5 things I want to change with twitter DMs
December 17th, 2009
The twitter DM or Direct Messages as they expand to are now being touted as equivalent to or the next e-mail system and are buzzing everywhere . It is a wonderful feature no doubt but a few changes to it will definitely go a long way in making the DM more useful and the twitter experience more pleasing. From my little head , the following things could be added to make DMs better and effective and their management easier
- Batch Select and process : There should be a “Select All” , “Archive” , “Delete” option in the DM page that would allow a tweep to select all or a few DMs and process them in batches , the current method of dealing with each message separately makes it very strenuous and tough to delete a lot of the useless things that get accumulated over time .Currently it is a pain and the possibility of accidentally deleting a useful and genuine DM meant for me is very high .Additionally there could be a radio-button adjoining each message that facilitates selective batch inclusion
- Message Flagging : Twitter could try and look for patterns like Dojo , gift , Britney , MLM , Forex, Teeth Whitening and the like and flag them in a different color , one look and we know what to read and what to delete .That would be a blessing
- Message Replication at recipient : The current scheme of DMs is implemented in such a way that if I send you a DM and you delete it , it disappears from my sent box and your inbox . This works both ways , If I accidentally delete something that you sent , it is gone from both sides forever .This can be solved by enabling replication and not linking of the message at the recipient end , that would mean that one copy of the message is potentially safe . In the scenario of someone sending me and objectionable DM and me wanting to sue , he can just delete it and deny it’s existence , poof ! So we really need a snapshot view and not a linked view
- Sender qualification : Unless someone follows me , he shouldn’t be able to send me a DM , otherwise , replying is a mess and we will be left begging someone to follow you to respond to any DM that they sent you
- Archive option : Like I mentioned in the first point , there should be an archive into which I can put selected DMs into for future reference , this need not hold all DMs , I should be able to select what gets archived
If all these get implemented , the DM system would be unbeatable
