Managing Twitter

[jesse_the_k]

I love being on Twitter. Constant stimulation. Jokes zinging right and left. Art and photos from around the world. Checking in with people who I only see once a year at WisCon if I’m lucky.

I hate being on Twitter. Constant stimulation. Terrible things happening world wide, curated for my attention by people I like. As of November 2016, I've been on a total newsfast to maintain my sanity, and there's a LOTS of content that's toxic.

Therefore: three tools that help me interact with Twitter manageably.

Thread Reader App

https://threadreaderapp.com

At your request, this service compiles Twitter threads and hosts them on the site. It’s run by three humans and a busy bot.

Basic service is free:

1. Visit site
2. Enter username, hashtag, keyword in search
3. Admire unrolls — saved threads

For example, many wonderful mushing stories from Iditarod competitor BlairBraverman:

https://threadreaderapp.com/user/BlairBraverman

If you’re already using Twitter, it’s even faster

1. Follow ThreadReaderApp
2. Reply to one of the tweets in the thread
3. Include \@ThreadReaderApp UNROLL in your reply
4. In a few minutes their bot will tweet you the link to your unrolled thread

You can prevent your tweets from being collected by sending \@ThreadReaderApp BLOCK ME

You can also create an account (with email or your Twitter handle) and manage stored unrolls there. The threadreaderapp site syncs its contents with Twitter several times a day. If you pay $30/year they will create PDFs you can download—this is a handy way to "keep receipts," if you’re into that.

TCHAT.io

Twitter chats can be excellent learning spaces, and they move faster than I can track. The tchat.io interface provides a pause button, so you can read the chat at the pace you desire, whether real-time or later.

No account required, though you can sign in with Twitter to contribute within the tchat interface.

Take a look at the #LoveYourPetDay hashtag now trending

http://www.tchat.io/rooms/loveyourpetday

Tweetlogix

is an iOS Twitter client I have been loving for years. I can control what I see in almost every regard. I choose the type size, colors, and backgrounds. I can see images without clicking, prevent autoplay videos, expand links automagically. I can filter keywords, read a person’s timeline and suppress all their retweets, creates lists of accounts to read without following them, save drafts, and much more. Best $4 I’ve ever spent.

https://onloft.com/tweetlogix

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Another thing I learned today:

You can block a user's retweets and not their own tweets on the Twitter website.

Go to their userpage

https://twitter.com/jesse_the_k

Select "More user actions" (3 dots stacked vertically) to the right of the big Follow/Unfollow button.

Select "Turn on retweets" or "Turn off retweets"

If it’s already OFF, then choose ON and then OFF again (sometimes you have to do this twice until it sticks). Visit the main site again to see if it's working.

Drawback: works on the Twitter website and Tweetdeck. It doesn't work with lists, e.g.,
https://twitter.com/jesse_the_k/lists/a11y

Unsolicited UI Complaint. You always see RTs on the userpage, even when you've turned them off, so this is Bad Design.