Comments on: 8 Reasons to Fight Back Against Twitter Twits http://www.phillauterjung.com/8-reasons-to-fight-back-against-twitter-twits/ Conversations Re: Sales | Marketing | Social Media | Etc. Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:28:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Phil Lauterjung http://www.phillauterjung.com/8-reasons-to-fight-back-against-twitter-twits/comment-page-1/#comment-63 Phil Lauterjung Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:53:48 +0000 http://www.phillauterjung.com/?p=359#comment-63 Lucretia, Thank you for your sensitivity in pointing out a very important segment of tweeple. I apologize if I offended anyone. As with most "rules" we do need to be careful about being too rigid. This is not the first time, and probably not the last either, that I have had to rethink something. The part that gets me a little upset with myself about this is that I should have thought about it on my own. Our family has had a lot of experience in dealing with issues facing blind people through our daughter having raised six guide dog puppies during her teen years. Thanks again for the reminder Lucretia. Phil Lucretia,
Thank you for your sensitivity in pointing out a very important segment of tweeple. I apologize if I offended anyone. As with most “rules” we do need to be careful about being too rigid. This is not the first time, and probably not the last either, that I have had to rethink something. The part that gets me a little upset with myself about this is that I should have thought about it on my own. Our family has had a lot of experience in dealing with issues facing blind people through our daughter having raised six guide dog puppies during her teen years. Thanks again for the reminder Lucretia.

Phil

]]> By: Lucretia Pruitt http://www.phillauterjung.com/8-reasons-to-fight-back-against-twitter-twits/comment-page-1/#comment-62 Lucretia Pruitt Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:00:53 +0000 http://www.phillauterjung.com/?p=359#comment-62 Great article... but I felt compelled to comment on this one: 1. You don’t use a picture (also called an avatar) that tells me something about who you are. And not some cutesy (creative?) photo of a lion or whatever. The idea is for us to relate to each other and engage in conversation. You may not be aware that there is a large contingent of users on Twitter who are blind. There was a point in time in 2007 where I was followed by a couple of dozen folks with the 'default' twitter avatar who were clearly interesting, engaging, active twitterfolk they just didn't have any avatar. Upon asking one of them, it was explained to me that I had connected with a group of tweeple who use a software like JAWS to access twitter - as it's the conversation that is important. Why, if you cannot see a picture, would you put it as an important factor? Unfortunately, at the time, Twitter was not terribly "blind-friendly" and all of those little avatars were actually annoying as they were read by their picture name (useless info) before each tweet. There have been several folks who have developed Twitter clients for the blind and sight-impaired - but even so, no one will be able to develop a rationale for why someone who is unsighted "must" have an avatar in order for people not to unfollow them. Just FYI - you may want to rethink that one. Great article… but I felt compelled to comment on this one:

1. You don’t use a picture (also called an avatar) that tells me something about who you are. And not some cutesy (creative?) photo of a lion or whatever. The idea is for us to relate to each other and engage in conversation.

You may not be aware that there is a large contingent of users on Twitter who are blind. There was a point in time in 2007 where I was followed by a couple of dozen folks with the ‘default’ twitter avatar who were clearly interesting, engaging, active twitterfolk they just didn’t have any avatar. Upon asking one of them, it was explained to me that I had connected with a group of tweeple who use a software like JAWS to access twitter – as it’s the conversation that is important. Why, if you cannot see a picture, would you put it as an important factor? Unfortunately, at the time, Twitter was not terribly “blind-friendly” and all of those little avatars were actually annoying as they were read by their picture name (useless info) before each tweet.

There have been several folks who have developed Twitter clients for the blind and sight-impaired – but even so, no one will be able to develop a rationale for why someone who is unsighted “must” have an avatar in order for people not to unfollow them.

Just FYI – you may want to rethink that one.

]]>