Mulligan! Twitter backtracks on unpopular change
That was quick.
In a blog post, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has acknowledged that the company left quite a few users rather miffed when it opted to stop displaying @-replies (conversational "tweets" directed to another Twitter user) in members' feeds, if they didn't already follow the recipient of the reply.
"Folks loved this feature because it allowed them to discover new people and participate serendipitously in various conversations," Stone wrote. "The problem with the setting was that it didn't scale, and even if we rebuilt it, the feature was blunt. It was confusing and caused a sense of inconsistency. We felt we could do much better."
So what are they doing? For now, Twitter's team is bringing the feature back in a limited form (you'll see all @-replies, except for ones created using the "reply" button in Twitter's interface, which is a tad convoluted), and they're working on its successor.
"We've started designing a new feature which will give folks far more control over what they see from the accounts they follow," Stone wrote. "This will be a per-user setting, and it will take a bit longer to put together, but not too long, and we're already working on it."
You may now return to your regularly scheduled 140-character-long programming--right?
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
Everyone please sign my #fixreplies petition here and RT to send a strong, unified message:
http://bit.ly/fixtwitter
- by CyStarkman May 13, 2009 6:45 PM PDT
- Hmm. It isn't the fall that matters, we all fall. It's the recovery that counts
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(3 Comments)They recovered fast. Though not sure why it can't just be the way it was.
I wish there was a way to block all the cross talk. I loved reading peoples quotes, quips, poems, links and moments but the noise makes it so there is so much to read that there is nothing to read.