I guess you already know this – but Tweetdeck now allows you to import lists as groups

Thx for this inspiring post!

I suppose I hadn’t thought of Lists as delivering a guided experience to Twitter as much as I had thought of them as a sort of “Twitteroll” (akin to a blogroll). In other words, my personal view of them was less as guiding the Twitter user experience and more as providing an additional feature that would take onus off the celebrity of Twitter (e.g. Twitter’s “people we think you should follow” list that comes up when one signs up for a new account).

Being inclusive to a broad audience in terms of sheer accessibility (e.g. access through SMS) is one thing though; “dumbing” Twitter down is another.

Just my two cents!

Yes, it’s not Twitter’s responsibility to “please everyone.” However, the introduction of Lists indicates that Twitter does recognize that a lot of existing and potential Twitter users desire features that support a more guided experience to Twitter. I don’t think they would have gone down the Lists road at all if they didn’t want to be more inclusive on that front.

It seems to me that by keeping the content that Twitter transmits limited to 140 char, so that even people whose only access to Twitter is via bare-bones text messaging on the most limited cell phones, indicates their intention to be inclusive for the broadest possible audience.

Also, in my article, I was talking about the keyword/hashtag-based post filtering being handled on the *client* side (i.e., via Tweetdeck), and not directly through Twitter.

The missing link at this point is that, to my knowledge, Twitter clients don’t yet support importing Twitter lists as groups.

To answer your question, “should the way Twitter’s functionality appeal *only* people who enjoy broad serendipity, or should it also offer strong options for people who prefer a guided, filtered experience?”

…I don’t think I agree with you. What I love about Twitter is its sheer simplicity and while I, like you, recognize that not everyone is on that boat with me, I don’t (like you) think that it’s Twitter’s responsibility to please everyone. Just like MySpace and Facebook both exist to please the different segments of people who prefer one over the other for whatever reason, so should Twitter remain true to its roots.

Additionally, like you mentioned, platforms like Tweetdeck *do* exist to allow filtering – why should Twitter replicate that?

I agree that many people enjoy the serendipity of exposure to the complete range of interests of relevant people. Sometimes there may be more overlap.

That said, I know many people who don’t like Twitter at all because they don’t like hearing about stuff they’re not already interested in. That’s just human nature. These people prefer a guided, filtered approach to the information they get through any channel.

Regardless of whether we think that preference is a good thing or not doesn’t really matter. It is what it is.

The point is, should the way Twitter’s functionality appeal *only* people who enjoy broad serendipity, or should it also offer strong options for people who prefer a guided, filtered experience?

Personally, I think it would be smart for Twitter to offer both kinds of experiences. Doing so would broaden their market. Also, having that option might be a useful form of “Twitter training wheels” for people who want to start slowly with social media, and can’t stand the firehose.

It’s generally not good business to try to tell users what they “should want.” It’s more effective to try to work with what they *do* want.

- Amy Gahran