Twitter Lists Are Annoying
I just got access to Twitter Lists yesterday, and I could NOT believe that I had to not only add everyone one by one, but I couldn’t even type in the name quickly - I have to type in the name in the search box, search, then click on a drop-down menu to select the applicable list. Really? How about just go through your list and CLICK A BOX? But no, multi-adds aren’t possible and won’t be for a while. From Phil Bump’s excellent Twitter List FAQ:
The problem, right now, is that the API for the Lists feature isn’t quite done. According to Marcel Molina, an engineer on the Twitter API team, that API will be ready for developers to use sometime next week. At that point, look for an explosion of browser-based tools which will allow you to quickly and easily build lists in a more intuitive way.
Unfortunately, though, Molina also indicates that having the ability to batch update a list (that is, to add a number of users at a time) is under consideration, but not currently supported. This means that creating or editing a large list will continue to be a little pokey – though resourceful developers may find a way around this limitation.
So why launch this now? Twitter knows that the early beta testing group will happily plug away at making their new feature pop - because it’s COOL to be one of the Twitter chosen, like Ashton - and then that everyone else will follow suit, not only because they’ve heard the buzz but because it’s necessary to not falling behind (let’s inflate those follower counts, everyone!). I have no problem with rolling out a new feature and I have no problem with changing the way the game is played, but I do have a problem with doing so in a way that creates a time-consuming, burdensome process for your users. It’s antithetical to everything that made Twitter work so well in the first place.
