I completely agree. 99% of Twitter is mindless random thoughts. This is just an attempt at finding a niche for SUP amongst the millions of tweets each day. If you already use twitter and are finding yourself asking "why am I doing this?" then maybe the paddlesurf twibe will give you a fresh perspective. If you dont use Twitter and are wondering what all the fuss is about this could be an excuse to get first hand knowledge and decide for yourself.

SammyJ said...
Isn't twitter the new facebook, which was the new myspace, there will be a new twitter in about 3 months I'm guessing. Or do I have it all wrong, do they actually offer something different

Hit the nail on the head Sammy. It's exactly what we are doing right now. Same stuff just a different format, same bull**** just repackaged.

It is the new Facebook in a way. But different. I use Facebook to stay in touch with my friends. Twitter is more an information 'tap' if you like. I follow all manner of Tweeters. In my news stream I have regular breaking news headline updates, live rugby and soccer scores, weather updates, restaurant reviews, unreleased singles from my favorite bands and regular updates from various journalists and authors who write upon topics I follow. It would be good to get some sort of SUP presence there too IMHO.

It is not meant as competition to the forum and truth be told it could not do the same job. Its a different type of media.

I've not used boxee but I agree with the general concept. Facebook has rumours of videochat being imminent so that could be interesting. The thing about Twitter is the critical mass it has right now. With social networking almost everything else can be tweaked (as we see Facebook do repeatedly) but users is what matters most. Boxee may be great (it probably is) but so was betamax.

oliver said...


It's the same thing - just a slightly different format.

Actually its a very different beast. For a start all twitter entries are only 140 characters long. This encourages brevity and contrasts with lengthy posts you get in the forums. As well as there being no comments threads and the fact you are mixing in with the millions of other tweeters as opposed to posting in the members only forum of a single topic website. At the very least this would increase the sports exposure.

In my mind (and this may well change) the paddlesurf twibe would gather in all the different corners of the SUP world into one stream. I can think of at least six major SUP websites that could start tweeting straight away, this being one. Not to mention various blogs around the world.

I could scan tweets from the breeze, the zone, ke-nalu or whatever and click on any link that interests me rather than visit each site individually. Big deal I hear you say, that saves what 20 seconds? But i think I would find it useful.

I have been a twitter cynic too and my general idea of it is to keep your expectations low. It will not blow your mind like Facebook did with all the old school faces popping up but rather its offering a small increase in efficiency to surf the web on topics that interest you. I think its worth giving it a shot. SUP has benefited immeasurably from technology. Forums like this, peoples blogs, industry websites have all added their own piece of value to SUPs online presence. Maybe http://www.twibes.com/group/paddlesurf has something to offer too.