InsaneJournal

Twitterfox + Brief
(the easy guide to following #hashtags)

** If you're already using a shmancy twitter add-on for Firefox that collects #hashtags for you, please comment since that would make my life easier**

INTRO: WHAT IS A #HASHTAG

#hashtags are used on twitter to collect up tweets from people who are talking about a specific topic and want other people to see and respond. (Please note if you have protected your tweets that your #hashtags will not be visible to the public at large so that renders the use of them mostly useless)

One great example of the use of #hashtags is in TRENDING TOPICS -- which shows you what people are talking about at any given point in time. The #hashtag (example #stoptheviolence) shows a trending topic (something popular that's being discussed on twitter) that is an open forum. What I mean by this is while a lot of the time you might be talking about something popular (like Kanye sucking), it isn't something that you necessarily want strangers messaging you about.

Sometimes it can be weird to have a random person going @embeast yeah I agree roommates suck! when that wasn't really intended for "public" discussion (yeah everything you say on twitter is public, but there's public and public). Adding a #hashtag (#roommatessuck) tells people that you're contributing to a site-wide discussion/topic and that it's okay to @ you about it. That isn't to say everyone follows these rules, but it is generally accepted etiquette. This is why I only get an RSS feed of #hashtags, because I don't want to message strangers about things they aren't contributing to a super public discussion.

One of the ways to look for #hashtags is to add it to your SAVED SEARCHES -- as you can see I have #blurredlines and #bpal added to mine. This way I can click on #bpal and see what people are talking about with regards to bpal. This will show all the tweets by anyone with #bpal added to their tweets. Cool!

However, I don't use the site that often, and I'd much rather have an easier way to access my tweets and #hashtag discussions than having to login to the site and click on my saved searches (yeah, I'm that lazy). If you're lazy, too, here is how to save yourself some time:

Installing an RSS feed for your Hashtags

1) OPTIONAL

Install the twitter add-on of your choice (This isn't necessary, but if you're too lazy to go to the site to check your tweets, you might as well have an in-browser client).

I use twitterfox (now called echofon or something) on both my iphone and firefox : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081

It shows up on your status bar as a little blue T with a number next to it, and when you click, bam, there are your tweets, @s and direct messages. It's resizable so it can be as intrusive or unintrusive as you want, and it pops back down on another click. You can use whatever you want, it has no impact on your #hashtag reading.

2) Install Brief: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4578

I went through about 20 RSS feeders and this is the only one simple enough for what I wanted. If you want something with lots of bells and whistles and organising crap, this is not for you. This lets me read and store the #hashtags of my choice without any fuss.

3) Do a #hashtag search (type in the tag of your choice and hit enter -- the results will come up on the left)

4) Click the RSS feed for that query

5) You'll see a page that looks like this:

6) Click SUBSCRIBE NOW

7) View extended bookmarks

8) Select bookmarks menu and hit new folder

9) Name it something (like FEEDS) and hit subscribe

10) Click the little radio thing in your status bar (see highlight) and this page will pop up:

11) Choose bookmarks menu --> FEEDS and hit OK

12) Click the headlines view button
(the way tweets are set up there's no reason to view it another way)

13) Bam, you now have an RSS feed for your BPALs.
You can now click your RSS icon to open or close your RSS feed

14) This is what the page looks like when you have unread hashtags

15. Three key features:

MARK ALL AS READ BUTTON
VIEW ENTIRE TWEET BUTTON
HEADLINE

MARK ALL AS READ BUTTON
--> Will mark everything as read so it doesn't show up and clutter your space. To make them show up, select the actual folder rather than the unread folder.

VIEW ENTIRE TWEET BUTTON

CLICKING THE HEADLINE WILL TAKE YOU TO THE ACTUAL TWEET

16) Other stuff you'll want to do:

TOOLS --> ADD-ONS --> BRIEF --> OPTIONS

These are my settings; the most important one is in blue