and useful:

And one more thing, if you still don’t get it, or if you’re offended with what I wrote in here (then you’re probably one of the culprits who is indeed ignorant), or if all else fails, please just fucking read this. Period.

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Posted in life, rants | 84 Comments »
Tags: replying, retweet, rt, twitter

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radityadika (August 31, 2009 at 3:30 pm):

it’s okay if its funny :)

cesar (August 31, 2009 at 4:00 pm):

Nais Inpoh Gann.. :)

arisetyo (August 31, 2009 at 4:02 pm):

attention aRTis, and pRT : we don’t want to know who you’ve been talking too… so please, no matter how funny it is, RT-ing your conversation where you could instead use ‘reply’ is not funny, and certainly not cool..

johnny (August 31, 2009 at 4:17 pm):

stupid. what r u guys up to? jerk.

Tika (August 31, 2009 at 4:18 pm):

I really can’t wait for Twitter APIs to make RT function official as ReTweet. Rumor said we can not add comment in the RT-ed tweet

ariauakbar (August 31, 2009 at 4:29 pm):

depends on condition of the conversation.

Iqbal (August 31, 2009 at 4:33 pm):

bapak Bellamy yang Budiman,
anda lupa satu lagi alasan orang prefer pakai RT dibanding reply: RT memberi konteks, langsung terpampang disana besama tweet anda instead of ngeklik lagi untuk melihat ngomongin apakah gerangan orang yang anda follow.

contoh:
I. dengan reply yang tertampil di layar:
A: iya tuh goblok banget

II. dengan RT yang tertampil di layar:
A: iya tuh goblok banget RT B: udan pada nonton The Office season 5 blom? :D

II. ada konteksnya. orang langsung tau A ngomongin apa, dan yang mau nimbrung, tinggal langsung nimbrung. mau RT lagi, silakan. Believe it or not, some people use twitter to communicate with their friends. dari dua contoh diatas, yang mana yang paling komunikatif? silakan pilih.

saya tidak mau bilang orang harus pake RT atau mereka idiot atau sebaliknya, saya cuma mau bilang, ada alasan untuk orang melakukan sesuatu, dan mungkin alasannya bukan karena IQ mereka dibawah 70 (saya yakin pemakai twitter IQnya pada lumayan).

tentang project reTweet, kalau memang mau diadakan ya bagus, kemaren sempet liat linknya, dan lumayan oke kok keliatannya, upgrade. tapi IMHO, yang harus diperbaiki sama twitter itu justru sistem reply nya, dan selama sistem reply nya ga ngasih konteks, orang bakal cari cara untuk ngasih konteks (at least i will) entah itu RT, CT BT, atau apapunlah. RT sekarang saya pakai karena paling convenient dari client twitter saya.

IMHO lho… salam damai untuk semua pemakai twitter yang pinter pinter (hey it rhymes!)

poe (August 31, 2009 at 5:08 pm):

setuju sama mas iqbal..!!

;))

uranchan (August 31, 2009 at 5:33 pm):

Saya setuju juga dengan Iqbal.

Kemungkinan orang2 meng ignore anjuran kamu karena penggunaan kata-kata seperti idiot dan fuck. You will not get any respect or solution using insults.

It’s not that we don’t get it, we get that you like order in twitter, but you also fail to see the other side of the coin, the people who likes using and reading RT as they wish. The article you mentioned is not a twitter official sanctioned rule, it’s a suggestion to make tweets more presentable.

And by the way, even the co-creator of twitter uses RT quite a lot in his daily conversation. http://twitter.com/jack/status/3639267328 Jack Dorsey himself. So, you are loving an app made by an idiot?

for a more friendly RT discussion, read my article http://uranium.posterous.com/whats-the-deal-with-rt-re-tweet

cheers :)

GANYANG! (August 31, 2009 at 5:37 pm):

Fuck twitter! Isinya uda bkn sesuatu yg pnting lg! Cm chat! Keluhan! Masalah pribadi yg bkin smua org tau! Ga etis! Gw kadang mikir..stiap detik RT, gila..get a life! Krjaanlo apa si!? Tahi lah.. Batal puasa gw, bodo!

ronald (August 31, 2009 at 5:44 pm):

Iya ya. Dulu awal2nya twitter, gw seneng bngt dapet info2 dr siapa yg gw follow. Misal..artis, oasis..gw selalu dapet info baru dr mreka. Dll lah. Tp skrg? Chaaaaat..gossiiiip. Edan. Udah, pada gw unfollow dah tu org2 ga pnting. Tenang hidup gw skrg. Intinya..lu apus aja org yg menurutlu annoying dan ga pnting utk lu follow.

Cioy (August 31, 2009 at 6:12 pm):

Kalo memang aturannya salah, suggest aja ke twitter untuk bikin fitur yg bikin org gak salah paham. Masa org reply pake RT dibilang idiot.. ada2 aja si pak bellamy ini..

yuDa (August 31, 2009 at 6:21 pm):

Setuju dengan pak Iqbal dan Ronald. Tergantung tujuan si follower dan followed. Kalau ada yg terganggu dan tidak menarik untuk di follow,yah tinggal unfollow azza.. Twitter is not facebook yg mengharuskan 2 way connection, toch..

Lagipula, sebelum twitter ngurusin pemakainya, mending ngurusin bugs serta penyalahgunaan account twitter, yg lebih mengganggu…

Keep on RT, if you think it’s necessary

Aulia (August 31, 2009 at 6:34 pm):

Most of you guys are missing the point. Context is only a problem when you’re using Twitter in Blackberry because in iPhones and on computers using 3rd party apps as well as on the website, it’s really easy to figure out the context. Each reply links to the earlier tweet being replied to so there is absolutely no need to retweet to reply.

Also, Twitter will soon terminate the current RT format used by all of you. The official retweet format is going to be non-editable, so when you use the retweet button, the original tweet will be resent in its entirety and you can’t do anything to change the content.

bellamy (August 31, 2009 at 6:40 pm):

@GANYANG!
There’s always that option to unfollow people. That should make your life better ;)

@iqbal
You’re missing the point. Twitter selalu kasih konteks untuk reply yang bener. Ini cuma masalah kita mau reply dengan bener atau ngga, supaya conversation-nya di-thread. Dan kalau ternyata thread-nya putus, itu berarti orangnya yang reply-nya ngga bener. See this -> http://twitpic.com/fymnk This is an example of how Twitter threads the conversation. So if you’re looking for that, it’s been there all along.

@cioy
You’re also missing the point. Kita kan di sini selalu coba suggest orang supaya etika ber-Twitter-nya bener. Kalo udah dibilangin ngeyel namanya apa?

disti (August 31, 2009 at 6:41 pm):

allow me to use this example by Iqbal:

—–

———-

sebenarnya yang begini tuh ga perlu pake RT.
cukup dengan: iya tuh goblok banget!! re: The Office season 5.

orang lain yang baca juga ngerti kan apa yg lo omongin? penggunaan jumlah karakter juga sama, bahkan even less?! also, you won’t make yourself look like a troll. such a plus point in this day and age!!

sure it’s within your rights to act stupid.
but it’s well within others’ to call you out for it SO DEAL =p

mondododo (August 31, 2009 at 6:50 pm):

yup, kayanya banyak yg ‘missing the point’ deh.
gw jg ga suka banyak noob yg make RT sebagai ReplyTo (walaupun emang sebagian dari mereka, setelah gw tanya, menganggap RT itu yaa ReplyTo)

skarang bayangin deh. anggep A adalah orang yg kita follow.
trus dia slalu ngetweet:
A: oia? sejak kapan si C ama si D jadian? ga nyangka ih.. RT B: uda pada tau blum, si C jadian ama si D?

nah, buat gw. males banget juga kan gw tau knapa si C ama si D jadian. dan siapa pula si B? kenal aja ngga. tp gara2 si A pake RT, jd aja masuk ke timeline gw..

dan bayangkan klo ampir smua temen lu keadaannya bgitu. :|

skarang klo ngikutin benernya, kan cukup si A ngereply si B dengan @. jadinya kaya gini:
A: @B oia? sejak kapan si C ama si D jadian? ga nyangka ih..

beres kan? dan itu ga akan masuk timeline gw dan gw ga peduli jg mereka mau ngegosip ampe bego jg.

IMHO ya. :)

Nyonyo (August 31, 2009 at 7:29 pm):

“unfollow aja” itu ngga memecahkan masalah, toh masih “mencemarkan” public time line. gue sih maklum kalau n00b, yg ngeselin itu user lama yg bebal.

rianti (August 31, 2009 at 7:30 pm):

Omg, it’s a free world we should be able to respond to messages in any manner we see fit, this includes whether or not we wanna use the retweet function to respond to messages (instead of using it just to forward msgs..shock horror). Buat yang annoyed ya gak ush baca, susah amat. Don’t use twitter if u don’t want to get updates. Laws and regulations r for issues like crime, human rights n education….retweets? Cmooooooon.

Hamid (August 31, 2009 at 7:34 pm):

@aulia

have you ever use blackberry? ubertwitter maybe? reply tweets linked to earlier tweet too! don’t get me wrong, just wondering how you can say that?

bellamy (August 31, 2009 at 7:39 pm):

And people are still missing the point.

bellamy (August 31, 2009 at 7:42 pm):

@rianti:
Yes, I agree it’s a free world, just like if people chooses to drink kerosene for daily meals instead of water or anything else that’s actually drinkable. Nobody said that’s against the law, am I right?

rip (August 31, 2009 at 7:46 pm):

Kalo kayak gini kan ngeselin?? RT @Rianti Omg, it’s a free world we should be able to respond to messages in any manner we see fit, this includes whether or not we wanna use the retweet function to respond to messages (instead of using it just to forward msgs..shock horror). Buat yang annoyed ya gak ush baca, susah amat. Don’t use twitter if u don’t want to get updates. Laws and regulations r for issues like crime, human rights n education….retweets? Cmooooooon.

kenapa ngga tulis aja re: .. beres.. org males doank ..

Ronald Widha (August 31, 2009 at 7:47 pm):

I agree with you, although not sharing the same amount of passion mind you ;)

If people do it (read: replying with intentionally keeping the original tweet intact), it shows there’s a need for it. We can’t diss that. It’s a need worth solving/serving.

One solution could be; to come up with a new convention. I like using RE: [original message]. kinda reminds me of a subject in an email.

[reply] RE: [original message] (via @user)

what do you think?

iqbal (August 31, 2009 at 7:54 pm):

oookay… :D this will be my last comment here

@bellamy: how many clicks did you do to get to that page? I use RT because when i use twitter, i want ppl to join my conversations rightaway. With no clicks. For other times, I use YM or twitter’s DM if I have to. Oh and *gasp!* i also use the hallowed ‘reply’ too once in a while!

I have no problem with your campaign, honest. I think its a bit trivial, but if thats your cup of tea, go ahead and have yourself a ball.

I am annoyed however, by the standpoint you take: Everybody HAVE TO use reply instead of RT, those who dont (could be and should accept being called) idiots. You use inappropriate channels, for example: i follow @infoll because i want to know how the traffic is and not getting tweet of hashtags of campaigns or links to personal blogs (and i know your relationship with @infoll, thats irrelevant though). And one of the supporter of this campaign sent a tweet to me saying he’s not interested in my conversations with my friends , I dont know him, he’s not my friend, he’s not even friggin following me. Whats up with that?

Get off from your high horse, talk to people instead of calling them names, they might listen to you.
Honestly, the “we have to tell them noobs how to do this because they’re stupid or ignorant or both” attitude gets real old real fast.

@disti: having fun aren’t you? Calling people stupid? Good for you.

Have a good life people. See you around!

bellamy (August 31, 2009 at 8:06 pm):

@Ronald Widha:
I agree with you. Using “re:” is actually preferable for replies should you chose to put that “context” in the reply. There’s absolutely no need to RT the whole thing, as Aulia said, since if you reply correctly everything will be threaded by Twitter accordingly.

How people don’t seem to understand this simple concept and got blown away with anger when suggested to use RT properly is just literally beyond me.

nyonyo (August 31, 2009 at 8:09 pm):

yes, people are still missing the point. rules are made for a reason, and there’s something called ethics.

avianto (August 31, 2009 at 8:17 pm):

For all the RT defenders… I honored your opinion but really, who cares?

You didn’t care the RT offenders’ opinion and instead of trying to find a common ground or yet, respect the suggestion, you were trying to deflect the suggestion and trying to put a right judgement into your opinion, which sadly unreasonable.

Am I offended, of course not – it takes more than RT issues to offend me. Am I annoyed, oh yeah – that explained why I follow less and less nowadays. But guess what? Those RTs showed up every now and then in my timeline (@iqbal, that’s your answer for the question about the complain – the RTs showed!).

I really don’t want to block anybody because I believe everybody has their own voice and blocking them will be an repressive action, IMHO. So, what should I do? If those “RTs as reply” stop showing up in my timeline then I rest my case.

Sempak (August 31, 2009 at 8:18 pm):

tora sudiro sukanya pake RT kaya gt..
*nonton quiki ekspres*

Ronald Widha (August 31, 2009 at 8:21 pm):

Tooling will help shape the behavior of the user. It’s going back to ‘When all you have is a hammer, all problem is a nail’ issue.

If all the popular client support an option to reply with context i.e puts in the RE for you and somehow tries to summarise the original message, the problem will dissappear.

disti (August 31, 2009 at 8:22 pm):

two words: youtube trolls.
heaven forbid the forming of twitter trolls.

if people just start using RE: instead of RT: for simple back n forth replying, we would not be having this discussion.

also, i don’t recall calling people stupid, iqbal. acting nice does not make you nice. acting stupid does not make you stupid.
i called out on the ACT.
do differentiate.

nyonyo (August 31, 2009 at 8:23 pm):

@sempak emang kebanyakan artis lokal begitu, malah sebagian besar dari mereka yg mempromosikan RT abuse ini.

snydez (August 31, 2009 at 9:00 pm):

there’s something missing here, we need to explain that twitter reply has a unique things, which is : not everybody can see it. and it’s been set in the system of twitter, we just have to accept it.
by using RT to reply, not just expose things that the followers doesn’t understand, it’s abuse the system.
internet (.. or twitter) is not something you should abuse,

gajahbiru (August 31, 2009 at 9:24 pm):

@snydez thank you. you’re explanation made me less of an idiot. you put this whole fight into context. i am really grateful for that explanation.

rengga (August 31, 2009 at 9:31 pm):

simple aja dan gak pake bhs inggris segala, lha semuanya jg orang indonesia: twitter adalah microblogging bkn microchatting, jd gunakan sebijak mungkin tanpa mengganggu timeline followers kita, ingat RT = ReTweet bukan ReplyTo. oia sedikit bercanda: baru setingkat RT aja udah banyak yg ribet, gimana klo twitter ngeluarin RW…waaaaah…!!!

nb: orang2 indonesia yg pake twitter terlalu banyak follow artis kayaknya…

iyay (August 31, 2009 at 10:21 pm):

kurang nambain link lo bel. http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/learning
masi kurang official? hmm. ah bikin laper

iyay (August 31, 2009 at 10:27 pm):

dan keknya gak tergantung sama tools yang dipake deh. lebih ke pemahaman aja sih. ya minimal baca silsilah dan seluk beluk tekhnis-nya. jangan cuman sekedar ikut2an. IHMO

RTRTRTRTRTRT (August 31, 2009 at 11:46 pm):

Btw buat semua nih, coba baca lg komen bro uranchan diatas. Co-founder twitter aja pake RT buat beberapa replynya. Knp lo semua jd pd rese ya?

Andy (September 1, 2009 at 12:13 am):

1. RT khusunya udah banyak ‘manual’nya dan kalopun mau reply post yang sudah agak lama, toh bisa nyantumin ‘re:’ ga perlu harus di RT post orang yang mo di-reply itu. Gw rasa ga susah kok.

2. penggunaan RT dan Reply pada tempatnya juga meminimalisir kebingungan orang yang bacanya..bukan mentang2 ’si A make RT juga kok buat reply, blablabla’

3. Twitter bukan cuma soal keluhan dan hal ga berguna lain, Twitter banyak gunanya, terutama viral marketing, dan akan lebih enak plus lebih berguna lagi kalo diimbangi dengan pemakain yang sesuai dengan ’standard’.

4. mungkin orang2 itu mikir RT = Reply Tweet kali ya hmm

RTRTRTRTRTRT (September 1, 2009 at 12:40 am):

yaudahlah ngapain ngurusin peraturan yg gak ada? Kalo memang mau menghimbau pengguna yg lain dgn cara yang sopan dong. Jgn menjelek2an org dan menganggap diri anda lebih pintar. Bleum tentu anda lbh pintar dari org yg anda himbau.
Ini cuma faktor kebisaan aja yg kl disampaikan dgn cr yg baik, pasti org akan respect dgn anda.

bellamy (September 1, 2009 at 1:27 am):

@RTRTRTRTRTRT or whoever you are:
You just don’t read, do you?

—————————-
When we — early adopters — see new Twitter users used RTs for replies, we often suggest them — in a polite manner initially, of course — so that they could follow the culture and try to change their point of view on what RTs really are.
—————————-

We did ask politely, but then:

—————————-
So what do we do? Should we stop using RTs for replies?
Very much yes. Ignorant users may disagree with me, and some of my friends who suggested them to stop using RTs to replies even get disses from these users. Some responses from these ignorant-is-my-middle-name users include:

“Why don’t you just unfollow me? I don’t like seeing people mad about RTs in my timeline anyway.”
“Are you a Twitter cop?”
“Do you think you own Twitter?”
“I think it’s up to me. Besides, it’s only Twitter.”

Kayaknya kita juga selalu advise orang dengan sopan deh. Terus terang selama ini, capek aja orang2 yang suggest cara yang bener, di-reply-nya malah nyolot. And besides, if you don’t like the article, then don’t read it.

nyonyo (September 1, 2009 at 2:38 am):

gue pernah tweet spt ini sebelumnya: the keyword in public timeline is “public”. follow the rules, respect others, and you will be respected as well :)

dina (September 1, 2009 at 3:01 am):

Ini toh yg bikin timeline temen2 sy heboh!
Well mas Bellamy, anda punya pengalaman ga enak sama RT?
Mungkin timeline anda di private, terus temen anda ngeRT tweet anda dan jadi hebohlah.
Oh?
Bukan?
Ok, mungkin anda capek udah follow Artis2 Indo dan kemudian yg anda lihat mereka abuse RT setiap kali mereka tweeting?

Sy ngerti sama apa yg anda bilang, dr pertama kali tweeting jg sy tau RT itu ReTweet, bukan Reply To.
Tp krn saya banyak follower, gak kaya situ mungkin ya, banyaknnya nge follow.. Jd sy maunya mereka tau saya ngomongin apa.

Well, kalopun tnyt itu mengganggu para pengikut yang BUDIMAN. Maaf2 aja.. Selalu ada pilihan :
“Why don’t you just unfollow me? I don’t like seeing people mad about RTs in my timeline anyway.”

Oh! Ngga ngerti?
Let me rephrased with your way :
“Why don’t you just fucking unfollow me, you idiot?! I don’t need fucking followers like you!”

Sumonggo.

dina (September 1, 2009 at 3:06 am):

“Kayaknya kita juga selalu advise orang dengan sopan deh. Terus terang selama ini, capek aja orang2 yang suggest cara yang bener, di-reply-nya malah nyolot. And besides, if you don’t like the article, then don’t read it.”

Uhm… You don’t like people RT’s their timelines? Then don’t read it too!

Andy (September 1, 2009 at 3:21 am):

well then why do you read this?

ngiuphobia (September 1, 2009 at 5:51 am):

actually i dont really care if ppl wanna use this RT as reply or not. but yes i’m very annoyed by such action. anyhow every kind of social-networking have this kinda disease rite. when it became popular, it start to mess. why? bcoz then ppl who r not aware of such ethics or r just following the trend suddenly became net-active (or exist). to make it worst, they actually have a community (if not saying -genghurahura-) to chitchat to. it’s always easy to say “just simply unfollow me”, but problem is what if you’re my friend and i’d like to hear news from you, but all i get is your -i dont wanna know about- chitchat? i don’t wanna unfollow you coz hell, you’re my friend! but unfortunately twitter doesnt have this ‘delete other’s post’ either. then what am i suppose to do? so please help us stop calling you ignorant (i’m not saying you’re stupid tho, just plain ignorant ^_^ ). if you wanna keep the context, i agree to use simply re:

ngiuphobia (September 1, 2009 at 6:11 am):

owh, fyi…it can’t be simply ignore too. coz it appears in my timeline and indirectly put other’s -i wanna know about- tweets to later page. means i missed it! it’s like you’re spamming my timeline. sounds annoying, no?

vetamandra (September 1, 2009 at 7:21 am):

@dina : gini nih kalo baca posting diatas dengan emosi, gak bisa nangkap intinya.
Mereka yg memakai RT tampaknya pengen praktisnya saja. Dgn alasan malas klik-klik in reply to. Klik RT kan sudah beres. Om snydez sudah menjelaskan dgn baik.

Ya, follower saya mungkin gak sebanyak dina, tapi saya memakai : @username blablabla re: hal yg direply. Dan follower saya pun pada paham.

*Berharap project retweet cepat selesai*

RTRTRTRTRTRT (September 1, 2009 at 8:50 am):

betul, semoga cepat kelar project retweetnya supaya ngga ada yang ngomel-ngomel lagi =p

bellamy (September 1, 2009 at 10:09 am):

@dina:
I don’t read them and I don’t follow them. And as for you with this argument:

————————–
Well, kalopun tnyt itu mengganggu para pengikut yang BUDIMAN. Maaf2 aja.. Selalu ada pilihan :
“Why don’t you just unfollow me? I don’t like seeing people mad about RTs in my timeline anyway.”
————————–

It further proves my point that you are such an ignorant. Good thing I don’t have you in my timeline.

And just like Andy said, yes, why the fuck did you read this anyway? LOL

Randy (September 1, 2009 at 10:46 am):

All, twitter is a form of information dissemination, it’s about broadcasting your thoughts. RT should be used only to re-tweet.. I don’t understand how it could be misinterpreted as “reply to”.

MOST OF US, never read the terms and conditions including the-so-called “About Us” at the bottom of Twitter page. In my opinion, this is how RT got abused.

And yes, the followers have the freedom to unfollow those who are abusing RT (which I did unfollow some ppl because of this) hehehe…

On the other hand, if the whole twitterverse knows how to RT correctly then the whole twitterverse will be flooded with geeks.. Does that sound fun? hahahahaha

I choose not to worry so much about those who are abusing RT (although I was irritated at some point). I choose who I follow and freely unfollow those who are out of the context.

Ohh btw, for those who are abusing RT as reply-to..make sure you don’t offend or trespass the privacy issues. Some RT may contain personal information that are not intended to be seen by someone else’s followers :))

Cheers

disti (September 1, 2009 at 11:20 am):

i agree with the sentiment that you can’t just unfollow a person if they abuse RT/spam my timeline (a lot). i followed you for a reason dammit. pastinya krn gue anggep you have something interesting to say, right! and it’s common courtesy aja that you know how to carry yourself well, berhubung ini termasuk public space.

since what has been seen can’t be unseen, argumen “ya ga demen, ga perlu dibaca” juga ga valid. gimanapun juga, udah kebaca. the damage will have been done darl.

mojo (September 1, 2009 at 12:18 pm):

when i was a n00b on this, i thought RT was for ‘reply to’ :D i know i was stupid, And then as time goes by, i use RT to fwd tweet to my ‘followers’ but still there are times when i got carried away with it, by doing ‘chat’ using RTs.. but thank God, not most the time :D and yeah i get annoyed with ppl who RTs for chat..most of the time, since twitter is a micro blogging not micro chatting. And worst if ppl maksa buat RT padahal udah lebih dr 140 characters.. what’s the point? hehehe..

but anyway, hopefully, ppl getting wise in using Twitter, apalagi kalau followersnya banyak… krn klo kita banyak yg follow, mungkin followers kita menanti tweet yang : menghibur/informative/inspirational/full of wisdom/encouragement/ or influential etc :)

i like project Re-Tweet. :)

rika (September 1, 2009 at 10:07 pm):

@aulia Tweet from ubertwitter gives the link to previous tweet! And let me give you the example of iPhone user who’s using RT for reply: http://twitter.com/nisunis/status/3600644683

bellamy (September 1, 2009 at 10:14 pm):

@aulia + rika + Hamid:
I think we previously agreed that it’s not ubertwitter’s fault. I’ve priorly discussed this with Nyonyo and Anima as well. I think whether you’re using an iPhone or a BB, it’s just the person.

ndari (September 1, 2009 at 10:39 pm):

haduh haduh… masih heboh ya urusan ini. at this point, i feel you, man. memang ada some people yang naujubillah bebelnya, dan menutup argumentasi dengan “kan tinggal unfollow toh?”. ya wis, baiklah. akhirnya memang di-unfollow.

tapi perdebatan gak habis2 juga ya ternyata? sutralah cyiiiin, mending nunggu Project Retweet kelar. i pray to God hasilnya memang RT gak bisa ditambahin comment sendiri. amin.

bellamy (September 1, 2009 at 10:44 pm):

@ndari:
I once said that talking to a brick wall might give you better results.

squirrelonmars (September 2, 2009 at 7:40 am):

I think they should make a single ‘R’ -command to save some space. :)

lana (September 2, 2009 at 9:49 am):

banyak orang yang ngga nangkep esensinya nih. pada tersinggung duluan sama kata “idiot”.

seriously guys, it wasn’t like literally said. it was only purely sarcasm (or at least that’s what i’ve thought so).

anyway,gue tipe orang yang ngga begitu keberatan dengan RT abuse…karena alhamdulillah orang-orang yang gue follow jarang yang begitu. :)

MrsRTorNot (September 2, 2009 at 10:24 am):

RT or not…i don’t care!

bellamy (September 2, 2009 at 10:30 am):

@lana:
Exactly my point, memang orang Indonesia kurang mau baca. One word, two words, and they all thought they knew what the article is all about. Mungkin itu juga masalahnya kenapa segitu banyak orang yang masih pake RT buat reply.

rianti (September 2, 2009 at 10:57 am):

Lol, honestly u guys crack me up. If anything, this article and resulting feedback has given myself and my posse of ‘ignorant’ friends a lil entertainment so kudos to u for that. About this grand issue of…wait for it.. “Retweet Abuse”, yes you have a point my friend. True, the original function of the ReTweet option was to allow users to forward and share tweets they found interesting ..we know that now, RT stands for ReTweet not Reply To, we stand corrected and enlightened, thank you.

However you should consider the fact that, being the adaptive species that we are, users worldwide have allowed the function to evolve?

Perhaps some users feel that replying through ReTweets gives their reply some context, perhaps they simply just LIKE doing it. Who are these Inquisitors behind your campaign to tell them otherwise? Who are you to call people idiots?

Ok that’s about all the passion my ignorant self can muster. Gluck with the campaign. Btw u should drop Katy Perry a line, she’s a serial ReTweetReplier. Oooh maybe that’s what you should call us –> RTR’s and then u can talk about us scathingly in your lil groups.

For example:

Snobbyblogger1: Oh gawd another RTR

Snobbyblogger2: that idiot!

Again, gluck with the campaign. Really, it’s for a good cause. Peace!

uranchan (September 2, 2009 at 10:57 am):

bellamy (September 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 am):
@lana:
Exactly my point, memang orang Indonesia kurang mau baca. One word, two words, and they all thought they knew what the article is all about.

Bellamy, ur missing the point too. Maksud lo baik, tapi kalo cara penyampaian ngga baik, tujuan lo ga bakal tercapai kan?
Lo bilang lo selalu advise orang dengan sopan, tapi lo cape dengan tanggapan mereka. Tapi jangan di lash out ke orang lain yg ga tau apa2 dong (noobs yg pake RT). Kalo lo punya tujuan meng-educate orang jadilah orang yang sabar, jangan pake emosi ataupun sarkasme.
A man ur caliber, I think you can do better than that, rite?

in the mean time, let’s wait for that new RT format. :)

pocchi (September 2, 2009 at 1:28 pm):

i think RT sometimes is a good way to know what other people is talking about. ato gak buat komen langsung tentang apa yang dibicarain tersebut. benar seperti kata bung @iqbal. although MOST OF THE TIMES, i agree with you guys kalo RT itu nyampah banget di timeline. sampe2 gue unfollow sahabat gue sendiri saking nyampahnya coba.

oya, during my twitter times, gue sempet juga memilah milih jenis RT. mau nambahin aja nih boleh kan yaa.

menurut gue, ada lagi jenis RT yang belom dibahas di sini.

1. RT-er yang RT buat ngasih tau ke seluruh twitterverse mengenai fakta menarik plus komennya. ciri2: biasanya ini RT-er cukup pintar dalam modusnya sehingga mencukupi 140 karakter serta memang menarik untuk difollow. contoh:

@radityadika

Believe me, dude. I don’t think it was momogi. RT @121_1DY dick,gw baru aja ngeluarin momogi cokelat dari pantat.

2. like what you guys said, a dumb RT-er yang selalu pake RT kalo reply dan saking dumb nya sampai-sampai terakhirnya selalu titik-titik saking gak muatnya. mungkin dia udah RT dari dumb RT-ers lainnya sampe2 kagak muat. contoh:

@tikeprie

Gak dalam konotasi negatif kan?RT @farhanpenyiar: Teman2x ada trisum niiih !!!@TikaPanggabean: @tikeprie @sarseh yeeey grup huuuuug…mw …

anyway, gue lebih prefer follow yang nomor wahid.

and i support project RT buat mengurangi yang nomor 2. :)

ari (September 2, 2009 at 2:28 pm):

Pertanyaan gue simple nih. (gue nubee). Jadi sebenernya kita boleh nggak sih nambahin komen sebelum RT?

Penyebabnya genset meledak cuy. RT @kupret Jalan panjang macet banget dua arah. Katanya ada kebakaran di perumahan situ.

Is this allowed oh RT experts? Mohon jawabannya.

Nganoo (September 2, 2009 at 3:15 pm):

Setuju !! TWITTER itu bikin RT buat ‘Forward’ bukan buat Replay,… tapi disalah gunakan oleh orang2 yg kelewat ‘PINTER’ !

Dah gitu kalau dikasih tau ngebantah.. Tipe orang ‘SUPER-PINTER’ ampe bisa ngejudge PREFER replay pake RT .. sedangkan yg bikin Twitter aja ga bilang gitu…

aziz (September 2, 2009 at 7:13 pm):

Halo semua, trims buat bellamy atas tulisannya, bikin tulisan gini kan ngga gampang, bagaimanapun. RT sih perlu digunakan kalo memang penting isinya, tapi jelas terkesan nyampah kalo ngalorngidul akhirnya berasa nontonin chat becandaan yg kita ngerti juga ngga. Sebagai pembaca, gw ngerasa dikatain idiot pas baca blog ini, apalagi gw bukan “early adopters” kaya bellamy. Gw rasa perdebatan panjang di sini bukan karena masalah RT sih, tapi masalah pembaca anda yang bela diri karena anda katain idiot. Tapai yah, gaya nulis org kan beda2 ya.

muhardi (September 2, 2009 at 9:13 pm):

Hiehehe @Nganoo salah lo, RT bukan disalahgunain oleh orang yang sok pinter, tapi RT DIANGGAP disalahgunain oleh orang yang sok pintar. Paham lo?

muhardi (September 2, 2009 at 9:35 pm):

Waiting for project retweet. Whats it gonna be….

dee (September 3, 2009 at 5:40 am):

…betul. Dengan tidak memakai RT, maka jumlah kemiskinan bisa dikurangi, pendapatan per kapita meningkat, inflasi berkurang, rupiah menguat, dan angka pengangguran menurun ^_^

rmilana (September 3, 2009 at 6:56 pm):

“to RT or not to RT” thats not the question,its in ur hands whether you want to share it or not,cause i think RT is the form of sharing. when u see a tweet with great,useful contents,when you know if its worth the share or not, its all depends on you.

i do believe everyone have their own style on tweetering,i thank you for taking effort to made this post,really helps the newbies.

(^_^)

meh (September 7, 2009 at 12:25 am):

@Bellamy What a drama. U know, I started tweeting to follow #iranelection and those idiots who RT-ed their situation. If u hate it, that’s fine. Early adopters have the privilege to be as ignorant as noobs, i guess. RT: Replying with RT in Twitter? Then You’re Probably an Idiot

namira (September 10, 2009 at 5:33 am):

weew.. dari masalah sepele gini bisa” perang dunia ketiga.. tenang atuh jgn pd marah”..

oke, kalau menurut saya, sah aja mau pake RT seperti yg dicontohin mas iqbal, dgn tujuan dy memang pengen followersny liat balesan + pernyataan/pertanyaan yg dy bales krn dianggap lucu mungkin atau informatif dan dirasa perlu diketahui org banyak..
sedangkan kalau reply yg memang bener” hanya bales tweet yg pertanyaan pribadi dan g penting diliat org ya cukup dibales langsung k orgny aja, jgn diumbar” d timeline followersny..

saya ngerti kok kenapa bellamybudiman (namany g cocok y sama gaya bahasany, apa emang sarkasme ?) marah”.. sy jg suka sebel liat org nulis pake RT sesuatu yg sepantesny direply aja dan org lain g perlu baca, tp kalau cara penyampaianny gini jg org males dengerinny mas..

so to bellamybudiman, thanks for bringing up this topic because it IS important and i think someone really needs to take a chill pill.. ;)

cheers !

Andira Pramanta (September 10, 2009 at 9:04 am):

bukan pertamax gann!

ampun!

mokalovesoulmat (September 10, 2009 at 9:43 am):

Waduh, rame banget ini blog cuma gara2 RT!

Simpel aja deh, mau reply pake @ aja, kalo mau forward informasi pake RT.

Bisa aja sih kalo mo reply pake RT cuman saya pernah kalo ngeliat profile orang lain, replynya pake RT semua, jadi kayak berantakan gitu deh timeline nya dia…hohoho…kalo dibandingin pake @, lebih rapi. Enak diliat.

Tapi yaa semua kembali kepada diri masing2 mo pake mana aja, gak dosa kok reply pake RT juga hehehe cuma ya itu, berantakan timeline nya ;)

gitu aja kok repot *gusdur mode on*

@mokalovesoulmat

deon (September 10, 2009 at 9:47 am):

@bellamy

*kabuuur*

Momo (September 10, 2009 at 10:01 am):

Dimana bumi dipijak, disana langit dijunjung.
Apa susahnya beradaptasi?

golda (September 13, 2009 at 6:41 pm):

wah bel, si shanty kakak kelas di TM lho..

kalo gw liat, memang artis doang yg pake RT as ReplyTo..
tapi stelah gw pake Ubertwitter, ternyata aplikasi UT memang mengkondisikan RT menjadi ReplyTo, dan artis2 pada pake UT.

jadi mestinya ngga bisa pure artis yg salah.. walopun mayoritas dari mereka ignorant

ohya kedua, di UT (karena gw pakenya UT sih) jg ga bisa liat thread bales2an twitter.. beda kyk plurk metodenya memang pake thread system. mungkin dari web bisa, tp dari UT ga bisa..

adi23 (September 18, 2009 at 12:23 am):

kaya forum sudah ini, lumayanlah buat nambah referensi

Keep Writing

Stupid (October 19, 2009 at 10:26 pm):

stupid blog.

bellamy (October 19, 2009 at 10:44 pm):

@Stupid:
Oh yes, and so are you for calling yourself Stupid. And not only that, you’re a coward that you don’t even have the guts to use your real name, stupid.

hyoori (October 23, 2009 at 11:23 pm):

setuju 100% seseratus seratus persennya.

tetapi,
imho:
RT for reply as in tweet yang lucu and konsumsi umum kalau saya masih bisa terima.

tapi kalo yang model
iya nih, duuh ngapain yaaa? RT @kovlok: gue jugaa D: RT @keple: bosaaannddh.,..

bener2 … ah tauk deh ah, gak penting banget kok pake ditongolin di timeline. mau ga mau blok/unfollow deh :/

n baru liat komen dari pocchi #64. That’s what I was referring to!

btw, such a beautiful piece of writing *coba coba juga ah pakek inggeris*

zam.web.id (October 30, 2009 at 9:31 pm):

maaf numpang spam :)
http://zam.web.id/2009/10/30/10-alasan-mengapa-twitter-lebih-menarik-daripada-facebook/

irielacaroline (January 20, 2010 at 2:35 pm):

Gitu aja kok repot sih, terlalu membesar besarkan masalah :)

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Replying with RT in Twitter? Then You’re Probably an Idiot

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