IMPORTANT NOTE: @Twitter co-founder Evan Williams recently posted that something in this "article is wrong." He offered no details in his Tweet (and may have been talking about the backstory article I reference herein, and not this post itself).
This article was distilled from not less than three tech articles on the subject, and several tests, but if something is wrong, I am only too willing to fix it, if Evan, or anyone else clarifies just what is wrong with it--if anything. The purpose of this article was not to explain all the nuances of the issue, or their motives in making the change. Merely what people could do in the short term to ensure their tweets were seen by all of their followers. Until I am shown otherwise, I will assume the procedures suggested herein will work more or less as advertised, but please follow me for changes, when they are made.
UPDATE1: Twitter Blog posts this update. Not sure if it really makes a material difference yet.
http://blog.twitter.com/2009/05/replies-kerfuffle.html
UPDATE2: The new Twitter explanation above doesn't seem to say much new, but merely rephrases how all of this happened. The one detail I never explained in this article (because it really wasn't relevant to correcting the problem), was that according to Twittter, 97% of you never enabled the "see all replies" option in the first place. And that option has now been removed altogether, which is the action that caused what Twitter caused "this Kerfluffle" in the first place. What this means is that most of you were never seeing "all replies" anyway, but you just didn't realize it. In some ways, that's almost more unfathomable, given the nature of expectations that Twitter sets up for its users. Most users assume they are seeing ANYTHING their friends are saying, unless it's a Direct Message.
Bottom Line: Despite origins, and explanations, the conditions discussed below are still substantially true. If you want your replies to be seen by all of your followers, even if they don't follow the person you are replying to, then follow the instructions herein.
HOWEVER: AUTHOR URGES YOU TO PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. While many people have reviewed this content, and we all believe it to be accurate, this problem is so convoluted, and explanations so confusing, that only some real Twitter documenation will clear it up. Until then, some of us find this workaround solves a problem many people never knew they had.
For recent updates on this issue, follow twitter.com/shoq
Background
For reasons known only to Twitter, their handling off @replynames is in transition from something most people understood, to a new and convoluted process that has confused almost everyone.
If you really need to real the whole weird backstory, as written by geeks who will confuse you with pointless jargon and concepts you have no use for, just start here: http://bit.ly/3cVkA. And then if you have courage, see Twitter's blog post presuming to clear things up (kinda, sorta) here replies-kerfuffle.
If, however, you're a normal person who enjoys simple language, and because all of this will probably change before you've digested this page, then...
as of right now, all you really need to know is this:
Twitter has changed how @replies are handled. By default, when you click any kind of "reply" button (on the Twitter web site, in Tweetdeck, and in some other client program), your tweet will only be seen by the person that you @replied to, and only those of your followers who also already follow that person. This really upsets many of us who want--or need--to discover new people by watching who our friends engage by @replying to them.
To Illustrate: Should @whitehouse reply to @northkorea with a message like "We're invading your weird little country at dawn," the only people who will see that reply are @northkorea and anyone following that name. Thus, even though you follow @whitehouse, you could miss their reply message if you never knew there was a @northkorea to follow in the first place.
See the problem? This new and confusing policy removes the wonderful transparency that made Twitter a great place to discover people and ideas, and it's completely contrary to the spirit of most forms of social networking. Twitter has suggested they will find a way to fix this.
But until they do, here is a very-less-than-ideal...
Workaround
If you want your followers to see your reply to someone, even if they don't follow that person:
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USING ANY REPLY BUTTON: Just use the button to copy the name into the input box. But train yourself to add a period or exclamation point in front of the @reply name. It's really annoying to have to do, and it uses up one more precious character, but after a few times, it becomes a habit.
Example:
!@shoqsmom Because I placed an exclamation point before your @name, all of my followers
will see this tweet, even if they don't follow you.
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NOTE1: While this makes it easy to reply, and forces the tweet to all your followers, the tweet will NOT be threaded (as discussed above).
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NOTE2: Simply prepending "RT" to front of your tweets has the same effect as an exclamation point. It will be seen by all of your followers--assuming you actually wanted to retweet (copy).
If you only want those also following a @name to see your reply to them, simply use any standard Reply button function.
If you want to sign a formal petition about this, here's one. (There are others.)
For News and Updates On The Issue
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Follow Twitter's blog for the latest smoke screens, reversals, or policy changes at http://blog.twitter.com/
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Follow the #fixreplies hashtag for tweets from all the Twittervillians who want this problem fixed..NOW.
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