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Twitter heading off editorial cliff?

Friday, June 19, 2009 by Dave Winer.

Great piece yesterday in CNET about how Twitter is no longer young. Paradoxically true and a must-read. 

Jesse Stay has an interesting piece on how Twitter is going after people who game Twitter to get more followers. It's a good piece, well worth reading carefully and understanding. And I support what Twitter is doing. But... 

The problem is that Twitter is the worst offender here with the Suggested User List.  

I'm watching a NY Times columnist, who was added to the list last week, leapfrog his competition. It changed the way he posts. (He openly says that, he may have been joking, but you should watch those jokes, they usually reveal some truth, that's why they're funny.) 

Twitter is starting to make a difference in the world of professional poker. They put one of the competitors on the SUL, now he has 329K followers. 

NY Times: "A writer with an interest in comic books can become the expert on comic books." 

How long before the professional gamers privately start paying people who are on the SUL to point to them? (My guess is that it has already happened.) 

What are the editorial guidelines for people on the SUL? 

And why would Twitter want to enter this space? And are they ready to take an editorial interest in the people who use their system. This is why lines exist in journalism, to keep the publishing interests from having to worry about the editorial interests. Inevitably, the lines get crossed, you can't avoid it, but you try to avoid it. Twitter made a huge mistake by crossing the line with such gusto. Now you can see them approaching the contradiction. They want to stop users from doing what they themselves do so much better. Can't make that work very much longer.  

Net-net: They will eventually have to publish guidelines for SUL members. Watch for a rebellion from those now very powerful people, who will neither want to give up their power nor submit to guidelines from Twitter.  

This subject came up earlier this week when @anamariecox admitted that the White House treats her with new deference because she has 650K followers. A couple of months ago she had 3K. So the change is significiant and clearly due to the gift from Twitter. 

Update: Getting real, we know they already have implicit editorial guidelines for the SUL. It's why people like me, who are unpredictable, will never get on the list. They don't know what I'm going to say, and they might not want to stand behind me. That's the problem, because they don't know what anyone else will say either. Sooner or later someone who they propelled to the top will do something bad. It has to happen. And that's why they needed a really strong separation between the platform and the content, and the problem, for them and the platform, is they have no separation at all. A major oil spill is inevitable.  

Update: ZachsMind says "you're just hurting my head." We used to call those "mind bombs."  

8/26/00: "What's a Mind Bomb? An idea that's so strange or powerful that it explodes in your mind. And that's a good thing!" 

Question to professional reporters: If your publication is on the SUL, or were on the SUL, would you submit to editorial guidelines from Twitter, Inc?