This article talks about how “old-style” non-API retweets are where it’s at, and that you shouldn’t use the new ones. I couldn’t object more.
While I get that you can’t add commentary when you do an API-retweet, I’d argue that not using them is rude:
- I can’t mute you if you RT too much, which I can with API retweets. (Good luck though in winning that meal in a mid-market chain restaurant)
- My stream gets ‘clogged’ if multiple people I follow RT the same thing; with the API RT, I only see it once
- That old-style RT you just did of a private account, thanks for ‘leaking’ that; new style RTs won’t let you RT something that’s private
- By the time 3 people have RT’d something the old way, the URL at the end is truncated and doesn’t go anywhere, and you can’t easily get back to the original tweet
Seriously, not using new style-RTs is just impolite, and if you’re impolite people are going to stop following you.