have you ever upset the internet?

[Zetetic]

It feels like there's a bit of a difference between "I made a joke/said something ambiguous or semi-private/misunderstood something and it was taking out of context" and "I wrote something for a publication and it was intended pretty much specifically to drive negative engagement" (even if the intention wasn't yours).

It's just a different game, I guess.

[sevendaughters]

in a much more light-hearted way on a couple of occasions:

- made a mock Matt Cardle account back when he was a contestant on X Factor
- ran a sophisti-pop poll that was hijacked by Wendy out of Prefab Sprout and slightly ruined by their fans

no one remembers these things but it was an insight in i. avoiding the general public in their humourlessness ii. not attempting to 'ride the algorithm'.

oh and yeah a negative review of Babyshambles once got picked up by Pete Doherty on his own forum but this was pre-Twitter and the wrath my name incurred remained within one sad shed.

[greencalx]

I presume there's some sort of bot you can install that looks out for keywords in tweets, because I've had tweets "liked" by the entities I've tweeted about, usually fairly quickly after posting them.

I've never myself "liked" a tweet, and I never will, because I hate the way that likes appear on followers' timelines. Although you can turn off their retweets, you can't turn off their likes, so liking is, in fact, a more aggressive form of retweeting.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Did you ever post about chip shops?

Tend to avoid chip shop chat. You can get battered.

[The Guppy]

I presume there's some sort of bot you can install that looks out for keywords in tweets, because I've had tweets "liked" by the entities I've tweeted about, usually fairly quickly after posting them.

Yeah there are apps where you have very fine control over what you see. Tweetdeck for example lets you add columns for particular search terms and they auto-update. Hair-trigger wankers like Ricky Gervais probably have a search for their name and their current projects, so they can round on people in 0.3 seconds.

I've never myself "liked" a tweet, and I never will, because I hate the way that likes appear on followers' timelines. Although you can turn off their retweets, you can't turn off their likes, so liking is, in fact, a more aggressive form of retweeting.

That's a relatively recent change, and one I was aghast to discover. I don't use twitter.com or their official apps, so I only see tweets and retweets. I assumed it was the same for everyone else until I happened to visit my timeline on the site and saw everyone's likes.

I haven't liked a tweet since.

[pigamus]

Yeah there are apps where you have very fine control over what you see. Tweetdeck for example lets you add columns for particular search terms and they auto-update. Hair-trigger wankers like Ricky Gervais probably have a search for their name and their current projects, so they can round on people in 0.3 seconds.

Ah, that probably explains how Cold War Steve got to see my tweet. I thought only my followers would see it. Never was the sharpest spoon in the drawer.

[The Guppy]

Whenever you see someone censor or misspell a celeb's name, that's why. Even cunts that don't do vanity searches often have a swarm of sycophants doing it for them. Wyrmtongue cunts typing "hey Steve mate this pigamus guy doesn't rate you".

[Dex Sawash]

Wasn't good at keyboarding yet in 90s and would leave cap lock on to make it easier. I wonder if those people all get road rage from the highway signage.

[Pink Gregory]

I'm reminded of exactly why I don't associate with 'gamers' any more.

Boring e-cunts.

[greencalx]

That's a relatively recent change, and one I was aghast to discover. I don't use twitter.com or their official apps, so I only see tweets and retweets. I assumed it was the same for everyone else until I happened to visit my timeline on the site and saw everyone's likes.

I haven't liked a tweet since.

I remain confused as to what "likes" are for. If you want your followers to see it, you can retweet or quote tweet. If you want to find it again later, you can quietly bookmark it. Given what you've said, I wonder how many people are liking stuff without realising that they're pushing it out to people's timelines (at least those who use the official apps, like me, because I'm too casual a tweeter to need any power features).

[Gurke and Hare]

I remain confused as to what "likes" are for. If you want your followers to see it, you can retweet or quote tweet. If you want to find it again later, you can quietly bookmark it. Given what you've said, I wonder how many people are liking stuff without realising that they're pushing it out to people's timelines (at least those who use the official apps, like me, because I'm too casual a tweeter to need any power features).

You don't need any power features. At the top right of the timeline in the app is a little symbol made up of some stars. Touch that, and you have the option to change from Home, which includes other people's likes to Latest tweets, which doesn't and is generally better.

[BritishHobo]

I'm reminded of exactly why I don't associate with 'gamers' any more.

Boring e-cunts.

Same. The thought of reading hundreds of comments every day of these boring twats humourlessly grumping about the existence of an alternative opinion fills me with dread. Regurgitating stale memes while completely failing to comprehend that anybody else could possibly have a sense of humour or self-awareness about their own opinions. Everything that happens is the worst thing ever, every alternative opinion is the stupidest.

I was looking through the replies to madhair's article, and the absolute vacuum of wit there is exhausting. Half the memes don't even work, they're just memes that users have obviously seen other people use in response to tweets they think are stupid, so are using them here. Fucking kill me.

[Barry Admin]

I remain confused as to what "likes" are for.

Like policing is a big thing on twitter. If they're now showing up on other people's timelines then it'll be to cause more drama/increase engagement.

Pretty clever and cunty way of making public information which most users will assume to be relatively private. Twitter thrives on conflict.

[king_tubby]

I got significantly downvoted by middle aged Guardian readers on Leeds Reddit the other week for saying Chapel Allerton is boring as shit cos it's full of middle aged Guardian readers.

[The Guppy]

I remain confused as to what "likes" are for. If you want your followers to see it, you can retweet or quote tweet. If you want to find it again later, you can quietly bookmark it. Given what you've said, I wonder how many people are liking stuff without realising that they're pushing it out to people's timelines (at least those who use the official apps, like me, because I'm too casual a tweeter to need any power features).

I generally used them to end conversations, instead of "ok bye". Just a signal that I have read their comment and want them to know that I read it, and that all is fine with the world.

You don't need any power features. At the top right of the timeline in the app is a little symbol made up of some stars. Touch that, and you have the option to change from Home, which includes other people's likes to Latest tweets, which doesn't and is generally better.

That clears the cruft out of your own timeline, but doesn't stop you infesting other people's. I want there to be a 0% chance that a tweet I like appears on my followers' timelines. That's what retweet is for.

[greencalx]

You don't need any power features. At the top right of the timeline in the app is a little symbol made up of some stars. Touch that, and you have the option to change from Home, which includes other people's likes to Latest tweets, which doesn't and is generally better.

I'd switched to that view on my tablet and hadn't noticed that the likes had disappeared - nice one. The reason why I thought I was still seeing them is because that setting doesn't synchronise across devices.

[Crenners]

I didn't know that liking posts on twitter was frowned upon.

For me, personally, I use it to let someone know that I 'like' what they've posted.

[greencalx]

But why not retweet it?

[Pink Gregory]

yeah imagine that

[Pink Gregory]

I didn't know that liking posts on twitter was frowned upon.

For me, personally, I use it to let someone know that I 'like' what they've posted.

yeah imagine that

[The Guppy]

I didn't know that liking posts on twitter was frowned upon.

For me, personally, I use it to let someone know that I 'like' what they've posted.

It's not frowned upon, generally. It was very good for that purpose and changing it into another "broadcast" button was a bad move.

[mothman]

I click Like if I like something for whatever reason. If it's something I really liked, and/or that could do with being shared more widely, or I think others might find interesting or amusing, I'll Retweet.

God knows what people would make of the compiled list of things I have liked though. I've never bothered to look myself.

Plus I think Likes either age off or you can only like so many things before the older ones start dropping off the bottom of the list. I've seen older posts I remember and I'm sure I would have liked but appeared not to have...

[Thursday]

But why not retweet it?

Because I don't want to put every really niche videogame joke (as an example) into my timeline for all my followers many of whom don't have any interest in videogames. It might do anyway of course, but usually it won't. Even if it does, that's twitter's fault not mine.

[greencalx]

Fair enough. It's just I see twitter more as a broadcast medium than a messaging service, so the concept of liking felt way less natural than on, say, Facebook.

[Gurke and Hare]

People who retweet constantly are quite annoying to follow. I want to read what you write, not the people you follow.