Please add new sightings of Microsyntax, below:

Ev Williams suggested on Twitter (5 June 2009) that tweeple in SF could direct of-local-interest posts to @SF. Not clear if this is a recommended generalized practice, or not.

Retweeting is a common or known phenomenon using RT coupled with a username to cite the source of a quote.

"Via username" is an alternative to retweeting and indicates a modification of the original tweet, but provides credit to the source.

Stocktwits use of '$' and '$$' for stock tickers and general messages.

Cotweet CoTag '^' as a convention for identity for corporate Twittering.

Geoslash or /location, a geolocational microsyntax suggested by Stowe Boyd.

Whispers, using '!' as a way to indicate messages should be directed to your 'inner circle', suggested by Chris Messina.

Laconica uses '@#' to send a notice to everyone that a user previously tagged them with. Similar to Whispers.

Laconica uses '!' to address to a group which has subscribed members (users).

Microrevie.ws, uses ';' to delimit somethign being reviewed from the comment about it. Also proposed 1-5 '*' as a rating

Dopplr uses natural syntax to recognive travel plans, requiring no specific microsyntactic punctuation, but requiring the careful use of prepositions like 'to' 'on' 'to' and so on. This comes in three forms:

1. A trip to Helsinki on May 19 to May 23
2. At SFO on September 9th. Leaving on September 20th
3. I'm going to Austin on July 15 for 3 nights

Peqipedia is a wikipedia-like project where all the entries are 140 characters or less. Entries are defined in Twitter by messaging to @peqi, and the '=' sign connects the defined term (left) with a definition (right), like '@peqi Talinn=the capital of [[Estonia]].' The double brackets indicate that 'Estonia' is another entry, and a link should be created.

The BBC have been using location formats like "l:Tambulbunia, Bangladesh=22.27722,89.71905" to encode a placename and its coordinates. (this is as promoted by twitmap)

Data Collection

Twitterdata, a generalized model for embedding data in Twitter with type indicated by a leading '$', proposed by Todd Fast and Jiri Kopsa

RapidSMS (and here) collects data via SMS messages. It's used by UNICEF and other groups for humanitarian and development projects. The default format for a data entry about item of type ITEM_TYPE reported from pre-defined location LOC_CODE is a message "ITEM_TYPE LOC_CODE val1 val2 val3 val4"

Other systems prototyped (reference needed) used a SMS data collection system using the format "FORM_NAME 1.val1 2.val2" with semantics for querying the data tables.

Donating money as part of RT

TipJoy "p @ev $1 because twitter is fun" is used to pay $1 to @ev. Different keywords ("p", "pay", "give", etc.) are allowed as long as the keyword username and amount are the first 3 works in the Tweet. Note also the keyword RTip . Note that Tipjoy requires the user twitting this to follow Tipjoy (to be followed back). See TipJoy microsyntax for details.

Twollars inserts the number of Twollars given as part of the RT between "RT" and "@...". For instance: "RT 2 Tw @giyom". Note that this requires the keyword Tw or Twollars to work, since Twollars.com does not require a user who gifts Twollars to be followed by Twollars.com.

Plane Flights

Noticed @cdibona used this syntax to describe United Airlines flight 852 from NRT to SFO by using some rather handy unicode characters.

Link to tweet:

✈ UA 852 NRT ➝ SFO