Dear Metal Journos: it’s not a “Twitter Page”…
I just read a BraveWords.com news headline that read “MEGADETH Drummer SHAWN DROVER Launches Twitter.com Page, Clinic In Planning For August” (link).
The opening paragraph itself is also suspect:
MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover has launched an official Twitter.com page for up-to-the-minute messaging at this location.
Anyone who actually uses or understands Twitter will get that it’s not a “Twitter.com page”, it’s an account. But you wouldn’t say someone has a Twitter account, you would say that they are now “on Twitter”. Or “will now be issuing updates via Twitter”. And rather than “at this location” it would make more sense to say “follow him/them at this location”. Hell, there’s a thousand other variations that make more sense and fit into the Twitter paradigm. Calling it a “Twitter.com page” is essentially dismissing it as another MySpace, which is well-understood in musical circles now.
Please don’t think I’m picking on Brave Words. I’ve seen the same thing on Blabbermouth and a few other metal news sites, including ones who should know better.
The way this piece is written smacks to me to regurgitated press release – not that there’s anything wrong with that in itself, but if the press release is not well written or doesn’t make sense, it’s up to the person writing it up to fix that. I may be naive but I assume that anyone writing for a metal web site would have some understanding of Twitter by now even if they don’t use it themselves. If the person writing the press release in the first place doesn’t understand Twitter either that’s probably something that ought to be addressed too.
This kind of thing reminds me of when the web was really new too, only it was usually mainstream media using ridiculous analogies and misusing terms. Once Twitter becomes old hat, it will be something new that will have me gnashing my teeth. *sigh*
Uh huh – someone actually said to me (this person shall remain nameless): “But posting news on the site is easy. You just copy and paste”.
No, you don’t. You read, edit, alter, rewrite as necessary, *then* paste and post.
Some people just don’t get it. I suggest lots of people never will.
Let’s take a deep breath ladies, not everyone gets it:) But hopefully they will one day and maybe thanks to you and your words. Keep it up! x Annabel Candy
Unless you use it, I don’t think people really understand what twitter is. It’s been around long enough now that it’s probably here to stay, so eventually the appropriate ‘twittage’ will become regular vocabulary.
It reminds me of back in the day when the word ‘blog’ began kicking around 🙂
The one that gets me is “twitter blog”. Really… it just isn’t.