As you may (or may not) have realized, I am responsible for publishing the Daily Twitter post, which is why my name is on the byline. Scott Jennings does the yoeman’s work of maintaining the Twitter feed and keeping it current by following all the right people.
We started the daily post just two weeks ago, and I had expected it to be a low-volume addition to Hogs Haven that would generate only minimal interest, but I thought there was some merit in having a couple of live feeds available all the time on the website.
Although the intended posting time was midnight each day, we launched the inaugural post a half-day early to capture the many heartfelt tweets that went out to acknowledge the sudden and unexpected passing of Rich Tandler. There was a flurry of comments from people expressing their feelings about the news of his death.
Over the few days that followed, the Daily Twitter was very much what I expected — around 200 to 300 hits per day, and usually no more than a stray comment or two.
But this past week the traffic started to build: 500, 600, 800 hits per day, and some days saw a smattering of comments. On the 29th, the comments picked up dramatically, with about two dozen of them posted. The following day, I was surprised when the hit counter went past 1,100 hits for the day. In retrospect, I’m guessing that people were looking for reports as the trade deadline approached.
When the news about Ha Ha Clinton Dix broke on the trade deadline, I once again pulled the trigger early, putting the Daily Twitter up just past 8:30 p.m. to try to capture the Twitter flood that accompanied the trade. That comment string ran up to 5 dozen comments and the post blew past 2,000 hits in less than a full day.
A day later, the post dropped back to where I expected it to be all the time, with just three or four hundred hits for the day, and just a handful of comments.
So, now I’m wondering what readers think of the Daily Twitter feature.
Do you like it?
Do you use it?
And if you do use it, how do you use it? Do you focus on the national writers or the beat writers? Do you focus on scrolling through the live feed, or do you prefer to look down below where a number of tweets have been copied and pasted to form a bit of an archive?
For the “archive” of tweets pasted at the bottom, is it useful or irritating? Is it too much, or just enough?
I try to keep this post distinct from the Daily Slop by focusing on a lot of video breakdowns, PFF grades, and witty comments, as well as including articles and interesting items about other NFL teams and players, not just Redskins. Does this work for you, or would you like to see the mix different than it is?
Basically, this feature seems to be more popular than I expected it would be, and I’d like to understand what works for you and what doesn’t so I can try to make it more responsive to the readers’ needs.
Please fill up the comments below.
Poll
Rate the Daily Twitter feature (5 = best, 0 = worst)
This poll is closed
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43%
5
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33%
4
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17%
3
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3%
2
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2%
1
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0%
0