City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Paragon Studios Twitter Spam

Android_5Point9

By Android_5Point9,
Posted on: 2012-04-26 10:13 in CoH and CoV General Discussions

 

Posted

Step One: Turn off Retweets.

Done.


That's the first step towards completely unfollowing you. I not only signed up to follow CoH, but to get cell phone notifications of any tweets so that I wouldn't miss things like surprise Ustreams or surprise one-day holiday event beta testing.

But over the past several months, you got the idea to make that Twitter account a verbose social media outlet. Every day I find my cell phone alerting me more and more often that there was a Twitter post. And more and more those Twitter posts are just fluff:

  • Three different tweets to show off three different art project winners. That's three times to check, "What is my cell phone notifying me of? Oh, nothing that I wouldn't see next time I'm on the forums." It's also something that could have been a link to one forum thread rather than three different tweets.

  • Retweets of meat on a stick conversations. Really? That's worthy to retweet? Really? You're going to retweet entire back and forth conversations? And in the past few weeks, one or more of you have just gone retweet crazy. It's maddening.

It's clear you want that Twitter account to be exactly like your Facebook account or the forums. That's not what Twitter is about. Or at least, that's not what that Twitter account was originally for.

If you're going to make that account a chatty and verbose chat channel, I will completely unsubscribe. Maybe you can create an announcement-only channel that I can subscribe to with cell phone notifications.

But I just wanted you to know what I'm looking for: The ability to get cell phone notifications of time-sensitive information and big announcements. Not another whacky conversation channel.

I hope you can find a solution for me and anyone who may feel the same. I don't want to completely unfollow you on Twitter, but unless things change, I will.

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Posted

Our approach to Twitter is not to use it as a means of notifying of emergency or immediate issues, but rather as another way to engage our Community. This means we'll be having conversations with people who reply to our Tweets, finding people talking about City of Heroes on Twitter and talking with them and otherwise finding fun ways to utilize it to make COH a fun experience even when you're not in game.

I'm sincerely hopeful you, and many others, will choose to join us in this conversation, however if this isn't what you're looking for, I understand.

Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios

 

Posted

Twitter is teh Debil. Kids these days and all their social media. Why back in my day, we used *email*! And we **LIKED** it that way!!!

Yeah, OK , I'm being funny, but I've seriously never understood why the fascination with Twitter. I just don't see the need to be *that* frickin' connected.

 

Posted

OP: Turn off the notifications to your phone. I've been Twitter following CoH and Matt Miller (Positron) since early last fall and all they mostly post is fluff stuff. Certainly nothing important enough to get a notification about. I just read their stuff when catching up on my normal timeline.

 

Posted

I'm on Twitter but am highly selective about who I follow. I can't spend hours just catching up on hundreds of Tweets.

I can guarantee any who follow me receive no spam as I do not send Tweets or Retweet. At all.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zwillinger View Post
Our approach to Twitter is not to use it as a means of notifying of emergency or immediate issues, but rather as another way to engage our Community. This means we'll be having conversations with people who reply to our Tweets, finding people talking about City of Heroes on Twitter and talking with them and otherwise finding fun ways to utilize it to make COH a fun experience even when you're not in game.

I'm sincerely hopeful you, and many others, will choose to join us in this conversation, however if this isn't what you're looking for, I understand.
Your new approach, you mean. Because this isn't the way it used to operate. Personally speaking, the thing that annoys me the most is that you just RT every single positive thing anyone ever says that involves City of Heroes.

I'm waiting to see, "@CityofHeroes RT @CatLady10K, OMG @CityofHeroes CLEANED ALL MY LITTERBOXES, THANK YOU!"

You're engaging some folks. And bugging the crap out of others.

There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry View Post
You're engaging some folks. And bugging the crap out of others.
...sounds like pretty much any form of social media.

 

Posted

I find that everyone on Twitter has their own idea of "what Twitter is about".

While I don't use it much these days, when I do use it, I engage it precisely as a chatty way to socialize with people. No offense to Zombieman - You can't please all of the people all of the time.

I've always assumed that the whole point of the Twitter account is to engage people who probably DON'T use the forums. As such, expecting it to be a vehicle for directing people to the forums is probably not realistic. It's an alternative to the forums, as well as a way to personally engage with some of the CoH_OCR team in ways that you don't typically engage with them on the forums.

I have a habit of being very verbose on Twitter. I am unabashed about this. The people who I count as friends in that medium are fine with it and engage with me because I am such. I have had at least one complete stranger tell me "Geez, dude, write a blog entry. Don't spam Twitter with all of these tweets." I laughed, literally. This was someone I did not know and who I had never engaged with or followed or invited to follow me. He probably just added me to his follow list based on someone's #FF or something. Anyway, I politely told him that he was free to unfollow me at any time and it would not bruise my ego one bit.

There are as many "ways to do Twitter" as there are people doing it. There's no right or wrong way, only the ways that are effective and enjoyable for you. Which is to say that if CoH_OCR is attempting to generate buzz and conversation about City of Heroes on Twitter, that doing it the way Zombieman describes is the "right" way. If it doesn't sit well with people who prefer their Twitter to be basically a news stream (and there are a lot of people who feel that's what it SHOULD be, many of them vehemently, which label I am NOT applying to Zombieman; just saying that they are out there) then you just unfollow the ones you don't like and move on.

****EDIT****

All that said, I will add that I do find the practice of retweeting everything someone says about your organization or topic to be somewhat annoying. I mean, some people even retweet their own messages that another person retweeted. Retweets are best used to expand on something that a group is talking about, in my personal opinion. Hashtags are the best way to have a discussion and track it when your goal is to have a "thread" about some topic, plus the hashtags are searchable.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zwillinger View Post
Our approach to Twitter is not to use it as a means of notifying of emergency or immediate issues, but rather as another way to engage our Community. This means we'll be having conversations with people who reply to our Tweets, finding people talking about City of Heroes on Twitter and talking with them and otherwise finding fun ways to utilize it to make COH a fun experience even when you're not in game.

I'm sincerely hopeful you, and many others, will choose to join us in this conversation, however if this isn't what you're looking for, I understand.
That's cool, but would you consider making another account that is for announcements and notifications only (like ZM suggested)? That's why I started following you guys, too. It was extremely valuable to me.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liquid View Post
That's cool, but would you consider making another account that is for announcements and notifications only (like ZM suggested)? That's why I started following you guys, too. It was extremely valuable to me.
We'll certainly take this suggestion under advisement.

Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry View Post
I'm waiting to see, "@CityofHeroes RT @CatLady10K, OMG @CityofHeroes CLEANED ALL MY LITTERBOXES, THANK YOU!"
Don't be ridiculous.

I'm allergic to cats.

Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios

 

Posted

More to the point:

Social Media is a *constantly* evolving thing. We will perpetually be testing new ideas, new approaches and emerging technology and trends via all of our Social Media Platforms. This could mean new platforms, such as Pinterest or Ustream, or new technology that makes sharing more interactive.

It's a brave new world, and the City of Heroes Community team will *always* be adapting and working to be on the cutting edge.

Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liquid View Post
That's cool, but would you consider making another account that is for announcements and notifications only (like ZM suggested)? That's why I started following you guys, too. It was extremely valuable to me.
I'll second this idea, as it should be easily done and would satisfy the needs of the people want to keep in touch on Twitter but not be dragged into a lot of fluff they don't care about.

 

Posted

Nos, how about:


ZWILLINGER, YOU WILL EAT THIS KITTEN!




EDIT: Oh, recursive humor is Live...

There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.

 

Posted

I understand the point of it not being what a person had originally hoped and expected and set things up (with notifications) to be... However, I dislike whenever people claim x social media is not supposed to be used x way, haha.
Use it however you want.
Again, I understand not wanting to unfollow, but unfollowing if they don't use it how you wish... but there are no rules on how to use a tool. Any which way you figure out to use it... is a way to use it. Whether that's the right way or the wrong way can depend on the results, but certainly not from the opinions of established users via a certain method.

In other news... The postman says he'd like you to stop mailing rocks!

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowMoka View Post
But not catgirls?
Catgirls are Hypo-allergenic. Unless the situation calls for allergy-based comedy.

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Posted

Social media is much like panning for gold right now... there's nuggets there but damn what a lot of sludge and pebbles.

Might I suggest to Zwill that if they are going to use Twitter as a full blown communications medium, that they consider using hash tags. Simple tags like #cohannounce and #cohupdate, would make it much easier to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

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... Hit it ...

 

Posted

I have a separate Twitter account for gaming stuff, but even so the next time I get my panties bunched over someone tweeting *too much* will be the first.

If it's vaguely related to CoH, the more the merrier I say.


in the words of comedian Doug Benson (@DougBenson), "If you can't stand the tweet, unfollow the kitchen."

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Posted

Zombie Man, close your eyes and take a deep breath

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Posted

Well, then, I guess I will turn off notification. Which means Unfollowing, too. There's nothing on Twitter I can't get from the forums. And even if there's a tiny needle of exclusive Twitter-only info occasionally posted there... I'm not going to sift the haystack to find it.

This means if you have a surprise Ustream or a surprise Event Test, I won't be there for it because I won't know about it like I used to. I'm certainly not going to manually check the CoH Twitter feed several times a day.

If you can get a CoH-Official Announcement account up and running, I will Follow it and put it on Cell Notification. I hope that comes about.

And, Zwillinger, to comment on evolving use of social media: Sure, I know it happens and I am not making demands that you use it the way I want it to be used. But evolution happens both ways. If it evolves into something I don't find useful or I don't want, I'll opt out; which is what I'm doing. It would be helpful for you to know why. You made a purposeful change in the way it had been running. And so I'm making a purposeful change, too.

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