J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

Subscribe thru Follow.it





•••••••••••••••••



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Because We Must All Be Connected All the Time

Though I like a lot of people on Facebook, I still have no emotional connection to the service itself besides frequent puzzlement. In contrast, I enjoy Twitter and post a lot of little things there. I even came in third in a tweet contest!

Boston 1775 readers might remember that I used to round up my Twitter postings and run them in big long lists when I wanted to take a break from essays had many important links and comments to share. I was using Loudtwitter to collect those postings for me.

Then the gent who’d set up Loudtwitter gratis decided not to maintain it further, and no one else has picked up the ball (yet). I tried another site called Twittinesis, and it seems to be oversubscribed. Meanwhile my time-wasting chatter important links and comments kept growing.

I’ve now added a Twitter feed in the column to the left. I tried three different gadgets, including the official Twitter code, before deciding on this one. It’s not ideal—this set-up takes two clicks and two new tabs/windows to get to the material I’m linking to. But it fits and works better than the other possibilities.

If anyone has recommendations for a better gadget (needs: flexible formatting, direct links outside the little feed window), or for an aggregator that works as Loudtwitter did (or better), please let me know.

No comments: