Talk:Twitter

Revisions suggested 12/10/13

Please copy record tweet information from “Growth” section to the “Record Tweets” section. The heading “Record Tweets” only has two record tweets under it, and would be improved by adding more record tweets from the “Growth” section.

The first paragraph of the “Issues and Controversies” section should be altered. Most of the paragraph leads the reader to assume that Twitter has played a large role in the Arab Spring. Then the last sentence discredits that line of thought by stating only a small fraction of the population of Arab Spring countries are active on Twitter. Please revise to state a debate exists as to the size of the role Twitter has had in these revolutions. Twitter revolutions should possibly have its own heading, where this debate can be summarized.

The following text should be included to introduce the Arab Spring section of the first paragraph of “Issues and Controversies”. In 2009, the Western world projected Twitter onto the green revolution in Iran. Twitter did play a role in the uprising, but not to the extent the Western media said it did. An extreme minority of Iranians used Twitter at that point in time. Twitter did help publicize the events of the green revolution in an otherwise secretive and closed country, but Twitter did not drive the masses into the streets of Tehran. source: http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/morozovch1.pdf

Twitter and this article are awful. Where's the criticism and controversy section?

You were than happy to include one for FaceBook and MySpace, but nothing for this godawful social network. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.130.207.205 (talk) 05:45, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Add to religion

https://twitter.com/Pontifex Pope Francis has one, should be listed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.81.199.193 (talk) 07:53, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Founders

"Edward Cramer" is not a founder (that I know of/can find with a quick google search), and should be removed from that section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.126.73.33 (talk) 05:23, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Done.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 05:30, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 August 2014

I want to change the statistices of most foloowed accounts. please allow me to do so. Ralu7 (talk) 15:29, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone will add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. Tutelary (talk) 15:33, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

"Signup denied"

Re this edit: For me, the citation given is a login page which does not mention the problem (screenshot here). Also, I couldn't find anything about this in a reliable secondary source. If you are having problems with signing up or logging in to Twitter, it would be best to ask them why.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 11:03, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

The edit that you have reverted mentions signups from personal computers being denied, not logins. The provided primary source from Twitter proved the case. If we went by your logic and rely only on secondary sources, then Wikipedia would be nothing more than a speculation and conspiracy website. But I can understand your determination to prevent getting this information into the article if you work for Twitter. Have a good day. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 11:43, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

WP:PRIMARY sources are rarely satisfactory if they are not mentioned in secondary sources. I've never come across this before, and could not find any secondary sources referring to it. Even if true, this leads to questions about its notability.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 12:07, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I think this is notable because signups are required for people who want to use Twitter, and I assume this is something that people might want to be aware of. Happyonwiki (talk) 12:22, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

When something is notable, it will normally have appeared in reliable secondary sources. I couldn't even find any blog or forum threads mentioning this problem, which is unusual. If possible, please could you take a screenshot of the message, and note down any links that you are being given.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 12:31, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Here are two message board sources: [1] [2] If you want to have more, you need to do an actual search instead of just talking. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 12:47, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

OK thanks, you can learn something new every day. I'm still concerned about the notability and WP:NOTHOWTO aspect, because this does not appear to be a common problem. The sourcing does not say why this message appears. A guess is that this message may appear if JavaScript is turned off. JavaScript is required for the web version of the Twitter site to work correctly. Either that or the IP address is being blocked to prevent abusive signups. It is a mystery. This is the normal Twitter signup page; I'm not having any problems at the moment.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 13:05, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I have read somewhere that you need to complete the signup page before you arrive at the Signup Denied page. You are welcome. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 13:16, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Right now, without any secondary source that highlights the problem, it is original research to assume this is an intentional/malicious action by Twitter to some potential users. As ianmacm points out this could be a simple issue of not properly allowing Javascript to run. Forum posts cannot be used as sources for this type of statement. --MASEM (t) 13:56, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

You got this the other way around. This WOULD be speculation were it relying on secondary sources instead of the provided primary source from Twitter. But you are an administrator on Wikipedia, so I guess you make the rules here. Anyone else willing to touch the subject, this is the content that was removed from the article. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 14:29, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Twitter is currently denying signups from personal computers in some places, and prompting users to instead use Twitter from mobile phones with the following message: [3]
Signup Denied
We cannot create a new account from this computer. Download the free Twitter app for your Android or iPhone, and start using Twitter on your phone instead.

You, as a WP editor, cannot say "Twitter has this message" and come out with the conclusion "Twitter is effectively forcing people to use their smartphones instead of computers to use Twitter". A secondary source from a reliable source would be able to make that claim (say, if the Wall Street Journal made that statement). Alternatively, if Twitter themselves had a FAQ that said "There are limited situations where we cannot allow users to use Twitter via browser due to..." then we can use that. But just presenting the message and claiming this is a situation is original research and absolutely disallowed. --MASEM (t) 15:16, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

"source from a reliable source" - yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm so glad that I don't think like you do. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 15:31, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I said "secondary second from a reliable source". That's exactly how we work on WP, per WP:V and WP:OR. --MASEM (t) 15:45, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Better read again what you said. You also said that Wall Street Journal is a reliable source, another thing I disagree with. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 15:52, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

WSJ is considers a highly reliable source by WP. It's not what you think is an RS. --MASEM (t) 16:01, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

That explains everything. 77.175.111.57 (talk) 16:09, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

The two forum sources [4] and [5] both date from August 2014, so it is possible that Twitter has changed its signup rules in some way in the last few days. WP:UNDUE is also involved, because it should be possible to find some reliable secondary sources referring to this. On the basis of the current sourcing, it isn't really verifiable or noteworthy enough to mention. Watch this space, if other people keep getting this message, it may receive more widespread coverage.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 15:40, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Yes, it may be a new change, and particularly with the recent noise over Justin.tv/Twitch being a much bigger story, this change in Twitter may not yet have the newsworthiness to be discovered by others. If someone does report the apparent change, we can then consider it possible. --MASEM (t) 15:45, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Hello, I did some research into this, and it looks like an automated system to stop the creation of spam accounts. If you use a domain like @gmail.com, @hotmail.com or another legit one, this message is less likely to appear. If you use a disposable e-mail address, like GuerrillaMail or Sharklasers, you get this everytime. To assertain this, just change the e-mail of an account (already established) to anything from GuerrillaMail/Sharklasers/Spam4me, and the account will be suspended in seconds (you need to answer a CAPTCHA to get it back, simple stuff). This doesn't seem to be a widespread occurrence, so that's probably why no tech sources make a reference to it. 189.90.30.2 (talk) 02:24, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 October 2014

The number of offices around the world is no longer 25 it is now 26 after Twitter's purchase of Gnip http://blogs.denverpost.com/techknowbytes/2014/05/12/boulder-celebrate-closing-twitters-purchase-gnip-public-event-june-4/13608/ 157.182.213.36 (talk) 04:31, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

When they update it on their profile it can be updated in the article. Anyway, "more than 25" includes 26. Stickee (talk) 04:39, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

140 Character limit, why not 160?

The SMS limit on text is only as low as 140 when an 8-bit character set is used. If the text being sent encodes in a 7-bit set, then the limit is 160. I wonder why Twitter didn't make use of this. It's easy to parse the tweet being composed so far and keep the remaining characters limit starting at 160 and only drop it by 20 if someone enters a character that's beyond normal (original 7 bit) ASCII range (like thësë önës). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.217.181.89 (talk) 06:29, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

Sensor Networks on Twitter

I am interested in sensor networks being run through Twitter. I've not been able to find out much about this type of automation, in which sensors from the field send data out via Twitter to followers. The most famous example is @BeijingAir, but I think there must be others and would like to know about these.

If you would be willing to go out and find multiple reliable sources supporting these claims and their relevancy, I (and I'd assume other users) would be willing to add the content to the page. I do not know enough on the subject but if you can provide sources, we can collectively add this information. Hope this helps! Meatsgains (talk) 01:30, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Exactly what IS twitter?

I have been trying to find the answer to this question for year, but nobody will give a real answer.

The article starts:

"Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets"."

This does not come anywhere near answering the question.

I can already "send and read short 140-character messages" and I suppose I could call them "tweets" if I wanted to.

So somebody, PLEASE answer the question:

Exactly what IS twitter? ---Dagme (talk) 18:41, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

How would these 140 character messages that you can already send be read by many? If you're just sending a SMS/Text, then it's only readable by the list of people you send it to, and it's private. Nobody else gets to see it. Twitter is essentially a one-to-many relationship. With Twitter, their platform allws you to broadcast your tweets to everyone who chooses to listen (follows you). By using hashtags, you get to broadcast beyond your following audience even, and are broadcasting to all who follow the hashtag. On the receiving side, you choose who to follow and which hashtags you're interested in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.217.180.142 (talk) 21:55, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 January 2015

I want to add in information regarding Twitters new built in video service. Wikiguy349 (talk) 06:06, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

This has been in the news [6] but the service has not been launched yet, so there is an element of WP:CRYSTAL. It would be best to wait until the service is launched.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:31, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Valid banners & possible reassessment?

I have seen some cleanup banners around the page that were planted recently. I will try and look into seeing if these are still valid, and possibly create a reassessment, but considering that I don't really have the time to devote my entire day to the issue, I thought I'd tell other Wikipedians about it. Maybe a couple people could come here and we could work out the issue? I don't know. I'm going to work on it though. Thatguytestw 00:23, 3 February 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thatguytestw (talk • contribs)