Monday, August 04, 2008

Follow Me Follow (We Are The Hollow Men)

BBC

The BBC is using Twitter to provide alternative links to its content. For example

See also

But there are also some twitter feeds that appear to be simple replicas of the BBC's existing RSS feeds, apparently all set up by a developer called Mario Menti.
For my part, I don't quite see why would anyone want to follow these via Twitter, when surely any Twittish gadget can follow the RSS feed directly?


The Magazine on Twitter

A link on the BBC website invites us to "Follow the Magazine in 140 characters or less via Twitter." As some readers have pointed out, the word "less" cannot refer to the 140 characters, because the correct word there would have been "fewer". [See BBC World Service: Learning English.] So it must either refer to the word "follow" or the word "magazine". In other words, following the magazine properly, or (via Twitter) less-than-following something less. So this must have been intended by the sub-editor as a sly dig at Twitter and the Twitterati.


Follow, Follow, Follow

HOST: Follow me, lads of peace; follow, follow, follow.

SHALLOW: Trust me, a mad host. Follow, gentlemen, follow.

ROBIN: I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man than follow him like a dwarf.

FALSTAFF: Follow your friend’s counsel.

PAGE: Follow him, gentlemen; see the issue of his search.

Shakespeare (Merry Wives of Windsor). See also Edward Vielmetti (Vacuum).

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