I use my computer and cellphone.
I use my personal computer to participate but keep my cell open on my Twitter page to locate stragglers or tweets from those forgetting the genchat hashtag or just struggling to follow; as well as DMs 😉
There are a number venues that aid in making the Twitter chatroom experience enjoyable: tchatio, tweetchat, hootsuite, tweetdeck, nurph (obsolete) and possibly one or two more I’m forgetting.
As #GenChat is THIS Friday, I will explain TweetChat in this segment today and post the other venues (HOPEFULLY written by other popular patrons of Treeverne) leading up to the few #GenChat Fridays.
To participate you need a Twitter name. It starts with “@”
It costs nothing to register, you just need to be certain that no one else is using the name that you want.
Once you have your name, you need to find a chat programme that you like. Experiment with them all, and discover which one meets your needs.
TweetChat is my favourite. It is an online service that is very simple to use.
To start, type “#genchat” in the text box.
Next comes the authourization screen …
Then the genchat room opens and you have the option to login or just follow along.
If you login, TweetChat can add the hashtag #genchat automatically to your tweets.
Participants’ tweets
A large text window occupies the upper half. A counter winds down from 140.
Under the text window are three buttons: remember “Room Settings” (It is your friend!)
In Room Settings, you can simplify following along in #genchat
(This is what I do):
Highlight (although the button is green) makes orange bars before and after each person you choose. I use this to find @geneapleau and @_genchat and whomever else is leading the discussion.
This is also VERY HELPFUL when trying to locate Questions! (The only time it is not, is when patrons respond to Qs with Qs, forgetting to change their reply to an A (Answer) 😛 [Oh, I know there can’t be any such people at Treeverne!].
Haven’t had to use”block user.” NEXT!
Hide re-tweets. IF the conversation is very heavy, have come close, but not yet.
Disable Buffer. Self explanatory, no?
But, there is one segment not shown: conversation recognition. If a fellow participant addresses you, the border highlights appear in blue.
Now, replies, re-tweets, and favourites are also possible with a simple click in the bottom right of each tweet.
And all this fun is 90minus: 30mins in #Treeveene for Meet N Greet which leads into an hour of #genchat
It’s fast. It’s fun. Do you think you can keep up?
SLR
2018 update: tchatio and nurph seem to have disappeared, tweetchat is tempermental, leaving hootsuite and tweetdeck to take the brunt of our heavy conversations.