The Kyle Smyth

Please read the blog posts before you join a movement!

Twitter just recently posted on their blog about removing a feature only used by 2% of the twitter user base and decided to get rid of it. A few prominent twitter users complained and started a movement with the hashtag #fixreplies and it seems everyone is up in arms about it.

I think a lot of people are really confused with what they are actually planning to remove. They are NOT removed @replies, they are NOT removing @replies that mention your name. They are simply disabling an option in the settings that lets you see @replies to people who you do not follow in your public time line. Personally I did not use this feature, so I really don’t care but I think that the majority of users who are supporting #fixreplies issue are misinformed.

For example, I will still see:
@kylesmyth How are you?

@personIFollow I like your new blog post.

I agree with you @personIDontFollow

I will not see:

@personIDontFollow I love snow too, we should hangout

However, if I wanted to see the above I could simply go to that persons time line and view their @reply.

If this upsets you, you may now join the #fixreplies movement. If it doesn’t, go on about your day.

Read the actual blog post on blog.twitter.com here.

This feature did promote a lot of one-sided conversations however those one sided conversations promoted user discovery by viewing that users time-line and following them.

Edit:
Pete Cashmore put up a blog post highlighting specifically what setting was removed.