Do You Tweet?

[dentonfabrics]

I was wondering who uses Twitter for hiking information. I really like Twitter and although I dont Tweet (post outgoing comments), I follow a bunch of hiking and outdoor related accounts on a daily basis;


@HikeNewEngland - Twitter account for a VFTT style hiking BBS
@OrvisPodcast - fly fishing tips and tricks
@AmericanHiking - infrequent tweets on hiking, volunteerism, etc.
@ConservationNH - of interest to anyone who spends time outdoors in NH
@nhdotI93 - up to the minute NH road and traffic information
@mattnoyes - granular weather info from a true weather "nerd"
@skinewhampshire - ski and snow conditions


Anyone else?

 

[cooperhill]

I use twitter although don't find it as usual for local hiking information as VFTT or other related NE boards. I also use it for weather and wildland fire information and general news. Some people I follow on there.

@advinprogress hiking, lightweight gear/minimalist footwear/hiking (East)
@andrewskurka NatGeo mountaineer (West)
@bigskyry lightweight backpacking (West)
@calipidder backpacking, hiking (West)
@jerrymonkman author of New England hiking books for AMC
@MightyQuinn54 blind hiker Randy Pierce and his super dog Quinn

 

[TCD]

Got to admit I was waiting for these others before I jumped in as the only dinosaur. Snail mail works. The telephone is great, and much more informative than the web (there are about 100 "human-telephone" nodes for every "web-server" node). The web and email work, and have worked well for many years.

All the rest of the stuff: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc., is the just the latest way for someone to make money off the stuff that works fine already. This too shall pass.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I don't Tweet, I don't follow any Tweeters. I don't like the phone - it's convenient for the caller but not the callee. E-mail is near real-time enough for me. Facebook is OK, would not be crushed without it, but I filter the feed to remove all the apps. Convenient way to share content without e-mail the same content (photos) to a whole group of people. No I do not have a 3G/4G cell phone nor a data plan. It can wait until I get back to my computer.

Tim

 

[Neil]

My flute tweets.

For hiking I use maps, the internet for weather forecasts, the web boards, Google Earth, email and books in that order. To determine what the conditions are like I usually just show up and find out in real time.

In day to day life, I hardly ever use a phone or any other hand-held communication devices. Email works great for me, if it didn't I'd use something else.

 

[Little Rickie]

I don't tweet. Forums are more than enough for me.

I vastly prefer face to face communication. Can't stand people hiding behind technology. If you don't have the stones to say it in person then don't say it electronically.

 

[RollingRock]

I just don't have the time to track Tweet or what my friends are doing on Facebook. I have a Facebook account but I purposefully only have about 5 friends and shut off all email notifications. I think this speaks well for VFTT that this forum community does a great job with keeping us connected and continues to do so with the technology it has.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

For those of us who don't Tweet - could one of you tweeters (or tweetets) explain exactly what Tweeting is? I take it you use a phone? Is it any kind of cell phone? Or do you need an iPhone or something special?

I do use a cell phone, and text messaging. I learned that if I want to stay in touch with my son then I'd better get into text messaging. Also handy to let my wife know "I'm off the mountain" as sometimes you can send out a text when you can't get enough signal strength for a voice call.

 

[David Metsky]

Moderator Note
Folks, if you want to complain about Twitter, please find another forum to do so. This thread isn't for bashing technology.

-dave-

 

[griffin]

For those of us who don't Tweet - could one of you tweeters (or tweetets) explain exactly what Tweeting is? I take it you use a phone? Is it any kind of cell phone? Or do you need an iPhone or something special?

You can get a twitter feed on your computer if you like. I've followed court and election proceedings that way. Otherwise i think you need a "smart phone" (not sure, honestly)

 

[dentonfabrics]

For those of us who don't Tweet - could one of you tweeters (or tweetets) explain exactly what Tweeting is? I take it you use a phone? Is it any kind of cell phone? Or do you need an iPhone or something special?

I do use a cell phone, and text messaging. I learned that if I want to stay in touch with my son then I'd better get into text messaging. Also handy to let my wife know "I'm off the mountain" as sometimes you can send out a text when you can't get enough signal strength for a voice call.

Kevin,

Twitter is a real-time communications platform, something like instant messaging, except that it sends messages universaly to anyone wishing to receive outgoing messages (called "Tweets") from a particular person or business entity. It started out as kind of a dumb "I had eggs for breakfast" type of thing where people would just tweet out little useless blurbs and maybe your mother or sister or boyfriend would follow you. Then business got ahold of it and gave it some legs. Now it's often used for "brand building", and a way for these "brands" (a brand could be a business, a sports team, a celebrity - anything or anyone with something to sell or promote) to communicate with their followers.

For instance, if you "follow" Southwest Airlines on Twitter, you'll be the first to know about sales on airline seats. My wife commutes on Rt 93, so she follows the "tweets" from NH D.O.T. for info on delays, lane closures, etc. For her, that's the quickest way she can get traffic updates (and those updates have saved her commute more than once, thats for sure.)

You could use Twitter to let your wife know "You're off the mountain" via cell phones, but tweeting that message has no particular advantage over texting it. But let's say you ran Rooney's Mountain Guide Service. You might tweet out messages of upcoming hikes and adventures to your followers as a way of keeping in front of your clientele and fans. That's how businesses use it.

Are you missing out on something big if you dont use Twitter? Of course not. Is it fun and at least a little bit useful? Yes. Different people use technology in different ways. I don't use Facebook or MySpace. I don't even own a cell phone. Hate the damn things. But I found Twitter to be useful. To each his own.


bob

 

[Taconic]

I don't.

But I'm one of those odd people that doesn't have a cell phone and has no intention of ever getting one.

So I'd wager that I'm in the extreme minority.

 

[ExploreTheEast]

Guilty!

I used to tweet under my EtE handle ( @ExploreTheEast ), but lately I've been out West so much that I'm just going with a nationwide thing from here on in ( http://twitter.com/wandrlustnation ).

As far as following other users on Twitter, it is tough to find good accounts sometimes where people aren't tweeting about the weather or their breakfast. You better believe I'm going to go thru all the accounts that were mentioned in this thread to see if any of them are entertaining and or useful to me.