It was so subtle, most people didn’t notice. Those who did complained at the top of their lungs. I for one, welcome the change and think it’s the first step in making Twitter more usable.
In case you don’t know, here is the deal. Until yesterday, when someone you follow, replied to anyone, you saw “@soandso this is probably a reply but you don’t know what to, so don’t you won’t get it.”
It was such a problem that a few sites crept up, like TweetConvo that you could paste the url to the Tweet into and it displays the entire conversation in a threaded fashion so you could figure out the context around the Tweet. It’s actually a pretty cool site that is most likely crushed by this development.
Personally I get it. I do understand that it will make it more difficult to find new people to follow based on who your friends talk to, but I am also part of the group that think people “Friend” way too many people as it is.
So as of now, on the web and in 3rd party apps like Tweet Deck, you will no longer see @replies unless you also follow the person being replied to. This should take major strain off the network and make your feed quite a bit cleaner to see. Even if you hate it, get used to it, it’s a change for the better. And tell your friends to #FollowFriday people that they think you should follow!
Tweet
I do understand that it will make it more difficult to find new people to follow based on who your friends talk to, but I am also part of the group that think people “Friend” way too many people as it is.