Yes, I definitely believe it has to do with just the number of users. Features are great, but they're nothing when you have nothing but an empty room to talk to.
Exactly. There's something to be said with first to market. Statistically that's why they last as long as they do (see MySpace - ugh!). You look at Twitter and there's really not much there feature-wise, but I still crave it like a junkie.
Do you crave Twitter, or do you crave the interaction? :)
I think Twitter's reached the point where their first-to-market status has been nullified for me. They're slow to implement features, their performance is suffering with no signs of improvement, and there are alternatives within reach that do what twitter does and then some.
It obviously hasn't gotten to that point with a lot of other people yet, but I can deal with that. Saying that I have to stick with Twitter because of that only exacerbates the issue.
Oh, no doubt about it - it's the interaction. It's what you crave from having a blog, but it's intensified and concentrated into it's most pure form. ;) That doesn't make it right, though, but that's the hardest thing for me to satisfy from these other non-twitter sites (and arguably why they're not taking off like they should). Jaiku is, hands down, much better than Twitter. But, the fact that I don't have that firehose to drink from in terms of conversations and interactions, it's killing me. ;) Sad, but true.
I think if more people - especially people that participate in the firehoses - started publicly leaving twitter, it wouldn't take long for some other service to reach that status. Apply whatever avalanche analogy you like, but as more people leave the sinking ship, more people take notice. Waiting for the deluge to happen is almost self-defeating.
That's certainly my bet. It can't be too long before people get plain tired of dealing with Twitter. It's slow, it's got half the features it normally does right now, and they don't seem to be too concerned about fixing it.
Great opportunity for us to get people somewhere else. I just offered my 20 Jaiku invites on twitter. ;)
Awesome! I don't have any invites yet (boo) but as soon as I do I'm throwing them around liberally. Also jaikuinvites.com seems to have some decent throughput.
I like jaiku's comments, but I like the way FriendFeed displays them a little better... so far. I'll have to try to immerse myself a little more. I didn't really "get" Twitter until I'd used it for awhile either... I think if you go into any of these alternatives (jaiku, FriendFeed, etc) expecting them to "be Twitter", it won't be. Similar, but not the same. Perhaps I just need to acclimate.
15 comments so far
And yes, that is a lot of noise, but I've gotten to sort of enjoy the noise.
1 year, 5 months ago by philcrissman
How do they compare from a usability/features standpoint? Evaluating as a platform sans participants.
1 year, 5 months ago by duwanis
yeah, the lack of contacts is a bit sucky. but, that can be overcome
1 year, 5 months ago by codebrulee
Yes, I definitely believe it has to do with just the number of users. Features are great, but they're nothing when you have nothing but an empty room to talk to.
1 year, 5 months ago by jasona
Twitter was an empty room at one point too. Claiming that participants are everything is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
1 year, 5 months ago by duwanis
yeah, i wonder how many folks would be willing to go through the empty room thing again though
1 year, 5 months ago by codebrulee
Exactly. There's something to be said with first to market. Statistically that's why they last as long as they do (see MySpace - ugh!). You look at Twitter and there's really not much there feature-wise, but I still crave it like a junkie.
1 year, 5 months ago by jasona
Do you crave Twitter, or do you crave the interaction? :) I think Twitter's reached the point where their first-to-market status has been nullified for me. They're slow to implement features, their performance is suffering with no signs of improvement, and there are alternatives within reach that do what twitter does and then some. It obviously hasn't gotten to that point with a lot of other people yet, but I can deal with that. Saying that I have to stick with Twitter because of that only exacerbates the issue.
1 year, 5 months ago by duwanis
Oh, no doubt about it - it's the interaction. It's what you crave from having a blog, but it's intensified and concentrated into it's most pure form. ;) That doesn't make it right, though, but that's the hardest thing for me to satisfy from these other non-twitter sites (and arguably why they're not taking off like they should). Jaiku is, hands down, much better than Twitter. But, the fact that I don't have that firehose to drink from in terms of conversations and interactions, it's killing me. ;) Sad, but true.
1 year, 5 months ago by jasona
but what if more people start leaving twitter b/c of the inadequacies? then, the firehose starts to dry up
1 year, 5 months ago by codebrulee
I think if more people - especially people that participate in the firehoses - started publicly leaving twitter, it wouldn't take long for some other service to reach that status. Apply whatever avalanche analogy you like, but as more people leave the sinking ship, more people take notice. Waiting for the deluge to happen is almost self-defeating.
1 year, 5 months ago by duwanis
That's certainly my bet. It can't be too long before people get plain tired of dealing with Twitter. It's slow, it's got half the features it normally does right now, and they don't seem to be too concerned about fixing it.
Great opportunity for us to get people somewhere else. I just offered my 20 Jaiku invites on twitter. ;)
1 year, 5 months ago by jasona
Awesome! I don't have any invites yet (boo) but as soon as I do I'm throwing them around liberally. Also jaikuinvites.com seems to have some decent throughput.
1 year, 5 months ago by duwanis
as soon as i have invites, i'm offering them up on twitter, too. :-)
1 year, 5 months ago by codebrulee
I like jaiku's comments, but I like the way FriendFeed displays them a little better... so far. I'll have to try to immerse myself a little more. I didn't really "get" Twitter until I'd used it for awhile either... I think if you go into any of these alternatives (jaiku, FriendFeed, etc) expecting them to "be Twitter", it won't be. Similar, but not the same. Perhaps I just need to acclimate.
1 year, 5 months ago by philcrissman