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Comment by jondubois | Hacker News Reader

It's easy to speculate on what could have been but we shoudn't forget that Twitter actually did exceptionally well for itself.

I personally could never have imagined that Twitter would become so popular. I'm still surprised that people are using it (the whole thing doesn't make any sense to me).

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It doesn't make sense until you find an active community around a topic you are truly interested in. The NBA is what sucked me in, and it remains 95% of the reason I used Twitter (the other 5% is for when customer service is unresponsive to my chats or emails)

I think this is why I love Twitter, but also the reason many people don't.

Unlike Facebook, where I feel beholden to follow the people I know, Twitter is different. I can follow the thoughts of people I've never met, but greatly respect. There are tons of great designers, writers and journalists that make my Twitter feed entertaining and informative. Not everyone is interested in design or media and it can be difficult to discover accounts.

The other (previous) issue for Twitter is the feed. If you follow 1,000 people it will can be overwhelming. I was hesitant about the "You might have missed" section, but think it is a step in the right direction.

This is why I love Snapchat

I can follow the thoughts of people without having to see most or all of their thoughts. I can follow people without becoming committed to their antics.

I agree about twitter and sports. For me, everyone who uses twitter and generally enjoys it talks about sports. A lot. Twitter is the best social media platform for discussing games and getting information about the game you are watching from teams, journalists, leagues, statisticians, and fellow fans. I'd wager 80% of my tweets are sports related.

Twitter is the best platform for discussion of a "live" event as it unfolds. These events include TV epidoes, news conferences, policitcal debates, games, etc. A user can see what a famous person thinks or follow other hardcore fans who have great knowledge of what they are watching. I have become friends with several people due to twitter and sports.

Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, etc are not great for discussing something that is ongoing over the course of multiple hours. Twitter is. The ability to mute words and hashtags to avoid spoilers or certain subjects is super handy. In addition, one can follow multiple live events in a singular, timeline fashion. Twitter is very good at getting people to talk about live events. Its problem is that it is hard to see a place for it outside that, and it is hard to monotize that.

Facebook = people you (grudgingly) know

Twitter = people you want to know

And it's become a remarkably good way for those people you want to know to reach out to individuals. I know a couple up-and-coming rappers who got some buzz and found their idols casually reaching out to chat on twitter.

Exactly.

Mostly the same for me, except baseball. I get to follow teams, reporters, and players. I learn about charities the players are involved in, statistical reports on the sport and games themselves, etc. It's pretty useful.

I mostly use it like an RSS feed. I follow the sites/people that I'm interested in, and post rarely.

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