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Twitter Decides We’re Not Smart Enough For @Replies, Changes Them Again

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Twitter is officially getting dumbed down.

For the second time in less than two months, Twitter has changed its @answer system, this time by removing an option that has existed for many months in an effort to appease confused newcomers.

The basic premise behind the @answer system is that it allows you to start a semi-public conversation with another Twitter user. To prevent you from having to listen in to conversations you might not care about, the default setting has long been to only show these @answers if you were following both people in the conversation. And that’s the choice most people stuck with.

But here was an option to receive all @answer messages from any users you were following. This led to an increase in noise, but it also exposed you to new Twitter users and conversations that you might have otherwise missed out on. I’ve had it turned on for over a year. But apparently that option has confused too many people, so Twitter is killing it.

From the Twitter blog:

We’ve simplified the Notices part of Settings to better reflect how folks are using Twitter regarding answers. Based on treatment patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow answers to another person they follow—it’s a excellent way to stay in the loop. But, receiving one-sided fragments via answers sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.

Confused? That’s understandable and exactly why we made the update.

Gee, thanks Twitter. I didn’t realize that an option I manually activated was undesirable. Any other things I shouldn’t like that you’d like to make me aware of?

If here was anything undesirable about the ancient system, it was that Twitter did a poor job of amplification it, not that the functionality itself was unwanted. And given that the option was not the default and was hidden under a settings menu, why would it matter anyway? If too many people are getting confused, why not simply make it more hidden (perhaps under an ‘advanced’ tab)?

In the months in view of the fact that Twitter has grown in mainstream appeal, and especially in view of the fact that it made its debut on Oprah, some of Twitter’s ahead of schedule adopters have expressed dread over a change in the benefit. With a growing number of celebrities and media presences (not to mention spammers), they worry that the benefit will lose its tight-knit feel. Before tonight I never paid much attention to this train of though – after all, on Twitter, I can just follow the people I care about and ignore those I don’t. But it’s clear that Twitter is concerned with appealing to a more mainstream audience, and if that takes making a very simple benefit even more simple, then by golly, that’s what they’re vacant to do.

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