Some Twitter users are in an uproar over the company’s decision to hide replies to people you don’t follow.
Twitter’s blog explains what this means–basically, users used to have a choice between two settings: viewing the feed of people that they follow to see their replies to people whom they do not follow, or to turn this off resulting in less tweets in their stream that were not relevant to them. Now, Twitter has taken away that choice and is hiding the replies to those you don’t follow altogether.
Confusing? A bit. But many users who understand what this means are not happy with it, as was made clear yesterday when my Twitter stream started to fill up with hashtags like #fixreplies and #twitterfail.
Some see this as Twitter, in effect, blocking communication. One large segment of the Twitterverse, small business owners, are especially ticked.
Hmm, are they taking some of the “networking” out of this social network?
As for me, I do wonder why they don’t just leave it up to us to make the decision and leave it as a setting we control. Apparently they are reporting that the feedback was that the option was too confusing. I’m not exactly rioting over it, but it’s certainly another interesting phenomenon to watch go down in real-time in my feed. Let’s see how Twitter deals with it.
Do you care? Totally clueless as to what I’m talking about? Talk to me tweeps! 
Photo Credit: keiyac
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Christine,
Yes, I think that they made a mistake by taking
the choice away from the tweeple, it’s just insulting,
like we are children that need a keeper.
The Tweeple have spoken!
Ahem!
Harumph!
BullFeathers!
all the best
jeff
It sounds like they’re still figuring out their user experience patterns and it sounds like there’s still opportunity to shape it.
J.D. Meier’s last blog post..Changing Focus
@Jeff–Thanks for stopping by. I like your comparison, it does kind of feel like that, doesn’t it? I think that’s what’s got people so irritated. “Um, thanks but no thanks, we’ll decide for ourselves if you don’t mind!”
@J.D.–Yup, not unlike Facebook. Ah, the brave new world of social media on the interwebs.
I’m just figuring Twitter out so what you are saying is confusing to me.
Sounds like we don’t have any control over the matter.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Tess The Bold Life’s last blog post..Mackenzie Bold and Beautiful
Christine — This was an interesting post because I didn’t realize I had the choice. Like Tess, I’m still learning about Twitter and don’t get on it nearly enough. However, I’m all for having options. Perhaps as Jeff said, the Tweeple should start tweeting about this:~)
I like your site, by the way!
Sara’s last blog post..In Switzerland
I am new to twitter here in Plano, would you say because this option is gone, should I not bother with twitter?
Sarah’s last blog post..Why you should invest in your first home.