Well, for poets, line breaks can mean a great deal. And there’s quite a healthy #haiku and #micropoetry crowd on Twitter. Some use “/” to indicate a line break; some use “::”; and I’ve even seen some use “;”.

(For you American punctuation purists, I realize that period should go inside the quotation marks, but think how confusing that would be in this case.)

Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a haiku or lune look like a haiku or lune? Well, I’ve done some Web searching and experimenting, and here’s what I’ve discovered so far:

1. In the Twitter interface itself, SHIFT+ENTER (or, on a Mac, SHIFT+RETURN) creates a line break in the text-entry box, as it does pretty much anyplace else on the Web.
2. This line break won’t display on Twitter (or Facebook).
3. It does display if you’re viewing Twitter posts in SEESMIC.
4. However, SHIFT+ENTER won’t cause a line break if you’re posting from SEESMIC.

Conclusion: There’s apparently no way to guarantee display of line breaks in your Twitter poems, so you’re best keeping “/” or something as a signifier.

As for line break display in SEESMIC, it’s pretty cool, but whether it’s worth the effort of having to enter poems via Twitter.com, you’ll have to be the judge.

All things considered, I’m planning to take this as a challenge to write these poems as a single sentence, carefully crafting phrases and clauses to require normal punctuation where the line would traditionally break. That constraint will make the writing more difficult, but “nuns fret not ,” as Wordsworth says.

—Les

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The one thing it does do faithfully is its “experimental” feature of creating a weekly blog post of my Twitter archives for that week. Go figure.

So I’ve made some changes in the name of dependability. I’ve turned off everything in Twitter Tools except the weekly archive and am now using TwitPress to do blog post announcements to my Twitter account and Twitter for WordPress to display Twitter posts in my blog’s sidebar. Both of these plugins have a five-star rating at WordPress.org; Twitter Tools has slightly less than four stars.

We’ll see how this division of labor works out.

If you decide to follow suit on any of these recommendations, note that once installed, Twitter Tools shows up under “Settings,” TwitPress under “Tools,” and Twitter for WordPress under “Appearance -> Widgets.” Also note that to make TwitPress display permalinks correctly with WP 2.7, you’ll need to edit one line of code. (If you “don’t know from permalinks,” that line can go unedited.)

Yesterday, I met a longtime buddy for lunch and convinced him to jump into Twitter (and Facebook) as a way of connecting with his own group, in part to promote some new projects he’s working on. Soon after that meeting, I received an email message from him, saying he’s signed up but “feeling a bit lost.”

That’s the thing about these social apps, of course. There’s a hump you have to get over before discovering just how helpful—and fun!—they can be, and how best to organize them into your real life.

Which brings me to TweetDeck and Twhirl. Okay, first, let’s admit that the Twitter Web page is pretty limited. I’m not saying it isn’t well organized, but the number of Tweets on a page is relatively few, and it’s not immediately obvious what’s a new post, what’s a reply to one of your own, and what’s a direct message. Enter external apps for organizing things.

If you’ve been following my Tweets, you’ll know I was pretty excited by TweetDeck. That three-column format revealed to me replies and direct messages I’d missed in the ongoing flow of messages. The integration of URL-shortening services into the composition box, along with TwitPics and message-shortening services, introduced me to a whole new level of convenience in posting. Add the fact that the app stands alone, outside my browser, and that it pops up an alert anytime a new message arrives, and I was pretty satisfied.

Except that it doesn’t support multiple accounts, and at work I need to manage the company Twitter account while also keeping track of potentially helpful messages from my personal account. That was the first reason for trying out Twhirl. Twhirl manages multiple accounts not only in Twitter, but also identi.ca, laconi.ca, Friendfeed, and Seesmic—also sending your updates to Pownce and Jaiku. (Not that I’m using any of those services, but you might.)

The second big selling point about Twhirl for me is that its popup notifications actually show the text of the message sent (unlike TweetDeck’s, which merely tell you there’s been a message). That means just a quick glance to the corner of the screen to see if it’s something that needs your attention, instead of having to interrupt your work to bring the app forward. They’re even color-coded as post, reply, or direct message. Very handy!

TweetDeck looks more friendly at first, of course, but I soon found that Twhirl has virtually all the same features—view replies only, view direct messages only, shorten URL, and search—they’re just tiny buttons at the bottom of the account window, rather than separate columns or labeled features. The only thing I haven’t found in Twhirl is a “shorten message” button like in TweetDeck, but Twhirl’s other features waaaay outbalance that minor lack.

If you Tweet, give Twhirl a try. And be sure to let me know what you think. You can always reach me at www.twitter.com/LesterSmith.

The TweetDeck interface provides three columns: the leftmost for running Tweets, the center for replies specifically to your account, and the rightmost for direct messages between your account and other Twitterers. Each column is scrollable, meaning no more clicking Twitter page bottoms to see what you may have missed while you were away.

Mouseover a Twitterer’s image, and a four-button interface pops up to let you reply, retweet, direct-message, or favorite the person. Buttons atop the page let you spawn a new message, search Twitter, check TwitScoop, and various other things. And the message-composition box has another box below it for pasting URLs to be shortened by your choice of 13 URL-shortening services. There’s also a TwitPic and TweetShrink button up there. Convinced yet?

The clincher for me was that replies column in the middle. Using the Twitter.com interface in my browser, I’d often miss replies people sent me in the general traffic scrolling messages down the page. Not any longer. They’re displayed right there, separate from the other traffic.

Once I got to using TweetDeck, however, all the other features became so handy I can’t imagine what I’d do without it now. I only wish I could manage more than one account from the interface. (That’s a suggestion on the books at the Web site, so here’s hoping…)

If you have given Twitter a look, and weren’t impressed, or just didn’t get it, I’d recommend trying it again. Consider this quote from Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute: “I have hated Twitter for more than a year. It always seemed silly and a waste of time. But having used it steadily for about three weeks, I find it is a great way for me to pass along quick story ideas as they develop throughout the day.”

It took me a couple-three weeks to begin to see the possibilities, too.

What is Twitter?
If you’re a FaceBook user, I’d compare it to the “Status Updates” box on your FaceBook page—that’s the general idea, in the same way that a theater is something like a TV.

The two videos that follow help to convey what Twitter is all about. View the first one (about 2.5 minutes) for a good overview, the second (11 min.) for implications and for ideas of how to use the service yourself.

By the way, here’s where you can find me on Twitter. (That link is always available under “Social Network Pages” in the sidebar of this blog, too.)

Jack Dorsey Presents Twitter from biz stone on Vimeo.

URIValet.com is now my first stop for performance and error checking. It also allows you to check the performance on any other page on the Web, which could well be educational. I recommend you give them a try (and drop them a donation for their work).

Here’s a quick example. Move your mouse slowly back and forth between Link 1 and Link 2. Then do the same with Link 3 and Link 4.

Link 1   Link 2

Link 3Link 4

Notice how much more pleasant the move is between the latter links? And up and down around them? That’s the magic of link padding.

You can take a look at my page source for an example of the code involved. (If you’re using Firefox, you can even isolate the specific code by highlighting what you want to see, right-clicking the page, and choosing “View Selection Source.”) Note that I exaggerated the spacing between Links 1 & 2 to emulate the sort of spacing you might see in a menu.

For more about link padding, check out “Generous link targets in the library” and “Padded link targets for better mousing.”

This is definitely a trick I’ll be employing in the future—and retrofitting to my existing sites!

I was surprised to find a 20 cent per gallon difference near my own home. That’s at least a couple of bucks on a fill up.