My Twitter Rant
Posted by RisuzuAug 30
Twitter can be quite annoying much of the time. Bugs and other annoyances often appear on the site. The most visible has been called the Fail Whale. After all the time Twitter has been around, it seems Twitter continues to crash from heavy loads. Other bugs that occasionally appear are disappearing follower counts, disappearing lists, and probably others I haven’t noticed.
The primary reason for this post, however, is the addition of new features on Twitter. While I don’t have a problem with the site adding features, I do have a problem with them adding the features without giving the users an option. Whenever a new feature is added, I often see complaints in my Twitter stream about it.
The main feature that is a huge thorn in my side is the “hovercard” feature. Whenever the mouse is over a username link, a small popup box appears. This always annoys me, because I’m not interested in this. When I move the mouse to a link, my intention is to click it. Unfortunately, when I try to click, the hovercard appears and my click does not register. So I must double-click the link just to get where I want to go. That is not how the web is supposed to work.
Sadly, Twitter will not allow this feature to be disabled. When I search in their help section, I eventually find this:
Can I turn them off?
Hovercards are a permanent feature added to enhance each user’s experience of Twitter. It may take a few minutes to learn how they work, but once you get the hang of hovering and taking action without leaving your home timeline, you’ll save so many clicks that you’ll never want to come back down to Earth!
I have two things to say about this.
1.) Save clicks? HA! My clicks increase just to get where I want to go. I want to come back to Earth, but I can’t. I’ve been abducted by Twitter’s UFO, er, hovercard.
2.) Notice how it’s worded. It’s a permanent feature to enhance the experience. It’s like the Twitter folks know better than us. A better translation would be:
Can I turn them off?
No, you can’t. Deal with it. HA HA HA
There is one feature that was actually useful to me, though. When I visit another user’s page, it would show other users that we both follow. Sometimes when a person follows me, I become curious about the reason. Knowing if we follow similar people is useful because it’s possible we share similar interests. But GUESS WHAT? Twitter removed that feature! Way to go, Twitter!
Some of you are probable wondering, “Why doesn’t she just leave Twitter?” Well, it often crosses my mind. Believe me, if I find a decent alternative, I’m jumping ship without hesitation.
Seriously, Twitter. Concentrate on fixing all your bugs before you force new features down everyone’s throats. Else, your users will leave when the competition appears.
Love&Peace
2 comments
Comment by Spade on September 12, 2010 at 5:57 pm
“Hello there, faithful website user!”
“Er, hello webpage.”
“I’ve added some new features to enhance your experience!”
“Ah, that’s great, thanks… um, hey, webpage? Why are these new features actually interfering with the original purpose I signed up with you for?”
“Because that’s how they enhance your experience! Share and Enjoy!”
“RRRGHHH… Is there some way I can deactivate these new features, please?”
“*GASP* Deactivate??? Why in the interwebs would you want to do that??!? These new features were added to enhance your experience – there’s no reason not to want them! Share and Enjoy!”
“Hey! And why did you get rid of one of the other features I found really useful?”
“Because that’s just one more way we’re enhancing your experience! Share and enjoy!”
“OW! And why is there OW! an angry-looking midget OW! in a bird costume repeatedly OW! hitting me over the head with OW! a rolled-up old newspaper?”
“I don’t understand what the problem is – that’s just our newest and most wonderful way yet that we’re enhancing your experience! Share and Enjoy!”
Comment by Rick on September 13, 2010 at 11:57 pm
If you’re still being annoyed by hovercards, you might want to check out http://www.conroyp.com/2010/03/20/decluttering-twitter-part-deux/. The only “bad” thing about using that bookmarklet is that it has to be clicked every time you refresh the page or return to twitter.com. Firefox users might be able to have it done automagically using a Greasemonkey script, but I didn’t come across one in my Google search. But, hey…even having to manually disable hovercards every time is better than suffering through them, right?