Need to learn a detail about Twitter

I get along with Twitter easonably well, although I am not the most frequent user. It sort of works.

The following Tweet confused me though:

Tweeps! When will you learn? If you start a message with @abcdef  it only goes to @abcdef  - not ALL your followers!!!

True? I thought otherwise. Because, if true that would make it a Direct Message, but those start with "d".

Whilst we're at it: ReTweets  start with RT or not always?

What are in Hootsuite socalled "Twitter Web retweets" ?

Anyone using the word 'tweeps' needs to be taken outside and slapped.

I think your right Michael

I believe the @ is still a general tweet and goes to everyone - You see this a lot in retweets

Its only when you drop the @ and use the D that it becomes a direct message

I have to say, and I don't mean to derail the thread, but I'm clueless with twitter really.  What is the best way to learn? 

It goes to all followers.

And Adam, what would you like to know amigo - I'm sure we can help turn you into a Twitter genius by at least next Tuesday

When you @ someone it will appear on your twitter page BUT won't appear in your followers timelines unless they are the follower @d.

When you DM someone (start the tweet with a D) it will only go the the follower DMd and won't appear appear on your twitter page.

Hootsuite refers to the "old style" retweet which started with a RT and the new style retweet which simply puts the message into your timeline, making it visible to your followers whether or not they follow the person who tweeted it.

Agreed with Rickles over the word Tweeps.

I don't know, this is the problem. I am consciously incompetent!!! 

I'm no Twitter expert, but can you not just stick a "." in-front of the @, or place the @ mid sentence, to ensure everyone sees it?

Pan Aveyard told me something about this - clearly I've forgotten. I will direct him to this thread. 

I understood that anything you tweet goes to all your followers, if they retweet it it goes out to their followers etc etc. I also thought that if you tweet directly to @another no on else sees it, which is untrue because I see every conversation I'm following have.

Still confusing???

Gareth exactly you can, if you put one character in front of the @ it will appear on everyone's timeline. Example here - https://twitter.com/BradBurton/status/232976501035892736

Hello Michael,

@abc is an @reply and will be seen by you and anyone else that follows both you and @abc

Hi @abc is a @mention and will be seen by @abd and all your followers, but not their followers. More people will see Hi @abc than @abc

Hope that helps.

Still confused:

1) All the Twitter gooroos are surprisingly quiet on this. Eh? They normally are out in no time once you say the T word. 
2) This discusson was triggered yesterday by @rachelelnaugh, and its still unclear to me if she's right or wrong.
3) The whole idea of Twitter always was about sending Tweets which will only be seen by your followers. And this is suddenly not anymore true (forget DM's for the moment)
4) who will read my timeline, apart from me, isn't this a useless "channel"? Don't we all use some dashboard (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck etc) For my sent Tweets I have a column, no good?
5) ReTweets are quotes from somebody else's Tweets. When I ReTweet, it is marked as such in eg Hootsuite, for reference who the orig Tweeter was. YES or NO? What makes them different to a Tweet like this:   "@somebody  blahblah blah"
6) Sorry I don't understand the diff between sending a char before a "-@somebody Tweet"  and another where I don't do this. Seems like trickery anyway and not really designed to work like that. 

And finally: Please speak/type slowly, I've already got enough grey hairs, don't make them fall out..........(I really thought it was only me being onto a small misunderstanding here, reading the responses the confusion is rather widespread)

Oh no it's not, far from it - a lot of people are confused about this subject. 

If you start with @joebloggs then that will only go to Joe Bloggs (and also the people that follow you and Joe Bloggs (mutual followers). For example:

@joebloggs How are you?

... will only go to Joe Bloggs and mutual followers.

. @joebloggs How are you?

... will go to everyone that follows you because you put a dot (.) at the beginning of the tweet

By not starting your post with the '@' it changes the status of the tweet from an '@reply' to a general post - which is visible to all.

..and one musn't forget the fact that irrevelant of where the '@ goes, it will be searchable and findable by anybody.  

Live, working examples are the only way to clarify the different statuses - but I unfortunately can't do that here...

Pan