A short thread about Retweeting (RT), Quote Tweeting (QT), replying etc. Very short. Really. They’re all useful tools, but in different ways. Twitter have taken the decision to try to encourage QTing and discourage RTing, apparently to encourage debate. 1/n

...and it *can* sometimes encourage debate, as it means people are more likely to give their two-penny-worth in a conversation. However, it has a bigger effect than that. It can distract from the original tweet, and it can ‘take credit’ from the original tweeter. 2/n

By that I mean, people may focus on your comment, and reply to you, rather than focussing on the original tweet, and replying to the original tweeter. Now, for someone like me - a deeply privileged white, educated, middle-class blue-tick Englishman, that’s not a good thing. 3/n

I would often prefer to do a simple RT to avoid inserting myself into a conversation or sharing the credit from someone else who deserves it much more. Discouraging simple RTs is sometime in effect emphasising privilege and power, which is not a good thing. 4/n

Sometimes the opposite is the case. Sometimes I very much *do* want to QT, because I think my point of view helps, or because I want to make it clear that I don’t agree with what the original tweeter says. Or, when I’m trolling (*and we all troll, to an extent*)..... 5/n

....and I want to draw more of my followers into a conversation. The motivations for that may be good or may be bad - but it’s a very common technique on Twitter. Twitter is supporting this way of tweeting, and it’s something that only works if you have many followers. 6/n

Sometimes, I don’t want to RT or QT - instead I reply, which means only people who follow both me and the original tweeter will automatically see the tweet. That’s for a tighter conversation. Sometimes I screenshot and tweet, so that only my followers see it. 7/n

...and sometimes I *subtweet*, not even mentioning the original tweeter. When I do that, I do it for a reason - and don’t want to be ‘snitch-tagged’, alerting the person I’m tweeting about! That’s also valid, if a bit sneaky. 9/n

Dammit, I got my counting wrong! There’s no 8/10!. All these tactics are valid, all can be used well or badly. I’m not a fan of Twitter’s shift, though it probably helps me. I don’t think it helps conversation and I do think it encourages dog-piles and other trolling. 10/10