Comments on: Why is Twitter winning when it isn’t the best? It’s the swarm and peeps who win out.

By: Tris Hussey

Tris Hussey — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:39:15 +0000

Sean, you know I always thought the fan thing was odd on Pownce. It did make seem like the person didn’t want to read your stuff because you stayed a “fan”. So, yeah, that’s a subtle but important sociological distinction.

Mack, Facebook I do update (through Twitter), but the others, well since I don’t really want to participate, I don’t bother.

BTW, Sean, I’m expecting more sage words from you soon. ;)

By: Mack D. Male

Mack D. Male — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:49:23 +0000

I think you’re right, Twitter got the early lead and has hung on to it. That said, I see no downside to updating multiple services. I regularly post to Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku, Tumblr, Pownce, and Bebo.

By: Sean Carruthers

Sean Carruthers — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:56:49 +0000

The other thing that’s worth noting is the power dynamic with Twitter and the power dynamic with Pownce — with Twitter you have “followers”, or people who are following what you are posting. Fair enough. But on Pownce, they’ve made the odd decision to label people who follow you as “fans” if you don’t follow them back, which has sociological baggage that’s unnecessary. Because of this, on Pownce, I’ve added back almost everyone who’s added me, which makes my Pownce stream far less useful as a source of tips and information.

I realize that both of these services allow users to only follow people they want to follow, which means they’re as spam-free as you choose to make them, and ultimately this is probably a semantic argument. But I think it counts — the way the companies have chosen to frame the relationship of followers and posters makes a difference in my mind as to how I’m actually going to use the service.

By: Tris Hussey

Tris Hussey — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:39:20 +0000

Sean simplicity is a great point and I had forgotten about it. Twitter is dead simple and does one thing and does it pretty well.

And like you found this post through a tweet, I find all kinds of great things as well.

Simplicity, content, friends. What else do you need?

By: Sean Carruthers

Sean Carruthers — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:34:37 +0000

I’ve signed up for Jaiku, Pownce and Twitter, but it’s Twitter I keep coming back to. But it’s not because of the momentum…it’s the simplicity of the concept. Sure, there are times when I wish I had more than just 140 character to spit out some idea I have, but on the other hand, I see the massive screeds that some people post on Pownce and I just tune out. Plus, those long dumps in the middle of my Pownce stream make it more difficult to concentrate on the content there that I’d actually find interesting.

Twitter, on the other hand, makes it incredibly easy for me to quickly scroll through all the things my contacts are saying…and if they have more than 140 characters they’ll reference a url with more info (like you did with the Twitter msg that led me to this post). It’s pretty easy to figure out when I’m not interested in a topic in just a few words, but when I go to Pownce I’m clobbered over the head with the whole shebang, not just the headline.

Is Pownce the better platform? Undoubtedly, for people who are sharing links and files. But since I don’t really want to do that, I ultimately only come back to Pownce once every week or two and almost never post there. I’d like to be able to set it up so that my Pownce stream re-tweets my Twitter posts (like Jaiku does)…but so far I’ve been so disengaged from the Pownce experience that I haven’t bothered putting in the time trying to figure out if it’s even possible.