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RichTweets is for those who keep complaining that the 140 character limit of twitter isn’t enough. Or may be for times when you need to write more than 140 to put across a point.

You can create full HTML tweets with colours, images, videos and whatever you want including widgets! RichTweets uses twitter oAuth for authentication. Your twitter followers can easily reply to any of your RichTweets as well.

Quickie

• Tweet more than 140 characters
• Include full HTML, colours, videos, images and widgets
• Reply to any tweet
• Uses twitter oAuth

RichTweets Says

Sometimes 140 characters are not enough. On RichTweets you can create full HTML tweets, with colors, images, links, videos and widgets.
Like TwitPic, your rich tweets will automatically be posted to your Twitter account.

Web

• RichTweets – When 140 characters are not enough

source ; twi5.com (thanks to Nischal)

Technorati : tools, twitter
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Shakthi Twitter Tools, Twitter

Technorati : Blogging, wordpress
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Shakthi Blogging, General Blogging, wordpress

I asked many of my friends a few questions on twitter , my idea was to collate responses and make a blog post out of it . We all know that it is the new IT thing around and is the centre of many a new innovation . But my objective is to get the human angle on this . All said and done , finally the people who use it are the people who make it such a wonderful platform and a booming centre of focus now . Here are a few observations and before we get into that , let me state that I will not quote verbatim here , but condense my findings and try and extrapolate from them . So without much more ado , let us get right into it

What is Twitter to me ?

This question drew the most diverse set of answers , ranging from one end where it was a platform to connect with more friends and make meaningful company , to getting positive responses to social causes , a mix of individuals to target for marketing and finally a powerful podium for self expression where you speak less but speak as is .

These response tell you that people are not using twitter just for the sake of sounding off at a bunch of followers who will listen to whatever you say . Twitter now has evolved into a “place” where you meet and actually socialize with people . A far cry from just a source of breaking news that it was hitherto considered to be . Very frankly speaking , I see very few people tweeting about tying up their shoe laces and their doggy pooping . They actually have meaningful conversations and derive value from these .This is not however to be mistaken with IM , no conversation is 1-on-1 , other than DMs . So everyone is in the loop and listening and even adding to what is being said . In many ways , this strikes me as one of the purposes a university is supposed to serve . People talk and get responses and go back with solid info .

Is Twitter about popularity ?

No say most of my friends in India . This is a stark contrast with the other users many whom are blindly after popularity and numbers . For most of my Indian friends twitter is a virtual hangout where they hang out with buds and actually even fight off boredom and depression . The invention of #twugs on twitter has helped here . Folks exchange #twugs all the time to pep up and cheer up buddies . They have even virtual coffees and toffees . What a wonderful thing !

But some feel that with the popularity of the medium booming , people seeking popularity on twitter is on the rise . Some examples would be @aplusk and @oprah who actually tweet gibberish but have a mad bunch of millions following them .

The concluding thought there would be , that in India it is not a rat race for numbers yet ! I see that even celebrities like @gulpanag and @Shashitharoor are not tweeting junk , they actually have info to share and they do .

What has twitter changed for me ?

The most heartening response to that was that one of my friends got sponsors for the education of needy kids from twitter . I am happy to hear that , and I guess so are you ! I know of a friend who actually manned a helpdesk for the 26/11 queries . The Gay pride movement had a lot of solidarity coming from Indian Tweeps . So social causes are getting responses from tweeps and genuine ones at that .

A group of my younger friends told me that they truncate thinking to 140 chars now ! That makes them precise and less verbose . They also dig in and share useful technical tips that makes life easier . Virtually everyone i asked has responded with positive changes coming out of twitter . There was an independent film that got promoted on twitter . There was a bunch of responsible tweeps helping out commuters when Mumbai Rains happened . The effect of twitter on Iran is well known .

All in all , everyone has been touched and touched positively by twitter .

Who do I follow/unfollow in twitter ?

Here there was overwhelming consensus . A tweep is followed based on common interests , recos from friends , a valid DP and a well written bio . Each tweep has a tweet pattern and the folks watch this before deciding on following him/her . Annoying people do not get attention and engagers get a lion’s share .

On the unfollow front , here are the rules , respond to tweets or be unfollowed . DO NOT SEND Auto DMs . Do not tweet about Tons of Followers or give “Gifts” of e-books to people . Also do not come across as a brother or sister of Narcissus , then you are finished . And last but not the least if someone takes all this effort and follows you , you better follow them back or get unfollowed !

Conclusion :

Twitter is by no means a verbal gym , it is place to find , mix with and talk to sensible people , gather useful info , support meaningful causes and get help on any issues . The current crop of tweeps are not killing time here and they are serious about tweets . Tweets are in a way a reflection of you and a lot of effort goes into tweets . Tweet anyone the way you wan to be tweeted and you will be ok . Celebrity or not , credibility and responsiveness counts and rules . So Hereby I conclude that Twitter is the Adda / Hangout of the current times and sincerely pray that twitter support minimizes outages and increases the scalability of this wonderful platform that is now touching every walk of life . XOXOXO . Ask @ashumittal and she will tell you what is XOXO !!

Technorati : feedback, twitter, users
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Shakthi Twitter feedback, Twitter, users

A Page Template that displays posts from a specific category depending on what Page is being displayed. This is designed to work with the WordPress Default theme (aka Kubrick), but may work with other themes with a little modification.

Save this to pageofposts.php:
<?php
/*
Template Name: PageOfPosts
*/

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Technorati : blogging, wordpress
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Shakthi Blogging Blogging, wordpress

A study found that over 40% of tweets fall in the “pointless babble” category.

• 40.55 percent were “pointless babble,” which were defined as the “I am eating a sandwich now” tweets.”
• 37.55 percent were “conversational,” or “tweets that go back and forth between folks, almost in an instant message fashion, as well as tweets that attempt to engage followers in conversation, such as questions or polls.”
• 8.7 percent had “pass along value,” the tweets that are re-tweets passed along from member to member.
• 5.85 percent were “self promotion,” messages about companies, products or services.
• 3.75 percent were spam, the “See how I got 3,000 followers in one day” tweets.
• 3.60 percent were news from mainstream national media outlets such as CNN or Fox.

Technorati : Twitter, study, tweets, usage
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Shakthi Twitter study, tweets, Twitter, usage

A Page Template that shows the Page’s content at the top, and then displays a list of archive months and categories below it. This is designed to work with WordPress’s Default theme (aka Kubrick), but will probably work with many other themes with a little modification.

Save this to arc-cont.php:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Archives with Content
*/
?>

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id="content" class="widecolumn">

 <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();?>
 <div class="post">
  <h2 id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>"><?php the_title();?></h2>
  <div class="entrytext">
   <?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this page &raquo;</p>'); ?>
  </div>
 </div>
 <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
 <?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>', '</p>'); ?>

</div>
<div id="main">

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/searchform.php'); ?>

<h2>Archives by Month:</h2>
  <ul>
    <?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
  </ul>

<h2>Archives by Subject:</h2>
  <ul>
     <?php wp_list_cats(); ?>
  </ul>

</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Technorati : blogging, wordpress
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Shakthi Blogging Blogging, wordpress

Just as you can have Subcategories within your Categories, you can also have SubPages within your Pages, creating a hierarchy of pages.

For example, suppose you are creating a WordPress site for a travel agent and would like to create an individual Page for each continent and country to which the agency can make travel arrangements. You would begin by creating a Page called “Africa” on which you could describe general information about travel to Africa. Then you would create a series of Pages which would be SubPages to “Africa” and might include “Lesotho”, “Cameroon”, “Togo”, and “Swaziland”. Another individual Page is made for “South America” and would feature SubPages of “Brazil”, “Argentina”, and “Chile”. Your site would then list:

• Africa
  • Cameroon
  • Lesotho
  • Swaziland
  • Togo
• South America
  • Argentina
  • Brazil
  • Chile

To begin the process, go to Administration > Write > Write Page panel, in the upper right corner of the panel and click the “Page Parent” drop-down menu. The drop-down menu contains a list of all the Pages already created for your site. To turn your current Page into a SubPage, or “Child” of the “Parent” Page, select the appropriate Page from the drop-down menu. If you specify a Parent other than “Main Page (no parent)” from the list, the Page you are now editing will be made a Child of that selected Page. When your Pages are listed, the Child Page will be nested under the Parent Page. The Permalinks of your Pages will also reflect this Page hierarchy.

In the above example, the Permalink for the Cameroon Page would be:

http://example.com/africa/cameroon/

Technorati : Blogging, wordpress
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Shakthi Blogging Blogging, wordpress

Photobie is image editing software that combines features amateurs can use with advanced tools professionals will appreciate. Photobie is free for personal use with no Pro upgrade to pay for – all features are free.I have been using it for a while now, it has all the things that most pro tools have . Platform : Windows .Try it !

Technorati : image editing, photo editing, windows
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Shakthi General image editing, photo editing, windows

Twitter wants to be ubiquitous on the web and I guess with all the third party apps being developed it would not take too long. AddATweet is one such application that wants you to use twitter on any site you wish to!

You would first need to install the Mozilla Firefox plugin to start using the cool features that AddATweet has to offer you. Once you have the plugin installed, all you need to do is surf the web as you would and click the AddATweet icon appearing on your Firefox when you wish to leave a comment on any site.

You can view comments left by others, have the comments tweeted to your twitter account and even reply to comments which would then be nested as replies.

Quickie

• Mozilla Firefox extension
• Comment anywhere on the web
• Reply to comments, replies are nested
• Post the comments as twitter updates

AddATweet Says

AddATweet’s mission is to make every page on the Internet commentable.

Today, commenting systems are implemented by individual web sites and have no ability to talk to each other. Users are typically anonymous or must create accounts on each of these sites. Also, comments are often moderated, preventing people from truly being able to express themselves when their opinions are in contrast with those of the web site owner.

We believe that there is a need for a global commenting system. One that lets users comment on any page on the Internet, based on free speech principles.

Want to change the world? Support free speech by inviting your friends to AddATweet.

Web

• AddATweet – Comment anywhere on the web!

Follow

• @addatweet – Simplest way to add a comment to any web page.

Source : nischal@twi5.com

Technorati : addatweet, twi5, twitter
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Shakthi Twitter addatweet, twi5, Twitter

LogPost seems like a nice and feature rich mobile interface for twitter. You can easily view your timeline, update your twitter status and follow new users too.

There is a Trends feature, which helps you track the current trends on twitter. You can view only your posts (ego tweeter?). Click on any friends icon and start a conversation by way of direct messages. The app arranges direct messages separately so that you can strike a conversation and not lose thread of it!

Quickie

• Free twitter mobile client
• Feature rich and easy to use
• Update, send direct messages and @replies
• Start a conversation by way of direct messages

LogPost Says

We maturized Twitter to fit perfectly on your phone. We paid close attention to the details so you could enjoy sending and receiving messages from anywhere. To use Twitter for iPhone you’ll need an phone and a Twitter Account.

Web

• LogPost – Twitter for mobile phones

Follow

• @logpost – Create a discussion about anything!

Source : nischal@twi5.com

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Shakthi Twitter applications, client, Twitter