Twitter Etiquette and My Tweeves

I've been twittering for about five months now. I love the instant feedback and the community I've enjoyed being a part of during these days. However, I have seen a lot of people miss use and even abuse Twitter. So here's my top 5 Tweeves (Twitter Peeves)


Twittarrhea: An unstoppable string of running Tweets for no reason. If you have 12 tweets within an hour, something very important, dangerous or extremely cool should be happening. Otherwise, don't punish us for your boredom.

Twitteralogue: A long Twitter dialogue between two people. You want to text you best friend, then great, text him, but please don't have a long private conversation on Twitter. I really don't want to know that you use Yukon Gold potatoes for mashing. Remember, you can use the direct tweet option for your personal, confidential, and or boring conversation.

Twittertising: Uncontrolled self promotion of goods and/or services. Ok, before you accuse me of shameless self promotion and of breaking my own rules, I must clarify. Twitter is a great tool for marketing when done sparingly. If all your posts are promoting goods and services, you're missing the point of the network and annoying the rest of us.

Twitterbosity: Verbosity in tweets. One of the distinctives of this medium is the 140 character limit. It forces us to be concise and get to the heart of the matter quickly. I believe it has helped me become a better writer. I blogged about it here. I have seen people post 3 or 4 tweets to explain a thought. Well, that's a blog entry. Sometimes you need more than 140 character, but it should be a rare exception and not the rule.

Twating: As in "hatin" on Twitter. Originally, I had it named Twurd as in throwing a, hmm, well, moving on. Twitterland is all about love and community and there's no place for ill feelings and pettiness. That's what email is for.

What about you? What are your Tweeves?