[twitter-dev] Re: To link the @ or not to link the @, that is the question
I don't link the @ sign because 1) I don't like how it looks and 2) Twitter.com does not. On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 09:21, Chad Etzel wrote: > > A more lighthearted discussion to see where people stand on this > convention. > > We all know the convention of prefixing usernames with the @ symbol, > the interesting thing I notice is that different sites (and even > within tiwtter's site itself) decide to link or not link the @ symbol > along with it. > > Main twitter site: is NOT linked > search.twitter.com: IS linked > new twitter integrated sidebar search: IS linked (i suppose this uses > the same code as search.twitter) > > TweetGrid: is NOT linked > Tweetie: IS linked > etc.. > > just curious how people decided which convention to use. > > From a visual perspective I prefer having the @ be plaintext since it > provides a nice visual difference looking at word, whereas normal > links are bounded by whitespace. This makes the usernames pop out (to > my eyes anyway). > > -Chad > -- Abraham Williams | http://the.hackerconundrum.com Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham Web608 | Community Evangelist | http://web608.org This email is: [ ] blogable [x] ask first [ ] private. Sent from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
[twitter-dev] Re: To link the @ or not to link the @, that is the question
I agree. I'm all for convention... It helps users navigate and build confidence in the Twitter experience, where ever it may be. Doug Williams Twitter API Support http://twitter.com/dougw On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 7:45 AM, Abraham Williams <4bra...@gmail.com> wrote: > I don't link the @ sign because 1) I don't like how it looks and 2) > Twitter.com does not. > > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 09:21, Chad Etzel wrote: > >> >> A more lighthearted discussion to see where people stand on this >> convention. >> >> We all know the convention of prefixing usernames with the @ symbol, >> the interesting thing I notice is that different sites (and even >> within tiwtter's site itself) decide to link or not link the @ symbol >> along with it. >> >> Main twitter site: is NOT linked >> search.twitter.com: IS linked >> new twitter integrated sidebar search: IS linked (i suppose this uses >> the same code as search.twitter) >> >> TweetGrid: is NOT linked >> Tweetie: IS linked >> etc.. >> >> just curious how people decided which convention to use. >> >> From a visual perspective I prefer having the @ be plaintext since it >> provides a nice visual difference looking at word, whereas normal >> links are bounded by whitespace. This makes the usernames pop out (to >> my eyes anyway). >> >> -Chad >> > > > > -- > Abraham Williams | http://the.hackerconundrum.com > Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham > Web608 | Community Evangelist | http://web608.org > This email is: [ ] blogable [x] ask first [ ] private. > Sent from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
[twitter-dev] Re: To link the @ or not to link the @, that is the question
This is something else that could go on a "best practices" page on the apiwiki. On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 15:50, Doug Williams wrote: > I agree. I'm all for convention... It helps users navigate and build > confidence in the Twitter experience, where ever it may be. > > Doug Williams > Twitter API Support > http://twitter.com/dougw > > > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 7:45 AM, Abraham Williams <4bra...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> I don't link the @ sign because 1) I don't like how it looks and 2) >> Twitter.com does not. >> >> >> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 09:21, Chad Etzel wrote: >> >>> >>> A more lighthearted discussion to see where people stand on this >>> convention. >>> >>> We all know the convention of prefixing usernames with the @ symbol, >>> the interesting thing I notice is that different sites (and even >>> within tiwtter's site itself) decide to link or not link the @ symbol >>> along with it. >>> >>> Main twitter site: is NOT linked >>> search.twitter.com: IS linked >>> new twitter integrated sidebar search: IS linked (i suppose this uses >>> the same code as search.twitter) >>> >>> TweetGrid: is NOT linked >>> Tweetie: IS linked >>> etc.. >>> >>> just curious how people decided which convention to use. >>> >>> From a visual perspective I prefer having the @ be plaintext since it >>> provides a nice visual difference looking at word, whereas normal >>> links are bounded by whitespace. This makes the usernames pop out (to >>> my eyes anyway). >>> >>> -Chad >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Abraham Williams | http://the.hackerconundrum.com >> Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham >> Web608 | Community Evangelist | http://web608.org >> This email is: [ ] blogable [x] ask first [ ] private. >> Sent from Madison, Wisconsin, United States > > > -- Abraham Williams | http://the.hackerconundrum.com Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham Web608 | Community Evangelist | http://web608.org This email is: [ ] blogable [x] ask first [ ] private. Sent from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
[twitter-dev] Re: To link the @ or not to link the @, that is the question
On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 7:21 AM, Chad Etzel wrote: > > A more lighthearted discussion to see where people stand on this > convention. > > We all know the convention of prefixing usernames with the @ symbol, > the interesting thing I notice is that different sites (and even > within tiwtter's site itself) decide to link or not link the @ symbol > along with it. Been thinking about this. Not linking the @ sign feels a bit like not linking "http://"; at the beginning of an automatically linked URL. On the other hand, @ is not a protocol, which might be an argument against linking it. But just as some clients automatically link URLs, some clients are already smart enough to create a link to Twitter if they see a word starting with @ and no space after it... though of course the protocol is still HTTP. It is sort of an extended protocol... tells the client the protocol plus the domain. Perhaps it helps to think about a tool that extracts the tagged text from links. Would it make sense to end up with text that omits the @ sign? Not really, so I favor including it. Nick
[twitter-dev] Re: To link the @ or not to link the @, that is the question
On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Nick Arnett wrote: > > Perhaps it helps to think about a tool that extracts the tagged text from > links. Would it make sense to end up with text that omits the @ sign? Not > really, I disagree. There's really nothing useful about the @ sign except to signify that you are referencing a username. The only meaningful way to use the data is to just use the text part (e.g. create a link to their twitter profile, or do a lookup in an app database, etc), so having to further remove the @ sign that a tool might hand me is a waste of cycles, imho. If you really want a username with an @ in front of it, it's trivial to tack it on the front. I can see your protocol argument, but in this case, it's not really a protocol but a convention signifier, and I think it's more aesthetically pleasing to have it unlinked (again, personal opinion). I wonder what drove this decision for the twitter UI team when they decided to link usernames on the main site? -Chad
