Those who follow me on Twitter know that I’m pretty demanding about the software I use. If people mess with me, and change it up on me in ways that make me unhappy or much less productive *cough* Xcode *cough*, I’ll express myself strongly.
It turns out the only option for me right now is Tweetdeck, and it’s hanging on by a thread. Here’s why.
A: Multiple accounts are to be supported seamlessly. I use two personal accounts (@PresJPolk is my main personal account, but I also have @PresJPolkSDA for my activities in the video game speed running community), one business account (@StevensMediaLLC), one website account (@UnlikelyVoter), plus a client’s account. The two personal accounts I should be able to have simultaneous, easy access to, in particular.
B: Many separate lists/columns should be viewable simultaneously. I want to be able to watch my interactions for both personal accounts (see above), as well as a number of small, narrowly tailored lists I’ve created: Anime, Video Games, SDA, Friends, Polling, Tech, Transit, Humor. That’s 10 columns, folks. I want to see them all, across two separate accounts, at the same time. I’ll also want occasional access to those website and business accounts’ interactions
C: New RTs are not to be shown. I don’t want to see them. The use of small, tailored lists (see above) is the only way I can enjoy Twitter. I find myself getting bored if I see a list of blah blah blah from people I’ve never heard of or never wanted to follow to begin with (which includes politicians, whom I very rarely follow). I don’t want to have to turn them off for every person I ever follow or watch on a list, either. That’s not practical.
So, having seen my needs, how am I being failed? The Twitter website fails on A, B, and C. Twitter for Mac fails on C, and makes B difficult by failing to remember what I was up to. Tweetbot fails on B (columns won’t narrow) and C. Tweetdeck is having issues with B, as it’s got a cap of 9 columns on a 27″ display, regardless of font size. Twitterrific seems to fail on A, B, and C. Janetter fails on C.
As a result, I’m using Tweetdeck for now, and having to scroll (which is so terrible) to see @PresJPolkSDA interactions, which I can tolerate for now as they are not common. But seriously, why is this so hard? Oh right, it’s because Twitter went to war on third party clients, and has been working hard to ram new RTs down our throats.
My theory on this is that the goal is to put ads seamlessly in our feeds, and the clutter and confusion of new RTs make that easier to get away with in the long run.
I really wanted to like Tweetbot, too…