Technological Questions for the Technologically Informative

[thefourthvine]

I have questions related to various things that we do with computers. (Not those things. Other things. Cleaner things. Or, okay, at least two of these are about things that are almost entirely clean.) I am hoping you all have answers.

Thank you! You are awesome! Yes, you.

Twitter

About a month ago, I was sending yet another text to myself about a Fascinating Thing the Earthling Said, and it occurred to me that there was this newfangled crazy thing where I could post these things, instead of texting myself and then having to remember to copy them down when I got home. So I made a Twitter account (I am thefourthvine, for the two of you who are gripped by the idea of reading tweets about things someone else's child says), and although this is perhaps not the intended use for this thing (I hear you are supposed to follow? And also be followed? I don't know, okay? LEADERSHIP HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PROBLEM FOR ME.), I have been pleased.

But now I'm wondering - do tweets go away? Will I get to keep this handy record of things the earthling says forever? And if not, how do I do that export thing? (Worry not. I will export it to my DW, but privately, so no one ever has to see it but me. I just want to obsessively track all the adorable words that come from my child's mouth so I can re-read them in twelve years when he's telling me he hates me and I'm a fuckface. That seems like a reasonable use of my time.)

Dreamwidth

Is there any way to download a DW journal, like you can with LJ Archive? I like having offline copies, okay, just in case. I want to save all your comments on the earthling posts. I want to save the earthling posts themselves! I want to save my recs! I mean, what if the part of the country where the servers are located falls off? WHAT THEN? I will need an offline backup!

LiveJournal

Oh my GOD people I just want to read my friends list with it looking like it always has, and read fan fiction in the, you know, basic comment page no-style style, and leave comments. Do I really have to pick just two? Isn't there some way to be able to do all three without making my computer hang?

Failing that, is there some readable style I can use for my friends page that will let me read fan fiction in the basic page style and leave comments? I am willing to change! But it turns out I can't stand reading fan fiction in friends-page style, and I do want to leave comments from time to time, and I cannot figure out how to make that happen. Someone please just tell me which things to click to fix everything. Please. I'm begging you. Surely there is a ticky box marked "Make It All Better"?

Offsite Backup

I have been using Mozy as my offsite backup for years and been pleased, but they've raised their prices so that they are roughly seven times what they used to be. That is, um, fairly painful for what amounts to catastrophe insurance.

Do any of you have any offsite backup services you use and like? (I am backing up a lot of data, for the record.) I'd like to at least price some other services before I grit my teeth and pay Mozy. And my computer is getting dicey, so I'd like to have my offsite backup back.

OK Cupid

What the fuck is up with OK Cupid? See, okay, I used to like taking stupid internet quizzes, in the Days of More Time, and at some point I clicked on the thing that says "Save your test results with an OK Cupid account!" At least, that's what it said back then. I sincerely hope that these days it says, "GET SOME NOOKIE with an OK Cupid account," since turns out that is what people actually do with them.

So, I filled out my profile, whatever, blah blah blah here are some words and clicks and stuff, and only realized it was actually a dating site some time later. Which, no problem. I am not on the market, and have not been on the market since I was a teenager and "online dating" meant "flirting over IRC," but I never uploaded a photo. Everyone knows if you don't upload a photo on a dating site, you are left alone forever. Right? Those are still the rules, right?

Because I last got a message on OK Cupid in 2008. I last visited OK Cupid in - 2008, probably. Or, at least, both these things were true until about a few months ago. Now I am getting all the messages. There is no reason for it. I still don't have a photo. My profile is not wicked hot or anything; in fact, I changed it after the first spate of messages to make it less hot (surely mentioning puke is a turnoff?), and it did not help at all. I am getting a bunch of blunderbuss messages from dudes who are married and looking for a piece on the side, which - WHY? My profile clearly states that I am not looking to boff anyone (else). And in fact I will never be looking to fuck someone who promises me "thoughtful loving and tenderlovingcare," because I am physically incapable of being aroused by anyone who thinks you can just randomly remove spaces to create new and exciting words. And then I am getting what is almost worse, which are these carefully crafted messages detailed to my interests. And then, of course, there's the random trolling.

I guess I could just delete the account. It's just, I want to know why. What changed? Do people get some kind of bonus credit now for messaging ancient grouchy married people? Is there a message lottery and I won? Shouldn't I have had to enter first? If you know, for the love of god, tell me.

Comments

I plan to use these subject lines so hard that they'll be unable to walk tomorrow morning.

[thefourthvine]

Thank you! I will do that.

Also, exciting adventures. Um. That is - alarming. Yes.

Subject lines gonna need a couple ibuprofen and a heating pad once we're done with 'em

[john]

No worries! I love Twitter for interaction (it feels more extravert and less epistolary, which I guess is fair enough), but I am deeply dubious of its business model and somewhat worried about it just disappearing in a puff of smoke/a whatever it is that delicious disappeared into.

Subject lines are going to be pregnant with BOTH our babies by the weekend.

[thefourthvine]

See, that is exactly why I have, until recently, avoided Twitter: it really does seem like the social networking service for extroverts. Which is good! If you are an extrovert. Just, I am so introverted that my ideal social networking service would consist of everyone sitting in random internet corners, absolutely unable to talk to each other, able to infer the existence of other beings only by analyzing the patterns in data movement. Learning LJ was a huuuuuuuuge stretch for me. (It took me six months to learn to read my friends page. It took me YEARS to learn to respond to comments, and in fact I still don't usually manage to. I - do not do well with interaction, is the deal here. Not at all.)

Now I am staring at Twitter all, "But - there are these tabs. Do I click on them? WILL THERE BE PEOPLE THERE?" I need an introvert's guide for Twitter, is what I need.

Subject lines have happily read Scarleteen and are well educated on safer sex and family plannin

[john]

The thing about Twitter for me is that there's always this enormous conversation going on. Sort of like an untrackable comment fest.

It can be overwhelming -- when I'm in introvert mode, I'll often just not watch Twitter, since I use a client (Socialite for Mac, which I just love) and can very usefully catch up on only the things I'm most interested in (or just declare Twitter bankruptcy).

Subject lines are reaching for the ball gags. (There's nothing kinkier than subject lines! Ask LJ.)

[thefourthvine]

The thing about Twitter for me is that there's always this enormous conversation going on. Sort of like an untrackable comment fest.

I - cannot track a conversation with more than one person in real life. It will be interesting to see how I measure up in a text-based conversation.

I'm already staring at my profile all confused, trying to figure out if I should PUT things there. And what if people say things to me? Do I reply? HOW? I am the worst social networker EVER. (No, really. I am hoping to get some kind of prize for this.)

Subject lines MMMMPHMMPHMMPHMMMPHMMMMMMPHMMPHMPHMMMMMMPH

[john]

Okay, so the thing about Twitter conversations is that they're not threaded. Which is annoying. But there's a way to see the tweet that each reply tweet is in response to, so you can track it back. It takes a while, and even old Twitter hands get confused sometimes. (I know I do.)

So, profile: sure, pop some stuff in there. You can always change it, and the good thing is that it's limited characters, so, you know, it's hard to look like too much of a n00b if that's what you're worried about.

Tweets are the basic unit of messaging. Since your account is public, anyone on Twitter (or the Internets) can read your tweets.

You've got the basics of general tweeting down.

Any Tweet with an @ at the start is a reply, AKA an @reply (pronounced "at-reply"), and appears in the timelines of only people mentioned in the tweet. (Timeline = "read" view.) So, if I (as someone whose tweets are public) say:

@thefourthvine OMG, your Earthling posts are so cute!

then it won't appear, say, in @anatsuno's timeline -- unless she is following both of us.

But if I say:

.@thefourthvine... or Hey, @thefourthvine... or OMG you guys should see the hot subject line on subject line action in this movie @anatsuno @thefourthvine

That would appear in both your and anatsuno's timeline if you both follow me. (It will appear in the "@thefourthvine") tab if you don't follow me.

Does that make sense? Happy to run you through MOAR BASIKZ if you like!

Re: Subject lines MMMMPHMMPHMMPHMMMPHMMMMMMPHMMPHMPHMMMMMMPH

[cimorene]

They don't appear threaded, but Twitter does actually store the information about who replied to whom in its metadata. This is available for one tweet at a time with a link to its immediate predecessor labelled "in reply to" in the time caption on the Twitter website, providing you replied using the reply-to button rather than just typing @username. But some Twitter clients are capable of tracing an entire conversation! I use Turpial, and it has a rightclick option to display "in reply to" which shows the entire ancestry of a tweet.

Re: Subject lines MMMMPHMMPHMMPHMMMPHMMMMMMPHMMPHMPHMMMMMMPH

[john]

Oh, I've never heard of Turpial -- must check it out!

TFV, the thing I'd take away from this is "oh, yes, threading's theoretically available, but hard to access".

I think my subject line is cheating on me with your subject line.

[thefourthvine]

OH GOD THAT IS SO HELPFUL. I - need to know these things, I guess?

MOAR BASIKZ: Following. Is it good internet manners to follow everyone back? Am I a clueless noob if I follow everyone back? Is there an etiquette here? PEOPLE ARE FOLLOWING ME AND I AM NOT A LEADER, WHAT DO I DO?

It's not cheating if you've had a grownup discussion with your subject line first

[john]

There is slightly less drama about following than there was on LJ about friending. (Yay terminology differences!) There's no aspect of n00biness about it.

At this stage in your Twitter career (and now I sound like an Instructional Video...) I'd say sure, follow everyone back. (Not the spambots.) People can get notifications that you're following them, but there's no active notification for unfollowing. (Of course, they can look at your profile or their followers list and check.)

Usefully, Twitter has a bug habit of defollowing people for no apparent reason, which is helpful if you get rid of someone (for, I dunno, posting too much or something?) but then want to add them back. "Oh, dammit, Twitter auto-unfollowed you! Grrr" is a great excuse.

If someone has a private Twitter account they'll need to approve you to see their tweets. Hilariously (not) this is only possible through the web interface, not clients or mobile apps. Way to go, Twitter! They can still see your public replies to them (so Hey @privatepat, can you follow me? I'm just dying to read about your cats will reach them.)

Have you figured out Twitter DMs yet?

Why does my subject line smell like fish and Old Spice?

[thefourthvine]

...Unless Twitter DMs are people running role-playing games via Twitter, I have no clue. (And if they ARE people running role-playing games via Twitter, I want to be a cleric, thank you.)

I *know* my subject line hasn't been anywhere near (a) fish or (b) anyone who wears Old Spice

[john]

Okay, so the Twitter Direct Message (DM) is a thing of great usefulness.

You can DM people who are following you, and only they can see it. It's like texting someone (and, in fact, my international friends and I use it as a useful way to text using data rather than SMS messages, since we have DMs set up to be Pushed to our phones).

Of course, being Twitter, there's always the exciting frisson that you might have cocked the whole thing up and be posting the DM as a public status before turning your phone off, where it will sit at the top of your timeline until you notice and delete it.

So OMG that subject line fucked me so hard that I had to upgrade myself to first class for the extra seat padding might not be the best thing to DM, especially if you're then on a long flight. Not that that's ever happened to me. Oh no.

Do you have a tracking device on your subject line? Maybe it just takes more showers than mine!

[thefourthvine]

I am sort of disappointed to hear that there are no Twitter-based RPGs, although I suppose in-character interaction would be sort of difficult given the character limit. ("I sashay into the bar and ask for something very alcoholic and purple, with an umbrella and two marshmallows. Then I look around for the most attractive...")

But the DM sounds like a tool of great power. Albeit one that, like most power tools, can seriously injure you if you use it inappropriately. Thank you!

So OMG that subject line fucked me so hard that I had to upgrade myself to first class for the extra seat padding might not be the best thing to DM, especially if you're then on a long flight. Not that that's ever happened to me. Oh no.

If you lie down with subject lines, you get up with embarrassing internet errors. A LESSON LEARNED.

If by "tracking device" you mean "collar and leash"...

[john]

Oh, there are Twitter-based RPGs! They're just really hard to follow.

DMs: the chainsaw of Twitter.

(Also: basically the Internet equivalent of Leviticus 18:22.)

subject line suddenly smells like Rodney's fear and the ocean under Atlantis

[skaredykat]

Dear thefourthvine, this SGA fic (classic crack) is going to make so much more sense to you now: Public Timeline by sabinetzin & arymabeth -- S2 episode "Under Pressure" reimagined as tweets. Also, happy new year!