I wonder, back in the day, how many articles were written to explain Facebook and Twitter to people and convince them to use it? I am thinking that if someone has to write an article to explain a social network, it’s too complicated and will not draw lots of people. (Exhibit A: Google+)

@manton Not even that long ago! https://www.wired.com/2016/05/twitter-onboarding-tips-for-new-users/ (2016) https://www.lifewire.com/tutorial-intro-to-using-twitter-2654622 (2018)

@aaronpk Wow, you're right! (And I really need to fix HTML parsing from Webmentions. Sigh.)

@manton @frankm This conversation brings back memories when I first joined Twitter and for quite some time having no clue what to do, post or who to follow. I whished someone back then wrote a guide ;-)

@manton Me too! I spent a lot of time trying to convince businesses I work with and local organizations that it was important to get their names reserved too. The reputation at the time was that it was yuppies photographing their meals!

@frankm I did ‘Your 5-minute, 5-day orientation to Twitter' in 2012, & Blogging101 in 2001 (maybe 2002) - mistersugar.com/2012/05/2... - I talked much about social media in early days, sometimes feel guilty about it all.

@manton @frankm ABC News did a story on the evening news last year explaining how to use Snapchat (I think some of that is generational, but, still…).

Also, doing something on the open web is always going to be more “complicated” than a closed, limited silo (because you’re going to have choices and options), but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to try the open, web way, or that there shouldn’t be articles to help people out as they move from one thing to a similar-but-slightly-different thing. :-)

@manton Oooooooooo! My first bug to fix, perhaps? ;)