BT Broadband

[Rachael]

I don't agree, Mary. Twitter is full of truncated tweets that you have to use a link to follow. It is clear they are truncated - the snatch of text is so short there isn't really enough to either interpret or misinterpret. In any case, the Twitter user isn't going to know anything about the forum poster who made the comment until they click the link, at which point they have the same amount of information as any other user of the internet.

I do think, though, that there is an issue around forum users not knowing about the Twitter feed. It feels to me (despite my last post about everything being searchable) that I should have been asked for consent for this (whether that is logical or not). Maybe I was when I created my profile and I didn't notice.

[marymck]

I don't agree, Mary. Twitter is full of truncated tweets that you have to use a link to follow. It is clear they are truncated - the snatch of text is so short there isn't really enough to either interpret or misinterpret.

In the past I have looked at some of the retweets that an STF forum poster retweets. He uses them out of context, often with snide comments.

But I had no idea that our STF posts were officially as it were all being tweeted.

Admin when did you start tweeting our posts? I can find nothing in FAQ to explain this and can't recall being asked about it. Is there an opt out option?

Twitter collects and sells the personal information of its users. Admin can you assure us STF users that there is no way Twitter can get any of our personal information?

[admin]

Admin when did you start tweeting our posts? I can find nothing in FAQ to explain this and can't recall being asked about it. Is there an opt out option?

A couple of threads that may help:

http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 12&p=54742
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 41&p=29221

There are a lot more. It is a regular topic in Town Asylum. Use the search box to find them. Our frontpage even implores you to follow us on Twitter.

Stuff that is posted here is quite obviously public and meant to be. I guess most people who found us did so through a search engine that included a snippet of a post plus a link - like this one of yours Mary (from Google):



Our RSS feed, from which the tweets are generated, has been with us a long time just like Sydenham Society's. It is essentially doing the same as Google is presenting snippets of posts in chronological order so people can find their way to the post in question. There is no new ground here.

Twitter collects and sells the personal information of its users. Admin can you assure us STF users that there is no way Twitter can get any of our personal information?

You are not a Twitter user Mary, unless you have your own account. Twitter can see only publicly posted information. Indeed only 140 or so characters of it.

I think I can say with complete confidence you are worrying about nothing. Indeed I'm worried that you would believe I would do anything to compromise the the private data of any user here. Well not without a warrant!

Admin

[chrisj1948]

Do you think that a good or bad thing?

Largely neutral. STF is a public forum and tweeting the initial part of posts provides an equally public keyhole to get an idea of what is being discussed there.

Two possible disadvantages. If admin deletes a post from the forum, for example for blatant racism or a personal attack, is the corresponding tweet also deleted (indeed, is deletion of tweets possible at all)? We have also seen a weakness in the example admin quoted. There was a response to the tweet which was invisible to anyone not following @sydenhamtown on Twitter. This means that the discussion about a topic was no longer confined to the forum. This is not a good thing.

However neither of these disadvantages are major ones.

Regards
Chris

[admin]

Two possible disadvantages. If admin deletes a post from the forum, for example for blatant racism or a personal attack, is the corresponding tweet also deleted (indeed, is deletion of tweets possible at all)? We have also seen a weakness in the example admin quoted. There was a response to the tweet which was invisible to anyone not following @sydenhamtown on Twitter. This means that the discussion about a topic was no longer confined to the forum.

Yes tweets are deletable. I would do it if it was actionable (for obvious reasons). I don't bother if a bit of spam gets tweeted before I delete the original. But remember Twitter is not what to worry about here. You will probably still find it on Google (just click the cached option) or on archive.org.

As for discussion going on elsewhere. Yes, it is possible but unlikely as @sydenhamtown does not reply or retweet. The whole thing is to get discussion back here. People can choose not to. But they can do that anyway. Remember anyone can connect a Twitter feed to any website that has an RSS feed (like every Wordpress blog) without a bye your leave.

One has to accept that anything you publish on the internet is public property. Your only protection is copyright. This does not apply to snippets. So returning to Mary's question - the opt out is to stop posting here or, indeed, anywhere that is not a closed forum.

Which is apposite as Town Benefit Office does not get tweeted

Admin

[marymck]

Admin when did you start tweeting our posts? I can find nothing in FAQ to explain this and can't recall being asked about it. Is there an opt out option?

A couple of threads that may help:

http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 12&p=54742
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 41&p=29221

There are a lot more. It is a regular topic in Town Asylum. Use the search box to find them. Our frontpage even implores you to follow us on Twitter.

Stuff that is posted here is quite obviously public and meant to be. I guess most people who found us did so through a search engine that included a snippet of a post plus a link - like this one of yours Mary (from Google):



Our RSS feed, from which the tweets are generated, has been with us a long time just like Sydenham Society's. It is essentially doing the same as Google is presenting snippets of posts in chronological order so people can find their way to the post in question. There is no new ground here.

Twitter collects and sells the personal information of its users. Admin can you assure us STF users that there is no way Twitter can get any of our personal information?

You are not a Twitter user Mary, unless you have your own account. Twitter can see only publicly posted information. Indeed only 140 or so characters of it.

I think I can say with complete confidence you are worrying about nothing. Indeed I'm worried that you would believe I would do anything to compromise the the private data of any user here. Well not without a warrant!

Admin

Admin only part of the Twitter post you cut and pasted here is mine. I can no longer read Twitter posts on my phone, as Twitter now requests me to register to view, so I can't check how it actually appeared on there. This requirement to register to view seems new, as I was able to read other people's tweets until very recently.

Chrisj makes a good point about deleting though. I did assume you've deleted your tweet of Kirkdalian's thread for the reasons you gave on this forum?

One of the things I find worrying about Twitter is that unless you're prepared to register and thereby hand them your personal details to sell on, you have no way of answering unjust accusations or countering misunderstandings.

[admin]

Admin only part of the Twitter post you cut and pasted here is mine.

Check back - that was Google I cut'n'pasted, not Twitter. That's the whole point - you have been snippeted for years by every search engine and presented in a much more findable way.

Admin

[marymck]

Admin only part of the Twitter post you cut and pasted here is mine.

Check back - that was Google I cut'n'pasted, not Twitter. That's the whole point - you have been snippeted for years by every search engine and presented in a much more findable way.

Admin

Ah sorry yes I didn't read that that was a Google search. Oddly enough my attempt at replicating that search didn't bring up that result, but I obviously searched on different key words.

My point though is not about being findable. Anyone who wants to can find me on the internet. It's being quoted out of context on Twitter and not being able to respond that I don't like. But I guess that's just the fad of the times and I'll have to scale back on my posts. I've already started trying to avoid posting anything that can be contentious. I'll have to be even more careful to not post anything that can be truncated out of context.

Maybe I'll start every post with 140 characters' worth of blah blah blah

[admin]

Maybe I'll start every post with 140 characters' worth of blah blah blah

I use RSS & Twitter to monitor posts to the forum. Its the easiest way and only click on the suspicious ones. They invariably give themselves away early. So if you want to sneak anything past me - make sure it ain't in the first 140 ...

Best Wishes,
Admin

[Rachael]

Mary - what do you mean by being 'quoted out of context'? It's not like the whole of you post appears on Twitter. In fact none of the snippets are complete enough to make sense of without clicking through to the forum. So what are you worried about happening? The context is all there. No other or misleading context is imposed on your posts. As admin has pointed to, search results are exactly the same, and always have been.

Are you worried that people will reply to one of these tweets and you won't see it? The twitter feed is not like a regular account with conversations going forwards and backwards. It's just a feed.

[JRobinson]

#IhatePurelake for their despicable behaviour with regard to the Greyhound pub, so much so that I'm going to start every post with this phrase, but back on topic I don't see a problem with all posts being auto tweeted by @sydenhamtown.

[marymck]

#IhatePurelake for their despicable behaviour with regard to the Greyhound pub, so much so that I'm going to start every post with this phrase, but back on topic I don't see a problem with all posts being auto tweeted by @sydenhamtown.

I hate Purelake too. Not only despicable and untrustworthy, but incompetent too. Once nearly bought a new build house from them ... 6 pages of A4 of "snagging" seemed to be the average for that development, they'd even put the windows in upside down. I think that's a really good idea JRobinson. If we all started every thread saying what we think of Purelake, maybe it anyone searching for Purelake would find these references high up in a Google search.

BTW I don't know if I'm being incompetent too, but I can't even find the Greyhound on Purelake's website now.

[Rachael]

#IHatePurelake Using JRobinson's suggested hash tag at the beginning of all our posts means it will appear on all the auto-feed tweets as well. If enough of us do it, we could even get it trending. At the very least it will be searchable on Twitter for anyone interested in Purelake's reputation.