Meryl's Notes Blog

I haven’t bothered much with Twitter (not linking on purpose — it’s very sick) lately because it’s in a deep funk. Today, you couldn’t page through conversations, see “Twitter exceeded” messages, or have the annoying bird greeting you with another “It’s down” message.

Many of us have submitted suggestion after suggestion (and plenty of obvious ones at that) to Twitter and never see them become reality. MarketingProfs has a lively discussion about the downtime as do many other bloggers.

But the folks behind Twitter do care. Don’t believe me?

• They’re listening according to Get Satisfaction.
• Twitterblog also tries to interact and inform.
• Twitter status page provides… well, the status… but it does require Twitter to be up.

In today’s competitive world, some would argue that a competitor should and could take away Twitter’s audience. It’s a free service — does it have the right to ask this much of us? After all, this is what happens when it ails:

• New Tweeters get tired of trying to see what the big deal is.
• Current Tweeters give up on posting meaningful messages knowing no one might see it.
• Current Tweeters stop posting waiting for the problems to pass… only to find they don’t return as they move on to other things.

Mack Collier ends the MarketingProfs asking, “Twitter users, what say you? Would you feel better about the constant problems if Twitter was active in the space and giving us feedback and support? Or should we all shut up and take it, since it’s a free service?”

I know I’d feel better about Twitter if they had taken our suggestions seriously back before it started having problems.

Just tried Pownce and it’s doesn’t grab me like Twitter does — let me know if you have an ID so I can hear you talk — it’s too quiet. Find it more work to use. I guess there’s just no place like Twitter and we’ll just have to be patient and seek out each other through our blogs.