Twitter retweet: how the new RT functionality looks
Update - bugs: If you have been put on the new system, beware retweeting long tweets. Most people are still on the old system - what they will see is the tweet you retweet with 'RT ' at the front.
I just retweeted a 140-character tweet - as adding 'RT ' at the front made it too long, Twitter sliced the end off my tweet - which was the URL that was being tweeted.
Not only that, people didn't see the retweet in tweetdeck, tweed or echofon. That seems to suggest only people using the web interface can see things that are RTed using the new method at the moment.
What I saw
This is what I see - RT logo at front and URL at the end.
What I saw - URL there
What people on the old system saw
This is what people on the web interface saw: a RT at the front - and no URL (in fact, if you click the three tiny dots you can then see the full message with the URL).
What people on the old RT system see: no URL
Thanks to Sarah Goodwin and Mark Edmondson for testing (I recommend following both).
Original post
Despite having to wait ages for lists and Google wave, I seem to have Twitter RTs early.
If you're invited to join the RT beta, you see this.
Twitter retweet: the message you see if you're in the beta
And here's a new-style RT close up.
Twitter retweet: a new-style RT close up
Personally, I haven't seen a live one yet from someone else ... And I don't really like the sound of them as I like to comment on RTs. But maybe that's just me.
When you do a RT
This is what happens if you want to retweet using the new functionality.
Hover over a message and you see a retweet link, bottom right:
Retweet: a retweet option appears
Then a confirmation appears if you click it:
Retweet: confirmation message
You then see the message in your stream, showing you retweeted it (at the bottom):
Retweet: you can see you sent it
And you can undo it if you want (bottom right):
Retweet: undo
You also get a retweets menu item in the right hand column, which shows you a screen showing what you've retweeted, who has retweeted you etc. There's not much in mine as of yet!
Twitter RT lists: you can see who has RTed you, who you have RTed
Update: And finally, if you go to someone's profile, you can choose to turn off seeing their RTs:
How to block a user's RTs if you find them annoying ... (no offence Paul!)
When you see what someone else has retweeted, you now get a little message (I presume the first time only):
What you see
I think that really is it now!
[...] to get his hands on Twitter RT’s early. While most of us sit with baited breath, Coles has kindly shared screenshots of the new functionality with [...]
Agreed, I don't like RTing without commenting. Although it's not as bad as posting a link with no explanation!
what do you think of this feature? personally i like to be able to add a comment to RTs, even if its just one word - this obviously doesn't allow that. but i suppose for those tweets you just want to RT without comment this is nice; I suspect I'll carry on using manual RTs...
oops - i failed to see your sentence about not liking RTs without comments - sorry!
Hmmm, interesting. Along with a development I saw yesterday (which has now, goldfish brained as I am, slipped my mind) this strikes me as something that is designed to bring people back to the website, and away from the apps that now take more than 50% of users (according to Mindshare's research in the UK anyway).
And why would they do that? Because, of course, its the first essential step in starting to monetise the site through some form of advertising.
interesting... perhaps they might develop their own tweetdeck style web app to get users on their own site? Personally i hate using the web interface but that might tempt me...
Jaamit: No worries. Although don't think I'm not noticing a trend here - you also missed by first sentence on by BBC / Twitter link post as well (explaining why you'd want one)
!!
Ciaran - I thought I'd noticed that the web interface was letting you block users tweets while still following them. I was terribly excited by this. Turns out it just lets you block their RTs - so it's part of this new function. I've added a screenshot above.
LOL you've uncovered my dodgy skimreading style
Or, if I was gonna get all Malcolm-Colesy on you I could say how that exposes a usability fail in your blogging and how you should be writing key points in giant 24pt letters. No? OK, I'll just read things properly next time.
Interesting you should say that - I have been thinking of using the excerpt as a standfirst at the top of each post. Or using a new custom field ...
I really must take screenshots without my Firefox nofollow custom stylesheet as well ...
Personally I think it just adds complexity. Didn't we love Twitter for being simple?
R!
Also if someone rwtweets you , you can delete the retweet, either from https://twitter.com/#retweeted_of_mine or from the retweeter's timeline.
[...] pic via Malcolm Coles [...]
I like RT with comments too. From what I gather, they had to make a choice here. With the new RT functionality, all RTs from your friends of the same tweet collapse down into a single tweet in your timeline. Collapsing is kinda hard to do if everybody can comment too. Not impossible, but more difficult to show all the info in a clean fashion.
[...] top of the new Twitter retweet feature, I also have the new web-based method for alerts about new tweets from people you follow. These [...]
Malcolm, You provide a good reminder to keep tweets short enough to be retweeted.
When I teach clients how to tweet I always show them the calculation of what their RT will take:
RT @username: usually about 15 characters
I tell them to leave another minimum 10 characters for a comment and therefore they should stop their tweet when they see the counter at 25 not zero.
@LindaSherman
I like the feature a lot. But I wish they'd been a bit more radical, and ignored the 140 limit. Like your example shows, RTing more than 140 chars loses whatever is at the end - this is usually a URL. Why not allow RTs to include the full 140 chars PLUS the "RT @username" at the start? Since the message you're sending itself is just 140 characters, I can't see anyone being up in arms about this.
Shame you can't add comments to the RT but sometimes it's nice to see a comment in the next post, where the person RTing can expand a bit more than just adding one or two words of agreement.