Opine Vine

Often people create products or services to solve problems that they have themselves. So, I’ve made a thing.

The problem that I hope to solve needs a little context. I’m a big fan of twitter, and I talk a fair bit on it. To friends who I know already, and to complete strangers. One of the best things about twitter is that it lets me have conversations and debates around topics which I otherwise wouldn’t discuss with any number of different people. Twitter is excellent at sparking and cultivating a discourse because it allows anybody to instantly reply to anything that I write (and, of course, for me to do the same).

However, there are two ways in which Twitter can be lacking with respect to long, back and forth conversations, especially between several different people. Neither are actually flaws in Twitter, because both are inherent in its short-form, 140 character nature. This is exactly what makes Twitter so good for starting debates like this, but – like I say – creates two problems when they develop. Firstly, Twitter’s 140 character limit means that details and elaborations must be spread out across several tweets. This is particularly true considering that a conversation on Twitter means at least one username included in the tweet, so space is further limited. This means either that detailed points and arguments must be over-simplifed, or that they are difficult to follow over several, disjointed parts. This leads to the second problem, which is that these split-up tweets – perhaps even between several people – mean that there is no normal discourse, which progresses normally. Often counterarguments appear to one point before you can deal with the next!

What are the current solutions?

Well, I want to say that there aren’t any suitable ones. On Twitter, you can split your tweets up, address them carefully, attempt to guide the conversation selectively, or attempt to keep conversations with different people separate. Alternatively, you can attempt to elaborate your point elsewhere, like on your own blog. Or take the conversation to another service, like Facebook. Of course, this only creates friction and so slows down any conversation. A good solution, therefore, should allow people to quickly and easily create a place for just their conversation, where anyone involved can contribute immediately and without having to setup new accounts anywhere. It should allow enough space for proper elaboration and detail, with clear structure showing how replies and posts relate to each other. It should be publicly viewable and easy to contribute to, because this is perhaps the greatest strength of debates on Twitter. It should probably offer a way to link back to twitter, to bring people into the debate in the way that Twitter is so successful.

What can I do with Opine Vine?

Opine Vine is my solution to this problem, as I see it and as I have described. You can create a place for just your discussion (I’m calling it a Vine) by giving your debate a title and a short description – maybe the tweet that started it off? Or the description could be your way of starting the discussion, with your viewpoint. Others can then respond to your Vine with or without a Twitter account, though using one lets you quickly tweet part of your reply to others.

It’s currently a very basic, though hopefully functional, website. It currently looks very basic, but ought to do what I’ve described. There might be some other uses for it, too. For example, by putting a quote or link in the description, you could quickly create a place for comments on anything, which might be useful.

I’m going to be trying it out, and I hope that you might find it useful too. If you do, let me know any thoughts over on twitter. I look forward to the next twitter debate.