DISQUS

Daniel Brusilovsky · 2 years ago

I break every rule too! Don't feel bad Robert! See ya tomorrow!

Kelly · 2 years ago

I disagree. There is 1 rule of Twitter: Do whatever you want and if people don't like it they can stop following you.

I am seriously tired about random bitching about other people's web habits.

Nils · 2 years ago

Don't blog about how you use Twitter. Wasn't that a rule?

I like how you keep breaking those 'rules'. There are many ways we can use the technology we're offered. We do as we please with it. I like to follow a lot of people too. Gives me a buzz and an alternative way of staying informed, instead of looking for news myself.

Keep shaking the tree Robert.

artifishall · 2 years ago

I don't get why people complain about others tweets, there is always the leave button.

Oh and scobble you don't follow EVERY one who follows you, last I checked you weren't following me :-)

santiromero · 2 years ago

wow. I do understand your reasons for breaking the rules, but I could not be all the time browsing all the twits (I read them most of the time on my handheld, and also manage 493 feed subscriptions). Information bulimia?

:-)

lexia · 2 years ago

I break most of these rules. I'd don't follow more than 300 people - just anyone who follows me and anybody else I find interesting..

Who says that there's any rules on Twitter? I've live twittered a rugby match to the chagrin of my followers without notice. Imagine a tweet every 2 mins from me pop up onto your screen without asking for it :)

Granted there are probably conventions, but no rules. If you piss someone off, they'll prob just unsub ya.

I say break all the rules and have a good time doing it. As long as someone is interesting and makes me think - I'll tune in. That's the only rule of Twitter or Jaiku that I see.

creativesage · 2 years ago

Who made up these rules anyway? I think I've broken all of them. I had one friend of several years unfollow me the other day. She wrote a gracious direct msg. saying she still loved me, but my tweets were clogging up her page, and she would continue to be connected to me on other social networks. At least she was thoughtful enough to tell me why she was unfollowing me. (I would not expect that from someone who was not an actual offline friend as well.) I love the spontaneous use of Twitter for group discussions and the "replies" function. Let's keep pushing the envelope.:-)

~Cathryn Hrudicka, Chief Imagination Officer, Creative Sage(tm)

Dwight Silverman · 2 years ago

Robert,

I agree, it's a different experience for different folks, depending on how you use it. But frankly, if you've got 5,700 "friends" all talking at once, you can't possibly "listen to" all of them. I think you just like collecting all those little pixilated faces.

Liam · 2 years ago

Rules are made to be broken, if your followers don't like it they should stop following you... The guy who said you pushed other tweets off the page, probably only has 1 other person he follows, you don't tweet as much as others.

erwin blom · 2 years ago

I say: the users decide what's valuable to them, not the inventers! Did you know that in Holland Twitter is much more of a thinkthank, a knowledge center, an irc 2.0 etcetera then a What Are You Doing thing? That way i posted 10.000 tweets ;)

SeekGround · 2 years ago

Rules? What rules? Seriously, I prefer it when you are breaking these "rules." I have to wonder why these people follow you that complain about these things. I particularly do not get the one about tweeting too much. I once had a guy shout to the community that he was unfollowing me because I talked too much about my dog. I thought his comment was ungly. Is it too hard just to unsubscribe and move on?

I stop following people for the opposite reason, that is if they have not joined the conversation in over a month. Oh, the other main reasons that I stop following people? If they use ugly language, talk about illegal activity, or added me on their way to adding hundreds of other people but do not leave interest tweets. That does not mean that I shout out to the community about it though.

One thing that I personally have become more tentative about is adding other people. When I first started using Twitter, I actively sought others to follow. Now? I occassionally add people when someone I know advertises for someone else looking for followers. Or, I run across an invitation on a weblog that I am visiting. I guess that may fall somewhere into your rule # 4. People do not necessarily want non "real" friends to follow them and they are not looking to make new ones.

I seek interesting tweets, activities, and conversations.

David Jacobs · 2 years ago

I never got the memo on the "rules". I'll do what the hell I like on Twitter and if you don't like it, don't follow me.

marshal sandler · 2 years ago

If twitter want's to build a marketable business, they should encourage
more participation, without rules ! I think the Pownce interface is excellent for micro blogging , you can add a link and add a good amount of content ! Twitter would be great is you could post in shorthand ! People like to express complete thoughts ! I only use twitter to add a link with content from my site but not as a tool for complete communcation ! They should add a few more features to twitter before the bird quits singing ! [ Opinion]

Avery Nevin · 2 years ago

Weren't rules made to be broken, or is that just my own personal rule? Could I borrow some of your friends Scobbie, it's amazing how many tweets you keep up with!! You Rock!

Dave Winer · 2 years ago

Scoble -- I didn't say that was the rule!

Quite the opposite. I support you in whatever you want to do, and I break most of the rules you do, and my stock answer to people who don't like it is "Vote with your feet."

Please, don't misrepresent me, that's how people come to hate other people, when the case gets overstated.

(And I didn't say you were a monkey either, even though your post headline says I did. Ouch. I was very careful not to make my post personal.)

Dave Winer · 2 years ago

But thanks for the link! :-)

My post about the Year of the Social Network is rising fast. I seem to own the weekends on TechMeme.

Of courae the weekdays belong to you and Arrington.

David · 2 years ago

Good lord man, well...At least he's humble. I think?

Boris · 2 years ago

i'm thinking two things:

1: all progress depends on the unreasonable men
2: if you are rude to your friends in real life and break the unwritten social rules you all agree to your friends might start avoiding you.

Breaking the rules to find out the rules is cool. Breaking them just for effect is boring and childish.

So what are you aiming for here?

nitya · 2 years ago

I think twitters have the right to say what they want and followers have the right to follow or not. However, in reality, things are not so black and white. Different conversations have different values to the follower and the choice shouldn't be an on/off switch.
Rather, it would be nice if the system recognized this as a need and made it possible to click on a person's icon (in the running stream) and minimize or fold all their conversations temporarily so they could see if there were other conversations that were missed in the flood. Especially if the conversations were (a) a long-running thread of updates from 1 user, and (b) if the thread was a dialog conversation where only a subset of the users were visible to the follower.
Keep the value of the discussions, change the interface to make navigating into, around or through them simpler.

Debra Roby · 2 years ago

The discussion between you and creative sage (and i'm sure others) was fascinating. Coming home from Christine Kane's concert to read it was a great way to end the night.

I live-twittered Bay to Breakers, I've read others twitters of events. I think they're great. I adore the conversations on twitter because they happen in real time AND publicly. When else has that opportunity existed?

So you post lots of links. It's my choice to click through or pass them up. I'm an adult. I can think for myself.

And what is that follow 1 for every 10 stupid rule?

Seth E · 2 years ago

Actually, Rule #8, as observed, bothers the crap out of me. Maybe it's because I'm *technically* a newbie, but reciprocation--whether online or off--just seems a common courtesy. In fact, if your following 1 for every ten, and in far too many cases 1 for every 100, you're not having a conversation (which should also be a rule). Actually, since this list is rules most people don't follow anyway, here's two more:

1b.Don't Twit your latest blog post (Die Twitterfeed Die!). Okay, everyone breaks this, but at least make it, again, a ratio of 10 to 1 legit Twits.

2b. Twitter is not the forum for depressing, philosophical, existential, and post-modern musings on life, love, death, and the quandries of capitalism.

Note: I swear that last part wasn't a critcism of you for dropping an Adams reference last night. :-)

David Litsky · 2 years ago

Robert,

You need to use Twitter the way that you see fit, and nobody should tell you how to use it. I prefer to follow my tweets through SMS so I limit who I receive SMS updates from, and it makes it a pleasurable experience for me.

David

Clay Newton · 2 years ago

Wow, first, the only one i knew of was #1, and it seems more like a constraint than a rule.

The rest of these are ridiculous. Totally absurd.

I guess I pretty much break these rules every day as well.

Not a huge fan of the twittergrams, though. Do you think Utterz.com might be more effective for audio?

marilink · 2 years ago

I just don't agree.
I find that the coolest thing of Twitter is that there aren't rules. There are only ways of using it, and anyone can use it the way he/she wants, or even find out a new use for Twitter.
Some say you mustn't use Twitter as a huge public im.
I ask: who said so?
Some say you mustn't use Twitter to say "Good morning" every day. I don't do that, but I ask: who said so?
If some of my follwings do something I don't find nice or funny or "followeable", then I just un-follow him, that's all.
Maybe you just wrote this based on what they told you, but believe me, people just make too many rules.

Julian · 2 years ago

Nice rules there Scoble. I wonder if there are other assumed rules with other sites.

There must be a million for Digg!

Seth E · 2 years ago

Okay, okay, two more:

3b Stop telling us "Really, I'm gonna stop Twittering now". NO YOU'RE NOT!

4b. If more than 2 of every 5 of your Tweets contains the word "Twitter" in it, it's time to sign off for a while (then see above).

Robert Scoble · 2 years ago

Dwight: it's pretty obvious you've never used Twitterrific if you think I can't watch 5,700 people and actually listen to what they say.

Seth: the problem with trying to stop Twittering is that someone always Tweets something damn interesting right before you go to bed.

rslux · 2 years ago

The longer this debate about "the rules" goes on, the more I feel that perhaps the problem isn't the rules, it's Twitter. Maybe a better tool would solve these issues?

Maria de los Angeles · 2 years ago

Well, my semi-fictional character was celebrity roasted two weekends ago when one Twitter contact decided to adopt my avatar and then several other contacts followed. Take a look-see here for a brief round-up: http://www.tmcamp.com/2007/09/manola-madness.php ... the moment has gone down quietly in history as "twittergate"

It both irritated and delighted me, but the irritation only stemmed from the fact that one of the 40-something kids playing in this romper room was sending me rude messages directly and personally. Otherwise, great fun!

Incidentally and totally seriously, I agree, I think the medium should be organic and adaptable, but we still need boundaries if lines are crossed.

Everyone has the choice to follow/not follow. I only started following you because Hugh mentioned the live twitter of your child (btw, congratulations, such inspiring and gorgeous photos!) I thought it was fascinating to see such a thing on Twitter. It really captured my imagination ... if I ever had a child, I'd do the same! And of course, I am always welcome to make new friends of friends. But that's just me ... I think we all use this as we like. It's all good. Carry on ...

PooPsTech · 2 years ago

Well I loved the Rule #4! What do you thing Robert? You tihnk all of us have 300 and more peole that we follow? Not all of us are as "popular" as you are. 300! Ha!

hillary · 2 years ago

i feel the need to point out that these "rules" have in no way been outlined by twitter, inc. some of the comments seem to assume the rules are coming from the creators; but i think robert is responding to critique from users.

5. Don’t assume other people are having the same experience you are.

and don't assume that your rules work for everyone else. right? :)

Catherine Helzerman · 2 years ago

Great post. The one rule I do stick to is 120 characters. I find it forces me to focus my point and make it quickly. Unfortunately for readers, I do tend to "twit and run" -that's five tweets in a row followed by nothing until the next day. Following everyone who follows you is a good rule. If for no other reason, it makes for fun twit discussions when you're referencing each other's posts.

Marcin · 2 years ago

Just nitpicking, but SMS can actually handle 160 character messages - I assume twitter just limits their messages to 140 to make sure there are enough spare characters for your username, a colon, and a space in the SMS.

So you could probably get away with 148 characters.

Spencer · 2 years ago

I break many of those myself, although in general I try to keep my messages short.

Chuck Olsen · 2 years ago

Robert, I didn't see any rule about spreading silly rumours... maybe that rule mainly applies to me. :-D

Michael Markman · 2 years ago

Robert, Tweet as you will. People can always tune you out. (Oh, wait. That's been said here.) Feels weird when you're trying to be obstreperous and radical and have everyone agrees with you. Are you dumping dissenters? Or are you losing your edge?)

JoeDuck · 2 years ago

Bravo - break on, dude.

Moksh Juneja · 2 years ago

Do these rules also apply to Pownce and Jaiku?? Who came up with the figure - 140?? I would really like to know!!

Guilty at the same time, since even I break these rules!!

A.Falk · 2 years ago

I enjoy your Twitter ramblings (and I hope you enjoy mine) - it's a great tool and different people use it for different purposes.

As far as rules are concerned: I don't remember having to click-accept any 7 page legal document when signed up for Twitter - so as far as I'm concerned there are no rules... :)

Spencer · 2 years ago

WAIT A SECOND!!! :) I totally follow you and I'm pretty sure you aren't on my followers list... twitter.com/iSpenc

Daniele Rossi · 2 years ago

HAHAHA The funny thin gis I couldn't do #9 because of you doing #2 (that didn't sound right). One time, I got fed up with having a page full of your tweets so I thought of 'unfollowing' you for a few days because. However-- I couldn't find you on my list! It's weird :) You're tweets show up but your name isn't there on my following list.

You're too spooky! :) Anyhoo, I'm glad I couldn't remove you after all because then I wouldn't have been alerted to this blog post.

Steve · 2 years ago

Guy Kawasaki might be out twittering you... Keep sending all those sweet tweets... With sms I can stand at the water cooler all day.

Prokofy Neva · 2 years ago

Yeah, I break all these rules, too, and the thing is constantly saying to me WHOAH THAT WAS A BIG UPDATE ! Next time stick to 140!

But..You have to break the rules or it wouldn't work as well.

I realize we're supposed to get into the Zen of "What are you doing *right now*?" and be all "be here now" and stuff, but the reality is, often when you're Twittering, you're sitting in front of your computer,if you don't have a cell phone to twitter with like me, or, you're sitting in a waiting room waiting for an airplane or something, like a lot of the people who Twitter on down time. So...what are you going to say, "Um, I'm here at my computer folks". Of COURSE you have to say "What do you think of this blog, that movie, this new camera, etc."

I'm not for them changing the 140 thing just because I think it's good to get a frame and a limit to try to keep as many convos going at once in the page view. But I wish it threaded downwards like jaiku does, except jaiki being like that never makes me go over to jaiku, go know.

bob smith · 2 years ago

What the hexx is twiter???????????????

dreadsword · 2 years ago

I wish you'd break the tinyURL rule and try http://rwurl.com instead. Pick your own shortlinks lets you max out your characters, and track your clickthrough volume for maximum popularity gloating - rwurl was made to complement your tweets.

Christian Burns · 2 years ago

The only rule that I don't break is the follow more that x number of people. I do add almost everyone that follows me as long as I can see that they are actually interested in what I say, as opposed to adding me so that I will visit their dumb website. Twitter is so fun for people like us because we do break the rules. Next time I see any twitter people in real life I can just start the conversation because we already know the boring stuff about each other.

Ian · 2 years ago

If there's one thing that pisses me off more than anything else, it's the self-proclaimed tech gurus who profess to have all the answers in the so-called Web 2.0 world.

Popular websites go by the wayside daily. Tech books are obsolete nearly as soon as they're published, and the communications paradigms shift like quicksand.

Jason · 2 years ago

I honestly cannot see the point of Twitter. It seems to me that the amount of attention you have to give the service far outweighs any benefits.

Julian Bond · 2 years ago

There is only one rule of Twitter. Don't talk about Twitter.

Samuel Wells · 2 years ago

Oh and just in case you didn't see my reply to http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/289603202

What's rss reading like these days, while holding Milan? Learning Google Reader yet? I don't suppose he's saying "jjjjjkk" :-P
http://twitter.com/samuelwells/statuses/289665642

geoff · 2 years ago

I feel like Twitter is dying, regardless of the rules. If I were going to "follow" such unwritten edicts, I might as well just text my friends. The whole point of social media tools is to socialize on a larger scale than traditional methods allow.

My only lament is that the more people I follow, the more people's updates I lose in the cacophony. Sometimes I just end up keyword searching through twittersearch/troll/whatever, although those sites seem spotty on returns.

I guess it'll stay good 'til the timeshare people get on it.

Jeremy Toeman · 2 years ago

And there's always my favorite, which is "ignore Twitter altogether". It's amazing how well I can follow it!

vaspers aka steven e. streight · 2 years ago

I don't know where you found these spurious "rules of Twitter" but I don't believe in any of them.

You know many people migrated to Twitter because of you, during the Mean Kids debacle.

One rule I do believe in is don't exclusively or primarily link to your own blog posts. Don't use Twitter as a free ad medium to drive traffic to an ad infested web site.

Interact with others on Twitter, as much as possible.

I love your tweets and your genuine care for others, even Z Listers like me. I agree with what you state in this post.

:^)

vaspers aka steven e. streight · 2 years ago

Twitter is a rushing river of brevities and links. Blogs are stagnant islands of prolixities.

heh

JT Allison · 2 years ago

I think you're doing just fine. I don't pay attention to unwritten rules. If I'm suppose to follow them, then they should be made official and written down.

bammy · 2 years ago

I think you’re doing just fine and goog.I don’t pay attention to unwritten rules.If I’m suppose to follow them, then they should be made official and written down

bammy · 2 years ago

i love beein with you here truely i was told by a frien of mine that here is the better place for me to serch for a life partner

orcmid · 2 years ago

Oh, my sides hurt!

I almost signed up for twitter just so I could tweak you with some tweets, but I figure why torgue when I can just nag you about not even answering Facebook mail.

Pat Jenkins · 2 years ago

I love your book. I am trying to get everyone in my company (nolo.com) to buy it.

Thiane · 2 years ago

I agree that you should only follow real friends. But in my case I follow people who brings me good information (like you and your links). Isn´t that valid too?

Jordon Cooper · 2 years ago

I am following you on Twitter and your rule breaking isn't bothering me that much. I won't worry about the criticism.

Diego · 2 years ago

Forget the rules! I was going to use the other F word there. If people don't like it, they can stop following you. Plain and simple. These people are just whiners. Similar to when people complain about something they didn't like on TV. As far as I recall TVs still have an off switch. Use it people!

Tom · 2 years ago

I don't use Twitter. I have been considering signing up. But after reading this, I will never, ever sign up for Twitter now.
I'll wait for something better and then probably never sign up for that either.

Brian Humphrey · 2 years ago

Robert,

Thanks for the list... which came in handy this week as I tried to frame Twittiquette into a public presentation on the Los Angeles Fire Department's use of the microblogging platform.


Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

alicia · 2 years ago

so, uh, is there a link to your twitter account?? i wanted to read. :)

Robert Scoble · 2 years ago

alicia: http://www.twitter.com/scobleizer

Jon · 2 years ago

If nobody broke rule #7, I actually don't think Twitter would be successful.

Teresa Boardman · 1 year ago

I started following you on twitter a couple of weeks ago. For the most part I find it interesting. I have maybe 90 followrs and am following 75 or so. . . I guess if your flagrant violation of the rules ticked me off I would stop following you. :)

miamism · 1 year ago

A lot of us use it as a chat room - that should piss off a whole lot of people.

kristalk · 1 year ago

I follow Teresa Boardman and Ines.
Breaking the rules is a good thing.
kk

Steve · 1 year ago

If you really want to post text beyond the 140 character limit in Twitter, check this Firefox extension which lets you do that - http://shorttext.com/twitzer.aspx

Blurtsmum · 1 year ago

On an evening I often get a minute by minute report of some gut commuting accross melbourne (i'm in uk) by public transport -- he often ends up quite cross - its hilarious! Look forward to it. I use twitter as a form of entertainment, information seeking and to show people the pictures I make.

LaurieManny · 1 year ago

I love your take on rules. I have always said that rules were made for people who need them and I just don't need them! lol...

Joel Oleson · 1 year ago

Well done. I haven't come across these rules, but I do see you have to break these rules to get the real value out of it.

I am very interested in understanding how you add the followers who follow you. Have you figured out a way to get past the pages and pages of followers? I see you can't get past 20 pages on the web.

http://www.twitter.com/joeloleson

Joel
Following you on twitter.

Jennie Z · 1 year ago

Wonderful, now I feel better about breakign these rules. I actually thought the 140 character limit was an absolute, that it would cut me off if I went over...Now that I know I think I might go way overboard just to be an ass.

Also, I like Kelly's comment (second one down)... this is generally how I live my life too.

P.S. http://twitter.com/jennie_z :)
(I had to plug two sites, sorry)

Brandon J. Mendelson · 11 months ago

This made me smile. Thank you Mr. Scoble.

Serena Carcasole · 10 months ago

Love this post!! I agree. I don't understand why people make up there own rules. Twitter is supposed to be a network without rules and of course there seem to be rules that came out of everything!!

Now I am off to write a 140+ post! :)


Serena Carcasole
www.vbsondemand.com
Your 1STOP Business Service Shop
Outsource your way to success!

Marryam Chaudhry · 9 months ago

I have to say this..this is the best techy blog I have come across!.and I just love your rebel ideas coz they are so similar to mine..I break all the tweet rules too!..I just am so pissed at the 2k limit on people I can follow!!!

Keep posting! I love it! I have also RT this article ..its deserves it!

seo · 9 months ago

I have to say this..this is the best techy blog I have come across!.and I just love your rebel ideas coz they are so similar to mine..I break all the tweet rules too!..I just am so pissed at the 2k limit on people I can follow!!!

Keep posting! I love it! I have also RT this article ..its deserves it!

Keva Silversmith · 9 months ago

I had never heard of the 300 rule before - makes sense to me. As my numbers started going up, I was wondering how I was supposed to track everyone. I'm following someone who has 42,000 people in his network - even Tweetdeck won't solve that sensory overload.

Social Bookmark · 5 months ago

A lot of user use it as a chat room.

That should piss off a whole lot of people.

aitengri · 4 months ago

Well, if what I'm "doing" is "thinking", then we don't have to worry about that issue. I think we could issue 10 interconnected "tweets" as, hmmm, our preferred ethical commandments? As serial parables? Some bible guy on PBS tried to make the point that his god was very concise. So are Haiku. There we go! This system could be a concentrating force, an ultimate response to Kant, an Einsteinian verbal equation challenge. I'll cease and desist here, as I save my own words (spontaneosly spewed here) for a real text file :)
PS I've not yet taken this very dangerous plunge into the abyss of ADD noise. Not sure of my swimming technique.

groomdress · 3 months ago

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bridgetbusutil · 3 months ago

i like your attitude and you are right if people were not happy they could unfollow!
How do you get around the 2000 bit. I have 1928 followers and following 2080 and I am stuck I can't move . IF you know how to get around that one you would help me a lot. I want to get over the 2000 to keep building!
Thanks in advance. happy tweeting from Barcelona. follow me too!

smartkub · 3 months ago

I don't get why people complain about others tweets, there is always the leave button.

Oh and scobble you don't follow EVERY one who follows you, last I checked you weren't following me :-)

Guest · 3 months ago

Bravo - break on, dude.

Guest · 3 months ago

so, uh, is there a link to your twitter account?? i wanted to read. :)

Guest · 2 months ago

I know the Twitter but i don't know it will use for...

Michelle · 2 months ago

Great post, really enjoyed it! I do think that there's always a time and a place for proper Twitter etiquette -- but you don't have to follow them ALL the time (I know my table manners aren't as good as they could be when I'm eating at home, alone). Some of the rules -- like your #7, where people feel they always need to answer the question "what are you doing" -- is plain silly, and probably meant to be broken. I recently posted a few of my own "rules" for newbie Twitterers -- but I cited you as a good example of someone who successfully breaks the rules. Check it out here, if you like: http://www.thewritersforhire.com/blog/social-me...

Thanks again for the good post!

diggma · 2 months ago

A lot of user use it as a chat room.

That should piss off a whole lot of people.

diggma · 2 months ago

I never got the memo on the "rules". I'll do what the hell I like on Twitter and if you don't like it, don't follow me.

diggma · 2 months ago

I break every rule too! Don't feel bad Robert! See ya tomorrow!

vincej · 2 months ago

breaking rules?
There are rules?

If you have a second, take a look at my "piggyback tweet" discussion.
A simple experiment, some pretty intense reactions, and your opinions are welcome.
I don't bruise easily :-)
http://greeninkdiary.blogspot.com/2009/09/twitt...
and be sure to vote and leave a comment.
cheers

bookmarkth · 2 months ago

Good lord man,

well...At least he's humble. I think?

bookmarkth · 2 months ago

Good lord man, well...At least he's humble. I think?

โปรโมทเว็บฟรี

Paul Malessa aka Zorly · 2 months ago

Right on Robert! Good article...

Guest · 2 months ago

Long time ago, i never use the twitter and i don't like the twitter's rules.

Maybe , I have to use it bacause alot of people talk to its.

ndesigns · 1 month ago

I agree, it's a different experience for different folks, depending on how you use it. But frankly, if you've got 5,700 "friends" all talking at once, you can't possibly "listen to" all of them. I think you just like collecting all those little pixilated faces.