If you want to be mean to someone anonymously, there are lots of ways to do this online, but few provide assurances that your target will actually see what you’ve said about them. So you risk wasting that nasty little witticism . . . unless the person is on Twitter, that is.

One can be fairly certain an @mention will be seen on Twitter – and appropriately sting (just like a passive-agressive blog comment)!

And yes, even when you’re tweeting to celebrities, they see them. Well, THESE celebrities do, at least.

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Twitter trolls give the microblogging platform a bad name. And even though more and more are facing consequences for this behavior, it’s little comfort to those dealing with it all the time – and it gives many potential users pause when considering joining the platform.

But here’s a story to make trolls think twice – at least when it comes to taunting boxers.

Now we all just need to learn how to box!

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Celebrity parodies are pretty hilarious. Mostly.

But what would you do if someone created a mean-spirited Twitter parody pretending to be you and posted all kinds of professionally damaging tweets? You could go through a lengthy court battle and would likely prevail in the end, but that’s pretty harassing in itself.

Fear not though, cyber-victim: there’s a bit of legislation pending in Arizona that seeks to make the prosecution process a whole lot easier – and the penalties steeper.

Some worry that ALL Twitter parodies will be jeopardy, but that really doesn’t seem to be the case.

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One of the ironies of Twitter is that when you start out you have more time to give to the people in your network. Why? Because it’s smaller. But because it’s small, you get less engagement. Less questions. Less demands on your time.

As your following grows, and especially when you breach your tipping point, you get more engagement. More questions. More demands. Subsequently, you have less time to give.

You have to prioritise. But how? And with whom?

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Twitter may be protecting our privacy from spying government eyes, but is it also allowing Twitter trolls to harass us?

The Daily Telegraph in Sydney thinks so and so does Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy after unsuccessfully requesting Twitter release the name(s) of Twitter trolls that have been harassing Rugby league star Robbie Farah. The Twitter troll was allegedly making offensive comments about Farah’s late mother – and the abuse has continued.

Well, they are not taking Twitter’s stance lightly and have started a “twitition” calling for Twitter to #StopTheTrolls.

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Ever get harassed by an anonymous troll on Twitter and wonder what it would take to figure out who it is?

Brian Cormier just found out. It takes approximately $7k.

But he’s fighting to get that money back – from his newly revealed ‘no-longer-anonymous’ friend.
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Everybody has an opinion.

This is a good thing. If we all agreed on all subjects, the world would be incredibly dull.

I share a lot of content on Twitter. Some of it is serious, some of it is funny, and some of it is good, old-fashioned weird. And while I’m not out to cause offense, I don’t shy away from sensitive issues, such as politics, religion and sex.

I don’t use Twitter for one-way broadcasting – I welcome and encourage your responses. I absolutely love it when somebody fires something back that actually makes me think about what I’ve just shared or said, and look at it from a completely different angle. Who doesn’t enjoy that?

Well, the unfortunate truth is… lots of people. Some folks evidently have a hard time with being exposed to a perspective or philosophy that differs from their own. In far too many of these cases, their immediate reaction is hostility. After which, my immediate reaction is to reach for the button marked ‘block’.

There’s a preferred way to share your opinion, and that’s politely. If I’ve been rude or obnoxious, then sure, go ahead and treat me the exact same way.

But if I’ve been good-natured and behaved in the manner to which you have become accustomed, then please respond in kind. And if you’re not familiar with the way I write or think, then take a moment to check out my timeline before leaping to assumptions.

After all, I might have been sharing a joke. Or I might have been deadly serious. But you’ll never know unless you do a little digging. And while I absolutely, positively don’t expect you to always agree with me, it would be nice if we could both agree to be civil.

It’s early Monday morning. You’re tired after a weekend that was long on thrills but short on recovery. You log on to Twitter, but you just don’t have the energy. What to do, what to do?

Fear not: here are ten things you can do on Twitter today – or any day – that will massively improve your experience on the network.

1. Help your friends understand how to use Twitter. Email them the link to my Twitter 101 tutorials, or if they’re already on Twitter, hook them up with tips to help newcomers hit the ground running.
2. Learn how to defend yourself from spammers, trolls and automated direct messages.
3. Understand why everybody needs a follow policy – eliminate those phony followers.
4. Want to get more retweets? Memorise your retweet number (and sharpen your pencil)!
5. Take a minute to fill in the description box on your Twitter lists – it really does make the feature significantly richer and lists with descriptions are going to attract more followers. (And yes – I mean all of your lists!)
6. Fight Club celebrated its 10^th anniversary earlier this week – find out what Tyler Durden can teach you about Twitter
7. Start a conversation with a total stranger – that’s what puts the social in ‘social media’.
8. Play around with the new retweet mechanism – while it’s not currently as good as the organic and original RT@ function, it’s here to stay, and will come with improvements in the future (including edits).
9. Take a Twitter poll! For example, how do you rate Twitter’s technical support? Would you pay $1 a month to access Twitter? How many celebrities to do you follow? What reasons do you need to block somebody? What kind of avatar do you like to see?
10. Having problems? Learn how you can submit a help ticket to Twitter.

BONUS: please, please, please – don’t be a metweeter.

What are you waiting for? Get stuck in!