I realized recently why I’ve become so fond of Twitter. (Hint: See post title.) Now you might be thinking, “Internet Relay Chat? That’s all about talking, Twitter is about statuses and thought bubbles.” But that’s where you are multidimensionally wrong.
IRC is for chatting, not. First, old-school (non-mIRC) IRC users didn’t go to a channel to chat for the sake of chatting, they went to hang out and share the occasional interesting tidbit. On EFnet, my old hangout, popular channels were full of users but some publicly silent (lurkers), and many who only spoke once or twice a day. This was fine, and even highly desired by a lot of folks. That’s because true conversations were conducted in private whispers, and the public chat was reserved for PSAs. The key activity of IRC was reading the channel log: a treasure of distilled quips, shared news, links, and status changes. Yes, chat is a key component of the channel log. But IRC is a mostly timeless place, where patience and choice words are rewarded, and where noobish demands for verbal reciprocity will get you a swift kickban.
Status updates. On IRC there were lots of inventive ways to passively communicate. I’d change my nickname frequently based on status: kusanagi_away, kusanagi_shower, kusanagi_sleep. The “realname” field was also abused this way as well. Asking /whois kusanagi could get you “kusanagi is ~kusanagi@what.the.hell.is.a.blep.net (making breakfast)”. In addition, every time you left a channel, joined a channel, or flagged yourself /away was an opportunity for a descriptive update: “kusanagi is away (herding cats).”
But Twitter is one-way. Not really. People send a surprising number of direct messages and public replies. Also, Twitter mimics a moderated channel on IRC. While many can “listen,” only some are given a voice to converse with the speaker. Blocking a user is the Twitter equivalent of the kickban, albeit without the insult that usually accompanies it.
All in all, Twitter is really just a more civilized form of IRC for those who like it old-school. Ah but now I recall why I eventually left IRC. It was too damn addictive.
