Wow can you tell what ppl are replying to? I don't see?

If I send a message to @JohnDoe , only JohnDoe and anyone who is following me will see it. When JohnDoe replies to me, only I and anyone following JohnDoe will see it. The only way you can easily see both sides of such conversations is if you are following both parties.

If you follow JohnDoe and not me, and if you see that JohnDoe responded to me and are curious about what I originally said to him, you can click on my profile and look for any messages I sent to @JohnDoe. This is slow and tedious, but it does work if you are really curious about an exceptionally interesting reply. The difficulty in following all sides of a conversation is one reason I prefer not to treat Twitter like an instant messaging tool.

I think of it as micro blogging, where I am sort of broadcasting short messages to the world at large. I will of course occasionally reply to someone else's messages, but I try to minimize this activity or move such things to Direct Messages or even take two conversations off of twitter altogether. Note that you can also go into your twitter profile and tell it that you don't want to see any @ replies unless they are directed to you.

This way you will not see even half of conversations that are not directed to you. It greatly reduces the amount of "noise" in your feed, as it means that you will only see messages that are either directed specifically at you, or at the world at the general public. If I send a message to @JohnDoe , only JohnDoe and anyone who is following me will see it.

When JohnDoe replies to me, only I and anyone following JohnDoe will see it. The only way you can easily see both sides of such conversations is if you are following both parties. If you follow JohnDoe and not me, and if you see that JohnDoe responded to me and are curious about what I originally said to him, you can click on my profile and look for any messages I sent to @JohnDoe.

This is slow and tedious, but it does work if you are really curious about an exceptionally interesting reply. The difficulty in following all sides of a conversation is one reason I prefer not to treat Twitter like an instant messaging tool. I think of it as micro blogging, where I am sort of broadcasting short messages to the world at large.

I will of course occasionally reply to someone else's messages, but I try to minimize this activity or move such things to Direct Messages or even take two conversations off of twitter altogether. Note that you can also go into your twitter profile and tell it that you don't want to see any @ replies unless they are directed to you. This way you will not see even half of conversations that are not directed to you.

It greatly reduces the amount of "noise" in your feed, as it means that you will only see messages that are either directed specifically at you, or at the world at the general public.