The Twitter Complexity Has Led To The Design Of New Features

Stone, B. (2009, May 14). The Replies Kerfuffle. Retrieved from https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/a/2009/the-replies-kerfuffle.html

In this 2009 blog post, Stone explains various technical and product design flaws on a certain reply setting that Twitter was experimenting on some user accounts. According to the author, Twitter evolves and thrives through learning and experimenting on different features suggested by its users. Consequently, the social network had developed a prototype that could allow users to see replies to both the people they followed and those that they did not follow. However, this new feature quickly became ineffective because of both the product design and technical flaws that it had and was soon removed. For instance, it created confusion among users as to who would see their posts and conversations. Besides, the replies from high profile users could generate high rates of engagements in the form of retweets and replies, which overwhelmed the timeline of low-profile users. This article is important because it demonstrates the commitment of Twitter towards improving user engagement and experience on the platform.  

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