I think @ev just broke ReTweeting

I’ll start by telling you that I don’t like ReTweets. I’ve never liked the way that they behave because it seems like there are just groups of people out there that RT, and I end up with a mush-mash of the same tweet over and over.

I like the concept of course… spreading the word… but the RT tag just makes me shiver. I wanted people who were passing me the word to give me their own spin, their own take … some kind of unique content to go along with the same post.

So – you can imagine I was excited when I learned that Twitter was revamping how it all works…

Excited, until I read how it was done and I am thinking that they just broke it.

In case you missed the announcement, (http://evhead.com/2009/11/why-retweet-works-way-it-does.html), it is a really interesting read and something that you should definitely read prior to judging their efforts.

For the record – their efforts, in my opinion, are very well thought out and I personally agree with their philosophy to improve it …… except for this one point which is a deal-breaker.

The “Attribution” problem that they mention, (Go read it…) attempts to change the way that a RT looks so that the original tweeter shows up in your timeline.

Problem: I don’t know the original tweeter.

The reason RT is powerful is probably 99% based on the fact that we see a TRUSTED person in our followers, telling us about content that they find interesting. I may have even started following that person because they were good at RTing.

Seeing some random photo show up is a total fail. Avatar recognition is critical, and by throwing in a random avatar instead of the one that we trust… I think they’ve broken the power of the RT.