Tool to make a Twitter conversation more readable
August 16, 2019 8:00 AM Subscribe
Sometimes I want to read a tweet and lots of replies (say, this interesting one). But I find Twitter to be completely unreadable and if I go check out another tab it might lose my place. Are there any tools that will turn a Twitter conversation into something like a static webpage?
I found this bot but that's for a single thread by a single author and I'm looking for something that will help me follow conversations.
It's also possible that I don't understand Twitter and following conversations on Twitter is an exercise in futility, so if there's a reason why a Twitter conversation can't be a bit more like a MetaFilter conversation you might as well just break it to me me.
I found this bot but that's for a single thread by a single author and I'm looking for something that will help me follow conversations.
It's also possible that I don't understand Twitter and following conversations on Twitter is an exercise in futility, so if there's a reason why a Twitter conversation can't be a bit more like a MetaFilter conversation you might as well just break it to me me.
In Metafilter comments, everyone is responding to the original post. Even if commenters are derailing into a back-and-forth, the comments are still structured like
Original Post
Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
...scroll through comments 4 through 354...
Comment 355 derailing
Comment 356 addressing Comment 355
On Twitter, there are multiple ways of branching off from a conversation, sometimes because commenters don't know how to keep their comments part of the thread, and sometimes intentionally to start a backchannel or side conversation. And the order that comments appear is not always chronological. For example:
Original Tweet
Comment 365 replying to Comment 355
Comment 1
Reply A to Comment 1 that also references a concept from Comment 178
Reply B to Comment 1 but actually meant to comment on original tweet
Comment 2 quote-tweeting the start to another related thread
... click to view more 5 times ...
Comment 355
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 8:40 AM on August 16, 2019
Original Post
Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
...scroll through comments 4 through 354...
Comment 355 derailing
Comment 356 addressing Comment 355
On Twitter, there are multiple ways of branching off from a conversation, sometimes because commenters don't know how to keep their comments part of the thread, and sometimes intentionally to start a backchannel or side conversation. And the order that comments appear is not always chronological. For example:
Original Tweet
Comment 365 replying to Comment 355
Comment 1
Reply A to Comment 1 that also references a concept from Comment 178
Reply B to Comment 1 but actually meant to comment on original tweet
Comment 2 quote-tweeting the start to another related thread
... click to view more 5 times ...
Comment 355
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 8:40 AM on August 16, 2019
Do you have the new Twitter layout? If so, you can revert to the old one if you’re using Chrome with this extension. I find the older layout works better for threads with multiple replies.
There is another extension that lets you view all replies as a tree, it’s called Treeverse, it doesn’t play well with long threads, but it’s supposed to help track which replies are to which tweet in the chain.
Alternatively, if you prefer to have it look like mobile even on your desktop, try this one.
That’s all I could find, sorry!
You might find it comforting to hear that the Twitter CEO himself thinks that attempting to follow a public conversation happening on Twitter is “pretty much a mess right now” - It’s Impossible to Follow a Conversation on Twitter (The Atlantic)
posted by bitteschoen at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
There is another extension that lets you view all replies as a tree, it’s called Treeverse, it doesn’t play well with long threads, but it’s supposed to help track which replies are to which tweet in the chain.
Alternatively, if you prefer to have it look like mobile even on your desktop, try this one.
That’s all I could find, sorry!
You might find it comforting to hear that the Twitter CEO himself thinks that attempting to follow a public conversation happening on Twitter is “pretty much a mess right now” - It’s Impossible to Follow a Conversation on Twitter (The Atlantic)
posted by bitteschoen at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
Exquisite Tweets might fit the bill. I expect its effectiveness may vary depending on the complexity of the conversation but it creates simple, attractive, static web pages out of a bunch of tweets. Also great if you want to save a custom selection of individual tweets at one URL.
posted by fabius at 9:36 AM on August 17, 2019
posted by fabius at 9:36 AM on August 17, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Tehhund at 8:03 AM on August 16, 2019