Over/Under: 3 Months before clutch bans twitter as a source for NBA news? Personally, I hate Twitter. I think it's great for networking, but not news. There are hundreds of fake myspaces and facebooks, and even the real ones are rarely managed by the person in question anyways. Twitter makes it easier to make these fake sources and harder for people to debunk them. At least with Facebook a person can post a picture with them and a note somewhat confirming that their facebook is real. Plus, Zuckerberg and staff are really good at policing that stuff. I think with all these factors, Twitter should be seen in the same vein as realGM or hoopsworld.
Previous discussion found on "Clutchfans.net Feedback" forum. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=171309 As I said in that thread, only allow Twitter for confirmed accounts of journalists. A player's Twitter holds no value since they cannot be reprimanded for giving false info. Journalists, on the other hand, have to keep their journalistic integrity up and will not post random news. Twitter can be useful, but it has to be limited to trusted sources.
I saw it there 5 secs after I posted this, haha. Either way, I think it's interesting to guess when Twitter will be done on this board.
I don't think Twitter will ever be done on this board, nor should it. It's a tremendous source for news and an incredible way to get perspectives and newsbreaks from sources (players) we never could before. For example, Kevin Love broke the news on Twitter about Kevin McHale. Pete Carroll broke the news on Twitter about USC's new men's basketball coach. Those are two major announcements I've seen in just the past month, and neither were from journalists. The flaw isn't in Twitter -- the flaw is in kids who don't take the time to see whether a Twitter account is legitimate and people who apparently lack the ability to understand sarcasm.
Also, Ron's twitter on the night of July 1 was definitely him and turned out to be dead on. As I said at the time, the "denial" from his agent in the Chronicle and his rant against "this damned social media" was nothing more than him freaking out over potentially losing the Rockets as leverage since Ron went public with that tweet before the agent could stop him. That's another successful example of Twitter as a source.
Im not real sure you want to cite that incident as a "successful" use of twitter. I seem to recall there were several things Ron posted that was TOTAL and COMPLETE BS...he was doing it just to jack with people. Ordinarily I would be ok with messing with people's heads....but every single one of those spurred a half dozen threads that had to be locked or merged. this is an issue that has to be discussed as far as it being a reliable source. Until then, status quo rules.
How many reports sourced from Twitter and posted here have been false? A handful? People who don't use it are the ones missing the point and making this false assumption. Bucher, Hollinger, Wojwhatever from Yahoo, even Morey and Clutch have all broke news primarily through Twitter. Draft night was a perfect example of Twitter being the quickest way for these people to get the news out. Most people around here have figured out which are legit or not. Most of the breaking news recently posted in the GARM are by way of Twitter now.
Don't underestimate the power of Twitter. The people who don't believe it's a legitimate way and one of the fastest ways to get news, have never used it. Try it out and then make your opinion.
Again, though, it's common sense. The part about saying goodbye to Houston was entirely legitimate, and that was the only part it was logical to take seriously. Thus, it's successful. As for the others: No offense, but if you can't tell those are jokes, I'm thinking you have to be about 12. I am sympathetic to those of you who are mods, and I'm sure it gets annoying... but I don't think it would be right to ban a very legitimate news source because a few kids can't tell incredibly obvious jokes. Sometimes players are going to tell the truth on there, and sometimes it's going to be over the top, sarcastic BS -- you're right on that. But from my experience, 99.99999% percent of the time, you can differentiate between the two in about two seconds, if you use common sense. Likewise, if you're not sure if a certain account (the fake Ron one, Real_Ron_Artest) is legitimate, you can run a quick Google search, and within about 10 seconds you can usually find the answer. I really am symphathetic to those of you who are mods, I'm sure it gets old in a hurry... but as a news source in general, it's reliable if you use common sense.
I think this is the main problem with Twitter. Anyone can easily create a fake account as a player and "report" false news. Since people are so inclined to be the FIRST ONE TO BREAK THE NEWS, once they see it, they automatically post it to get the glory instead of doing their homework. I've seen it happen a few times on the GARM, that's why I think Twitter should be allowed under certain limitations (ie only accounts linked to a journalist).
Just about back from a very long vacation... so long that the Rockets were actually NBA contenders when it first started. - CLUTCH hahaha, I was wondering where he went.
Actual reporters are using twitter as well. The problem isn't twitter, it's the huge amount of twits on this board who fall for every hoax immediately.
Sure, anyone can do that. But they aren't going to get many followers, and without followers, whatever they post on twitter will not get out to many people. The fake ones are usually pretty obvious and called out pretty fast. Plus, they have a website somewhere which lists all the real twitters of celebrities.
I think it would be much more effective and better for the board to discipline those posters (take away their thread-starting privileges for a while, for example) for being lazy than it would be to ban Twitter, which is an incredibly informative site when used correctly. I am a journalist, and I use it quite frequently to keep up with players and people in the news, and it's great for that purpose. You just have to use common sense. When Ron's verified Twitter says he's leaving Houston, that's very potentially news (and it was). When Ron's verified Twitter says he's signing a deal with the Brooklyn Dodgers, that's sarcasm. When real_ron_artest says something, that's obviously fake if you take 10 seconds to do a Google search. It's not difficult. Besides disciplining posters, the only thing I'd add is perhaps Sticky a thread where we can post verified player/coach Twitters, and posters could then use that to decipher between real and fake accounts. I'd be willing to help the mods with compiling that list. But I think all of these options are preferable to some kind of ban, which would really be a hindrance/delay on the news content here.
