How to cite Twitter posts in APA style

While fishing outside Stromgarde Keep this evening I was also Bloglining... as one does ;-D

But the funny thing is I was almost tempted to stop fishing by John Dupuis' question:

Confessions of a Science Librarian: Clay Shirky on Web vs. Print via kwout

Perhaps it is even funnier that I didn't stop fishing? Still the realm went down for maintenance so I'm up late now because I simply must puzzle towards an answer, even if just for myself, or else BURST :P

Well an answer about citing Twitter posts, not about doing it with Zotero or Endnote - are they better at such things than Refworks?

At first I thought Tweets are just short blog posts, and I've described how I would cite blogposts in APA style. To save you jumping back, this was somewhat my conclusion:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (2000, Jan 27). Title of post. Title of Blog. Retrieved month day, year, from source post specific URL.

... however I wonder:

• what is a tweet's title?
• what is the 'blog' title?
• I already know I can get the URL of a specific tweet but
• what about when the cited post (cheats) actually spans several tweets? such as the 4 part Twitter message that John cobbled together for his readers but which I can show with a kwout maybe:

Clay Shirky (cshirky) on Twitter via kwout

So what I know first, considering only an individual tweet:

Stable URL: each Tweet is followed (usually?/always? in italics) by when and from where it was posted... and the when is a hyperlink to the stable URL. In the following kwouted example, hover over the time/date (now this is odd, does it say 6:00 AM Mar 20th for you?) to see the tweet's URL is http://twitter.com/dupuisj/status/1356028444

Twitter / John Dupuis: Ref Q: I'm a 1st yr and lo ... via kwout

sometimes the when is relative...(I wonder whether this will appear different when today is over?... I think it will, when I cut it the when read about 18 hours ago)...

Twitter / MrTom: Twitter will get you fired ... via kwout

What do you think of Kwout's answer to the title question? Beads suggests the same: That the title of a HTML web page can be taken from the <TITLE> element of that page (which displays in the browser's Title Bar).

However, do you note that the <TITLE> Twitter creates (and Kwout uses) for an individual post begins "Twitter / authorname:" and continues with, logically, the first few words of the post ? If we use that as the individual post title and consider the collection of an author's tweets to be the blog/periodical that Twitter <TITLE>s, for example: John Dupuis (dupuisj) on Twitter ? Then citing Twitter posts as if from a blog would result in a cumbersome reference like:

Dupuis, J. (Mar. 19, 2009). Twitter / John Dupuis: Ref Q: I'm a 1st yr and lo ... John Dupuis (dupuisj) on Twitter. Retrieved Mar. 24, 2009 from http://twitter.com/dupuisj/status/1356028444

So

Perhaps <TITLE> serves multiple functions and different ones for different websites? [Can someone send some examples?]. In this case Twitter's <TITLE> for an individual post appears to combine a post title sensibly taken from the first few words of the post with a reasonable periodical title? Thus:

Mr Tom. (Mar. 24, 2009). Twitter will get you fired ... Twitter / MrTom Retrieved March 24, 2009 from http://twitter.com/MrTom/status/1377448350

OR

if one is really stuck on using <TITLE> as it is given one might treat the individual tweet as an individual web document? and thus simply:

Dupuis, J. (Mar. 19, 2009). Twitter / John Dupuis: Ref Q: I'm a 1st yr and lo ... Retrieved Mar. 24, 2009 from http://twitter.com/dupuisj/status/1356028444

What do you think?

Still I doubt either of those questions in any way stumped John. His question I am guessing is "how do you cite a Twitter message that spans multiple tweets?" and I think my puzzling on this should become a new post ...



but what was she saying?