The Future is Weird: William Gibson, on Twitter.

[wolven7]

It should not please me anywhere near as much as it does that I just had a very, very brief conversation with William Gibson (@GreatDismal) about Yeats and magic, on Twitter.

Or Should it?

I don't know, anymore...

Comments

[tmcm.livejournal.com]

how do you have a conversation on twitter?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Twitter has the "@Replies" or "Mentions" function. If you put someone's user name in your post, with "@" in front of it, shows up in a specific tab, as well as their regular stream of posts from their friends.

By hitting the "reply" button, you can create a conversation stream, with links back to the specific post to which you are replying.

In this way, anyone who follows both of the people having the conversation can see the back and forth.

Now, a Reply is a mention, but a mention is not necessarily a reply. So, if I mention someone, in a post, but not at the beginning of the post, anyone can see it.

For instance, a Reply would look like this:

"@Tmcm I'm really glad you joined Twitter. I'm going to tell everyone you're here."'

And another type of simple Mention could go like this:

"Hey everyone, @TMCM is finally on Twitter! Follow him, right the heck now."

Fun stuff, all around, and it gets clearer and clearer, as you use it. :)

[wolven.livejournal.com]

By the way? The fact that We just had THIS conversation? Equally Amazing.

[cailement.livejournal.com]

No, you should be very very happy. It's always good to be touched in small ways by people you respect and enjoy. I mean, seriously, it's one of the reasons I go to DragonCon. To spend $5-20 and have 1 minute of Personal Time with someone as they write their name on something I own. :)

[auriam.livejournal.com]

Name-dropping and mingling with the famous is a natural urge, don't feel weird about it. I even felt excited when I saw Keanu Reeves at an art gallery in Chelsea last fall. See? :)

[auriam.livejournal.com]

And it's all the better if it's someone you really enjoy the work of. I mean 'Matrix' was all right, at least... but Gibson, cool.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's pretty awesome, on Twitter.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

True. I try my best to treat celebrities like regular people, but I still get a little thrill when I talk to or meet with someone whose work I admire.