Warlach’s World

Wow.

Well, it’s now the Monday after I cast my plea for help to the social media winds. You can read all about it in the previous post, and I’m going to writing here with the assumption that you know what I asked for, and how people responded. What I want to cover here is a look back at what I consider the key points.

Firstly, thank you Telstra. A lot of people I’ve spoken to since the blog post went up and the storm of crazy happened haven’t realized that they responded in almost under an hour. The hardware was mailed that afternoon, arrived the next day and worked perfectly. They even included a reply paid envelope for ease of return. There were a number of people at Telstra who helped, not simply limited to Kristen Boschma and the @Telstra team, but to all of you: thank you.

However, there were some further developments: firstly the funeral was pushed forward from Saturday and is actually going ahead today; secondly, during this whole process we were obviously also talking to the hospital and in the end they came through, putting together a team, ambulance, donating oxygen and equipment needed for Doug to actually attend the funeral.

While this does negate the need for the tech, obviously I’m just happy for the best case scenario to be achieved. Regardless of if the NextG cards from Telstra are used, they still demonstrate a fantastic gesture. The goal was to get Doug as involved in the funeral as possible, so I think this is definitely a win.

Some other important notes:

• Telstra wasn’t of course the first person to say that they could help, nor were they even the first to get me on the phone. That award goes to Maralyn Kastel from The Detail Devils. Maralyn immediately contacted some of her clients in Orange and started trying to help co-ordinate if any of them could help out with equipement and support. Thank you Maralyn, you’re good people
• While some of you may have seen this story get a write up on Mumbrella and on Trib’s blog, it also permeated the mainstream press. This resulted in two interesting outcomes. One, a paper that wanted photos and approached the situation with the sensitivity of  a brick to the head. The other is a bit stranger: reportedly the ABC contacted the hospital directly to offer to help with the hook up, having “seen something on Twitter.” This is coming to me second hand, and to be honest the hospital staff were, naturally, just thoroughly confused. Certainly nobody from the ABC contacted me, but
• This brings me to my next point, how to handle this: I think Telstra, and specifically their social media crew, have demonstrated an extremely high level of competence for how to handle delicate situations like this. The paper mentioned above? Terrible. They swanned in, clearly ignored the reality of the story, and topped it all off by wanting to invade the privacy of the family during a horrible time for nothing but personal gain. Had the story been, like the Mumbrella article, about the response, fine, happy to talk – but as I actually mentioned in the first post, I’m not offering sponsorship or media rights to a funeral. The ABC I can’t really comment on other than to say: next time, contact the person, in this case me, who you heard from first, don’t complicate the issue.
• Some people have also raised the question of whether this would be as successful if I didn’t have a large number of people following me on Twitter. It’s the same question that was raised after @OtherAndrew’s story earlier this year regarding gaining a flight to New Zealand after missing his plane due to surgery. While I am stoked about the response, and don’t think it reflects on Telstra’s or anyone else participation, the possibility of a two tier system based on how loud your voice is, bothers me. That is a whole blog post in itself though, and I’ll be putting up my thoughts on this in the next week.

Once again, thank you to everyone who helped by blogging, tweeting, commenting and sharing the word. You guys were great, and it’s certainly been a wild ride. Feel free to leave a comment or your thoughts on how this all happened below. Did I do the right thing? Did Telstra? What are the ramifications of stories like this?

Hello all. Many of the readers of this blog would know I can be fairly irreverent when it comes to most things, but for once I’m being completely sincere.

The other night my partner’s grandmother passed away in country New South Wales, Australia. She had been sick for some time but was still a powerful force in the family, the very definition of a matriarch. While the news was expected, she had been fighting cancer for years, the loss of such a strong figure has rocked the family.

Her husband, Doug, has also been on oxygen for emphysema for years, and was actually admitted to hospital during her final stay, where he still remains. It is unlikely he will leave again other than to go to a palliative care facility. Patricia and Doug have been together since they were teenagers, with both now in their 80’s, and it was some comfort that they were at least together when Pat passed the other night, but this brings me to the point of this post.

The funeral will most likely be held this weekend, Saturday, February 20th, and with Doug confined to hospital he will be unable to attend. It saddens me greatly that this would be the end of their story together, but it dawned on me that through technology and harnessing my social networks it doesn’t have to be.
Essentially my goal is to have Doug at least be able to watch a live feed of the funeral, and preferably to even be able to speak should he wish to.

It isn’t that this is that much of task, technically. The funeral will be held in the town of Orange while the hospital is located in the nearby town of Blayney. By my count, and from suggestions already made to be via Twitter, what I need is two laptops with webcams, one at each end, two Telstra NextG USB modems to provide the connection, and a service to stream the content, with most people on Twitter suggesting uStream or Skype.

The real thing I need is this equipment though. I don’t need it permanently, just for the weekend, but I am essentially throwing myself on the kindness of strangers to:

a)    trouble shoot the technical side
b)    loan me the hardware, data packages etc need to pull it off.

Please leave any comments below this post and share this with anyone you know who would be willing to help. If any companies are keen to assist I will of course be happy to give you a shout out across my network for being awesome (but please remember I’m not selling branding rights to a funeral.)

Only thing to say is, go team!

EDIT: OK, some of you may have seen the original tweet from the @Telstra account but I just got off the phone with Scott from that team who said they’re in the process of sending me two NextG Cards for free to support the streaming side of the equation. There are details in the posts below but this is an amazing result and I want to thank Kristen Boschma, Telstra’s Head of Online Communications and Social Media, and the whole @Telstra team.

We’ve also managed to secure two MacBook laptops for either end. The one in the hospital will have a Input Mic and headphones, both of which I have, and we’re just in the process of looking into a better camera input for the funeral end, given the fact it wont be a close up but a wider shot. I’ll also run some tests tonight on Skype Vs uStream and see which works best for our purposes.

Finally, thank you to everyone who made calls, sent emails, retweeted this post, commented and generally lead to this result. It’s crazy to think this started just a few hours before, and while it’s incredibly soppy, you lovely Internet people never fail to amaze me.

Will update this post if any more information comes through. I’ve noticed a number of people talking about blogging about this and if you want to make sure you’ve got the whole story I can be contacted at Warlach [at] Gmail [dot] com, or hit me up on Twitter at @Warlach.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a big mouth, and that I’m likely to shoot it off at the worst possible times. Often however, what really gets me in trouble is not when I’m trying to be offensive but just don’t think before I speak.

Last night I said something incredibly silly about the lovely Internet maven, Mab397 (pictured to the right). Mandi is one of the nicest people in Sydney’s digital scene, and so obviously I feel a bit bad about this turn of events: so I’m asking the Internet to help make Mandi forgive me.

EDIT: People keep asking me what I did - I accidentally made a derogatory comment about her age, and that’s all I will say.

Basically the goal is to get the hashtag #ImSorryMandi trending on Twitter, as a sign of my regret. You can attach the tag to your favourite apology songs on Blip.fm, link to photos on Flickr or videos on YouTube that best sum up forgiveness, write your own blog post about how Mandi should forgive me, it doesn’t matter, just make sure you use the #ImSorryMandi hashtag. Linking to this post at the same time will probably help clear up any confusion too (you can use the short URL http://bit.ly/ImSorryMandi)

For the less creative, I’ve even written a basic tweet that you can just copy and paste:

Everyone knows that @Warlach can be an idiot, but he really is sorry @Mab397. #ImSorryMandi http://bit.ly/ImSorryMandi

Thanks in advance everybody! Encourage your friends to help spread the word and hopefully Mandi will forgive me for being a rude twat.

Day 4, 04/01/2010 - Choices

Originally uploaded by Warlach

From my Flickr:

I’m curious as to who will get the above shot. It could be like those pictures that either look like a vase or two faces depending on how you look at it. What’s the first thing you see?

For the record, I’m not suicidal, or homicidal, or any kind of cidal really (although I do like cider, if that counts) and today’s shot was taken under the strictest safety procedures. Also, 10 points if you can tell where this was taken. Might add it to the Guess Where Sydney group as well.

Anyhoo, point is, not suicidal, just contemplating choices. Not the little ones but the big ones, the ones that, no matter what choice you make, have a significant affect on the rest of your life. I feel like something along these lines is coming up for me, a moment of succeed or fail, sink or swim, jump or step back…

I hope it won’t be life ending, I suspect it will be more like a new professional direction or a change of lifestyle, but I hope I recognise the moment when it comes - it’s always cool to notice the moment when something major changes.

So yes, key points: change is inevitable, but always interesting and hopefully exciting; I’m not suicidal, despite having to deal with Centrelink today, and; I just managed to get this posted before the midnight deadline! (Nearly got distracted by Batman: Arkham Asylum. Soooo good!)

Night y’all, and once again, who can pick where this was taken?

Hey y’all!

As stated in the last post, which can be read here, I ran a comp to give away a whole bunch of awesome Family Guy/Star Wars stuff in conjunction with the launch of Something, Something, Something Dark Side. Well, you people went nuts entering but we’ve finally picked the winners.

For the record, simply to make it easier, we removed anyone who didn’t use both hashtags and the link - even with that we still had hundreds of tweets to troll through, so this was actually just a way to make it easier for myself and the Board of Shadowy (but also lazy) Figures who I recruited to help judge.

So, the winners are:

The Blu Ray Pack

The winner is @Glebe2037! There were lots of fantastic entries, and this was really hard to pick, but we all agreed that the fact @Glebe2037 hit not one but multiple Home Run funnies meant he deserved to take top place. Here are some of our favourites:

Lawrence of a Labia (starring Quagmire) #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (seen here)

Apocalypse Cow starring Meg Griffin #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (seen here)

The Quag the Crip His Neighbour & Danny Glover #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (seen here)

There were many honourable mentions though, and I will be happy to buy a beer for any of the following people. Congratulations guys, you rock!

STEW-E, in which he cleans up Earth, then follows a girl baby off in to outer space. #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @StewartHeys, seen here)

12.874752kilometer (a metric adaption of 8mile starring stewie as “rabbit”) #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @Bigclick_Dean, seen here)

The Passion of the Chris #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #BR http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @Leslie_Nassar, seen here)

The DVD Pack

For the second pack there was a similar problem with the entries for the DVD pack - there were too many good entries, which made choosing a winner very difficult. DAMN YOU ALL! In the end though, the winner was someone who submitted a number of winning entries: @MetalheadMick.

“An Offer Peter Didn’t Really Care For” (The Godfather) http://bit.ly/6El5QJ #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD (seen here)

“Almost too old for this shit” (Lethal Weapon) #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (seen here)

Peter Griffin’s: The Life of Brian #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (seen here)

Honourable mentions in the DVD section, all of whom can also claim I owe them a drink, included these:

Quahog Dogs staring Stewie as Mr Blonde and Peter as “Nice Guy” Eddie #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @JoelyMac, seen here)

25 (Remake of 24 starring the mathematically challenged Chris) #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @NickCorridon, seen here)

Stewie Griffin’s Day Off - Stewie calls in sick to pre-school, and explores Quahog with Brian #FamilyGuyRemakeComp #DVD http://bit.ly/6El5QJ (by @Lukeii, seen here)

So congratulations @Glebe2037 and @MetalheadMick - your respective prize packs, a picture of which can be seen below, will be on there way to you soon! And thanks everyone who entered

So, some of you may have read my review of Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, the second installment in the Family Guy remakes Star Wars saga. You can read what I thought of the film here (spoiler: I thought it was pretty wicked kick flippin’) but I also mentioned in that post I’d have prizes to give away.

That day has come.

Thanks to the good people at FOX (and the bad people I guess, I mean, they seemed nice enough, but I wouldn’t go on oath that they don’t secretly kick kittens) I have two, count them TWO, big packs of merchandise to share with you Internet people. The prize packs look like this:

That’s a pic of the Blu Ray pack, but all up I have the following to give away:

1 x Blu-Ray Box Set  RRP $75.00

1 x Limited Edition Box Set  RRP $70.00

The DVD version looks exactly the same. How do you win one of these? Well, it’s simple:

With Family Guy already working on a remake of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, to be titled We Have A Bad Feeling About This, you simply have to post on Twitter what series/movie/novel/interpretive dance you would like to see get the Family Guy treatment next. This could take the form of simply suggesting a title, to adding a spin to it yourself: for example, Beverly Hills Cop becomes “Quahog Hills Cop starring Cleveland.”

Steps To Enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter so that I can DM you if you win.
2. Come up with your entry in the competition - you can enter as many times as you like.
3. Add the hashtag  #FamilyGuyRemakeComp so we don’t miss you entry!
4. Add a second hashtag of either #BR for Blu Ray or #DVD so I know which pack you want - one winner will be chosen from each group.
5. Finally, add this URL - http://bit.ly/6El5QJ - back to this post so people can know what the hell you’re tweeting about!

So a completed entry will look something like this:

Quahog Hills Cop starring Cleveland  #FamilyGuyRemakeComp  #BR  http://bit.ly/6El5QJ

Me, and a panel of judges, will chose the best entries by the end of the 23rd December so get cracking! It couldn’t be easier to enter so have a go, tell your friends and have fun

EDIT: The winners have now been announced!

We sit. Twenty or so people hushed in a small, low lit room. We’ve been lured here with promises of entertainment, of prizes, but for now we wait. Someone nervously shifts a few aisles down. Then, like a bolt of lightening, it occurs to me:

The Star Wars universe is one COMPLETELY devoid of OH&S.

This thought is probably inspired by the DVD menu screen projected in front of me showing the cast of Family Guy dressed as the cast of Star Wars and standing on a cartoon rendition of a Bespin landing platform, complete with no handrails. This is why we’re here - the special preview screening of Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, the second installment in the Family Guy remakes Star Wars saga.

I’m serious about the OH&S thing - occupational health and safety is no laughing matter, and under the Republic, the Empire or the New Republic, this is a universe that seemingly yearns for large, governmental bodies. Surely there is someone, somewhere, saying “maybe we should put a railing there, don’t people keep falling off things all the time in this Universe?”

This actually leads me nicely to talking about the film itself. To get an idea of the humour and love of the source material, one need look no further than R2D2, played by Cleveland, rolling through the base on Hoth: “I like how you’ve just nailed these electrical cables to the ice. I’m sure that’s safe.”

If you saw the first Family Guy effort in this series, Blue Harvest, then you really should know what to expect, although over all I think this is actually the superior film, as is, of course, Empire itself (sound off in the comments if you prefer New Hope or Jedi, with reasons. If you like the prequels best don’t comment just return to your cell and wait for the next round of meds…)

Don’t take it from me though, why not watch the trailer?

I will say this: the film is actually funnier than the trailer makes out. I’m serious. I know, I was asked along to the premier which might colour my judgment - I was also at the Sydney premier of Watchmen, and I wasn’t that kind then. When I say Something, Something, Something, Dark Side is a lot of fun it’s because I mean it.

Sure, it’s Family Guy, so you get those long, repetitive jokes occasionally. Yes, some of the jokes weren’t as funny as they obviously thought they were. No, it’s not a masterpiece. What it is though is a really fun take on a beloved film series, and something which breathes new life into Star Wars in many ways. I’ve seen those films so many times that I know them almost by heart - what this, and the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials, do is let me remember how much I love Star Wars while seeing it in a new light.

I did like the FOX representative at the beginning who talked about how FOX is lucky enough to have Family Guy, which reminds me of a father who has twice tried to kill his kids saying he’s so lucky to have them when they grow up to be doctors or lawyers. Family Guy of course picks up on this as well, dedicating a large part of their opening Star Wars crawl to teasing the parent company.

It’s irreverent, hilarious and, at times, just plain wrong - but most importantly, it’s Star Wars. If you like Star Wars, see it. If you like Family Guy, see it. If you like Mint Choc Chip ice cream, go buy yourself some. This is pretty much the extent of my advice on life.

The film drops late this month on DVD and, in what is meant to be a big deal, Blu-Ray (my cries for a Laser Disc edition, however, went unheaded).  I’m unsure as to whether it will be shown on U.S. television, but my gut says that regardless of that it will be awhile before we see it on Aussie TV, if at all. So, if you want to see it, buy it, OR…

Tune into this blog, and my Twitter, later this month where I’ll be giving away two big prize packs including a copy of the film and lots of other goodies!!

I know you have questions: What’s in the prize packs? How do you win these prize packs? Is Warlach wearing pants as he writes this review? Unfortunately, just like the film that Something, Something, Something, Dark Side is based on, I must leave you with more questions than answers…

In Conclusion:

Something, Something, Something, Dark Side is a pretty funny film and one that, if you’re its target audience, is definitely worth the time to see. I’d say don’t bother seeing it if you haven’t seen Star Wars, but I’d also say don’t go sky diving without a parachute - some things shouldn’t need clarification. This isn’t like a new Charlie Kaufman film - there’s no need to pick apart it’s delicate, original plot lines, characterisation or score. If you’re a fan of TV Tropes be assured that this is “Exactly What It Says On The Tin” - for everyone else, just know it’s a fun ride.

She struts onto stage like a resplendent peacock. The crowd applauds, the lights dim, and as the shadows envelope the great cavern of the Opera House, her fingers gently caress the first keys. Then, there in the darkness, a single, tiny light. Followed by another. And another, and still more – tiny beacons held aloft throughout the multitude…

No, they weren’t lighters, held up in praise of Tori Amos suddenly performing an 80’s power ballad; they were god damn mobile phones.

Now, I know I use my iPhone too much, I’m willing to admit I’m addicted. While we waited for the concert to start I held my phone above my head to try and get some reception to see if I’d had a response to an email I’d sent earlier. However, once the lights go out, that’s where it’s meant to end, because there’s one simple truth – all you’re doing is wasting your time and pissing people off behind you.

If you have a camera phone, most likely a shot of a woman far away on a barely lit stage is going to look like absolute rubbish. It’s not worth it. Perhaps you have a better, digital camera and it’s the LCD display I can see glowing – still, why both taking pictures that do nothing to capture being there, but distract you and others from enjoying what you paid to bloody experience? The music.

Don’t get me started on flashes. People, much like your Neanderthal cousins sitting in football stadiums and using flashes, all you’re going to get is extremely bright shots of the back of somebody’s head surrounded by blackness. The space it too large for a flash and your ignorance makes me hate you. For the record, there was a woman sitting behind me at the Tori concert whose camera I almost confiscated after numerous blinding flashes. (Thankfully, holding my hand in the ‘giving the finger’ position behind my head, which she could only see in the flash exposed preview image, seemed to convey the message to stop)

Now, this could just be a rant about social etiquette. I know there are plenty of people who took photos last night who will be so chuffed that they can show off to their friends how close they were as Ms Amos played two pianos at once. There is the bigger issue though.

Earlier this year I went on a round the world trip. The ability by tourists, particularly Americans, although I don’t want to signal them out, to ignore the ‘No Flash Photography’ signs is mind boggling. In the Catacombs beneath Paris, which are filled with the skeletal remains of thousands of people, it’s just as much about respect as it is about damaging art and antiques through the exposure to flash.

It all came to the head, no pun intended, in the Louvre.

During the days I spent wandering the museum in total awe I witnessed a group of College students dare a girl to fellate one of the Ancient Greek statues, which she did with gusto, leaving a lipstick ring on the stone. We had an *ahem* heated exchange before they left and I sent security after them, but it didn’t leave me in the best mood when I ran into a group of American tourists, queuing up to stand one by one in front of the Venus de Milo to have their picture taken. I pointed out you’re not meant to be using flash photography to the woman taking the pictures, only to be asked how else was she meant to get a picture? When I questioned why she needed a picture at all she spat back:

“I paid to get in here and I’m gonna get my moneys worth.”

This for me strikes at the heart of the issue. While less burlesque, the woman’s attitude was similar to the girl giving the stone blow job - I have a right to try and own this experience.

In the case of the photos, what is the point? There are better representations of the Venus available in the gift shop and online. The evidence of you standing, arms and expression limp, like a fat, consumer drone adds nothing to you, and it certainly adds nothing to the Venus herself.

We’ve become so obsessed with capturing and recording experience that we often ignore what we actually came for: the experience. To bring it all back, whether you like her music of not Tori Amos is an amazing performer who exudes an energy that just can’t be captured, but video or audio.  Rather than being in such a rush to capture, catalogue and store, why not experience the moment and then let it fuel your own creativity – write a song or a story, paint or simply tell others about how it made you feel. The copy/paste, Xerox approach to culture leaves you with nothing more than quickly degrading copy that takes up space.

I’ve often abandoned this blog except when I want a large rant, like yesterday’s retweet discussion or my look at the VAustralia promotion. If you want my day to day thoughts, there’s my Twitter account after all. That said, I want to make an effort to update this more often and am working on a redesign. (Yes, I know, it’s ugly as sin. So is your mum. Back off)

Today I just want to highlight what continues to annoy the crap out of me: the misconception of what social media is. I’m not taking a high and mighty view, just simply stating a fact. I’m increasingly sick of people thinking it begins with Facebook and Twitter and ends with Flickr and YouTube, if you’re feeling adventurous.

It’s like going to a party. Yes, I can help you set up a Twitter account and company Facebook profile just like I can help you pick out an outfit for the party. The thing is, unless you want to learn more, you risk getting dressed up and then not going anywhere. Just sitting at home, alone, in the dark, wearing a (currently) trendy outfit.

If this is all you want , fine, but you’ll miss all the cake.

We’ve all been there. It’s Christmas day and a relative has told you they got the present you’ve been craving. You rip the paper with your teeth only instead of the latest video game, Bonestorm, you find a copy of Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge. Everybody’s watching so you smile awkwardly and say how it’s exactly what you wanted. Worst thing is they think they got it right…

I’ve just finished reading Evan Williams post on “Why Retweet works the way it does” and felt the need to get some ideas down on why I disagree with some points. You should read it – it’s worth it, and a great outliner of Twitter’s reasoning.

(As a disclaimer, I don’t yet have the retweet functionality turned on on my account, but being a Social Media Douchebag, I’ve read countless blogs and tweets about the service. Hell, I’ve watched a video. Of a new feature. On a microblogging site. And now I’m writing about that feature at 3 AM. Someone shoot me now.)

On topic though, and as hinted at by this posts heading, I have some reservations regarding Twitter’s native implementation of the Retweet. I’m going to focus on two main points from Evan’s post.

Redundant redundancy

“Redundancy. If five people you follow retweet the same thing, you get five copies, which can be useful but is a lot of noise. This comes up even more in search. Popular users can get retweeted enough to saturate a search query … because they’re [now] trackable, we can take care of the redundancy problem: You will only get the first copy of something retweeted multiple times by people you follow.” - Evan Williams

I understand Evan’s point on this. I also understand that Twitter, and certainly search results, can become cluttered when there is a popular message that is being retweeted. Yes, it can be a pain, and yes it’s annoyed me at times.

However, what this solution does is take away one of the benefits from retweets. People new to Twitter often ask me how I follow so many people. The answer is I don’t. I don’t read everything, and I’m happy to tell people to let Twitter wash past you – if you miss something it doesn’t matter, because if it’s important you’ll likely see it later.

The problem is that the way you’ll often see something of import that scrolls by too quickly is by retweets. Many times when I catch news, links or just an funny message it won’t be because I saw the original message, or the first retweet, but rather the second, third or twentieth. Each increases the chance of that tweet reaching more people.

Does this sometimes lead to increasing the noise in the signal/noise ratio? Sure, sometimes, but I think if you’re following people who benefit your experience the good will outweigh the bad. I know that, as it stands, I’m more likely to miss messages I would like to see if people adopt the official retweet function over the current RT/Via/Hat Tip system.

Attribution smattribution

“The attribution problem: In order to get rid of the attribution confusion, in your timeline we show the avatar and username of the original author of the tweet—with the person who retweeted it (whom you actually follow) in the metadata underneath.” - Evan Williams

Much as with the redundancy, the new system, which will have retweeted messages appear like regular tweets in your timeline with the retweet info below in the metadata along with “posted at” and “in reply to”, ignores one of the benefits of the retweet, which is discovering new people.

If I see one of the people I follow who I like and trust retweet someone in the old “RT @ExampleGuy” style, there’s a high chance that, if I like what I see, I’ll click through and check out the person’s profile and possibly follow them.

I think that, as it currently stands and unless apps make it very clear through colour coding etc, that we’re more likely to miss, unless we look much more closely than before, how a message appeared in our timelines. This means we’re less likely to pick up on that tweet as a ‘gateway’ to other users, rather accept it as something that belongs naturally in our timelines. Evan discusses that having the profile pic of the user who is retweeting is irrelevant to the message, but I disagree – due to the fact I’m guaranteed to be following the retweeter this is an endorsement of the message, meaning I’m much more likely to read it.

This now strays into personal branding. I often advise people that, if they want to engage on Twitter, to have a noticeable avatar and change it as little as possible – the avatar of someone I don’t follow will not likely set off any recognition in my mind, certainly not enough for me to peer closely at the metadata.

What does this mean?

The long and the short of this is that Twitter have NOT added Retweet functionality – they’ve added a microcommenting system akin to Facebook’s ‘Like’ option.

At the Social Media Club Sydney before last Russ Weakley (@russmaxdesign) spoke about integrating microcomments into the redesign of the Australian Museum’s site. One of the best comments of the night, which I hope people took away, was Russ’ discussion on levels of commitment – those who won’t write a comment will participate in a microcomment which will often lead to deeper interaction.

That is to say, I like microcomments. I think they’re neato. I think they’re just swell. What I don’t think they are are retweets. Sure, it’s a nice addition to look at a tweet you wrote and see all the people who liked that update, and I’m sure many people will use the new function more than they would normally retweet due to the lower commitment and the fact that retweets won’t double up. Hell, I’ll be much more likely to throw my two cents in, knowing that it won’t clog up my follower’s timelines with blue Batman logos.

While this is all good, it does however ignore, as I covered above, the functionality which retweets currently serve. If you follow me you’ll know I most often use the “(Via @Example Guy)” structure, and often rewrite/add to the message before the link or important info – this removes the redundancy issue, while still achieving the things I like about retweets.

Microcomments work on Facebook as it’s a site one explores. Facebook remains an active, destination type experience while Twitter has become a more passive, companion type service that many people have always open through an app. People don’t dig back through their Twitter stream, meaning endorsements of a message Twitter has determined you must have already seen are redundant.

I have two final points:

1) There is lots of things I like about he way Twitter are integrating retweets – making them trackable and finding a way around the quickly expanding tweets is a great idea.

2) I’m not worried – all the current retweet structure, like the @ replies before it, came from the community deciding on standards and solving issues without Twitter’s help. If people don’t like this, I’m sure the users will come up with the solution.

In short (and I realise the foolishness of writing that at the end of what is now a two page blog post) I think it’s great that Twitter is constantly looking to upgrade it’s service – the addition of Lists, Connections and now retweets show a great commitment to improving the experience. I just think that, like when we’re handed a brightly coloured package from an elderly relative who really tried their best, we need to prepare ourselves for the fact – the ball is in the parking lot.