socialmedian: You Better Think Before You Twit

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clips

You Better Think Before You Twit

Submitted by Dobata from Google Reader

Nov 05, 2008

Summary

Last week my column for Information Week was titled, "Always Think Before You Submit" and took a look at examples of people who made mistakes when they have said things online that have impacted their careers. The column includes a look at the recently fired Virgin Atlantic staff after they said things on Facebook.

Today we learn via Rick at Readwriteweb that the delete function has been removed from Twitter. Why they did this is beyond me... Rick guesses it might have something to do with performance. Users have also been wondering what's going on via Twitter Search.

So now more than ever, THINK BEFORE YOU TWIT. This advice might sound silly but considering how much of an emotional tool Twitter has become, don't let it ruin your career. What sounds funny today might be looked at very differently in the near future. Type your message in, leave it for a moment, take a breathe and then click submit.

CN Sponsor: CloudContacts - make your business cards work for you!
Other CenterNetworks Coverage: iminlikewithyou, FriendFeed, Web Jobs

Comments (13)

Shaynorulz,

Nov 05, 2008

the delete function in twitter is still on the individual status message screen....though it is "This feature is temporarily disabled."

Happa Haoli,

Nov 05, 2008

I noticed this last night, luckily I was only trying to fix typos. This system should be enabled for any tweets made later than happy hour... http://tinyurl.com/4vf5ek

Billso,

Nov 05, 2008

Maybe a Twitter googles feature is a good idea. I still see too many Twitter users who post public replies that should have been direct.

Ralphsaunders,

Nov 06, 2008

¬¬ Twitter search is still offline... Anyone know when it will be fixed?

Thomaspower,

Nov 06, 2008

@billso it's not there fault it's the software's fault humans are lazy and stupid and one click-ish.

Gojigirl,

Nov 06, 2008

Think about it folks, this has been going on before "Twitter";
QUOTE: "The spoken word like a spent arrow. Once it leaves cannot be taken back. It leaves its mark, no matter what". We have graduated from affecting a 'few’ with the tongue to 'millions' with the click of a mouse.

Perhaps the lesson is to be more thoughtful with our words and our actions ...but keep "Twittering" :-)

Shaynorulz,

Nov 06, 2008

the delete twit functionality has been restored on the all status page and at the individual message level (and it works), i guess they found a revenue model....:-)...move along nothing to see.

Brilliantjeni,

Nov 06, 2008

Delete buttons returned- much needed feature, I hope that does not happen again.

Gregbd,

Nov 06, 2008

@Gojigirl love that quote.

Beshirthappy,

Nov 07, 2008

Good sound advice before we "type" or "speak". Just as Gojigirl says, you can't take the words back once they leave your lips... or hit submit.

Rommel,

Nov 07, 2008

ah life in palin lane.

Nishith,

Nov 10, 2008

@shaynorulz @HappaHaoli @brilliantjeni Delete only helps a little. Even when you delete a tweet, it still can be searched from search.twitter.com. Also, there is no way to recall the tweet that has been delivered to all those 3rd party apps that your followers might be using.

Shaynorulz,

Nov 10, 2008

@Nishith - yeah too bad search.twitter.com is CURRENTLY DISABLED, don't integrate your twits into the various social aggregations. creating social silo's comprised of different audiences manages the impact of unrelated/unnecessary twits/material to a minimum - seems the olds like to turn technical glitches into an ethics debate