OK....I'll bite. wtf is a hashtag? I thought it was that little ash left on the pin.....uh....nevermind

And....do you receive/read 'tweets' in a browser or in an app, or what? I downloaded an app for Win7 phone, but it was clumsy, and less than intuititve and after first couple times opening it, I never looked at it again.

LOL- Hey, I ask questions 'cause I'm curious but I'm low maintenance. Don't take much to make me happy. 🍺

Unlike some folks we know.:-"

See post #14 and my excessive use of the # (hashtag)

...as far as I know it's a way to load your post up with a bunch of potential search "tags" for others to come across your pics and replies, etc. Most of the time it seems like the #hashtag has little to no relevance to the discussion at hand. #nike #thestranger #IPAbeer #snow #rain #cigars

Wow, seems a bit anal.

There will be some lingo that you won't get (like every community) but it'll eventually make sense.

There are premade lists of people to follow (created by other twitter users), but generally you just find someone that you know and want to follow and click follow. If you don't know anybody, search for a topic that interests you and find someone talking about it, and follow them. Sometimes on fridays people will post FF (Friday Follow) with a list of people they think you should follow. It's one of those "if you like what I'm saying, you might also like these other people."

Generally speaking, tweet are public, but you can make them private (kinda defeats the purpose of twitter though). You can see who is following you, and they can see who is following them. You don't have to follow people that follow you necessarily. Following just means you're subscribing to their tiny frequent newsletters.

Hashtags are a way to organize tweets regarding a specific subject. They are like tags on other sites, dynamically organized rather than indexed. Think of it as a forum. Instead of going to Cbid > Cigars > Trading and making a post within that section, they can just make a post from the main screen, then tag it #cigartrading so that other people can find it easily. So if you wanted to look up what people are talking about on, say, pipe tobacco, you might search for the hashtag #pipetobacco. Then would see only posts regarding this topic, and could chat with people back and forth about it without actually following anyone.

Yes some people abuse them and go a little crazy. Think of it as cross-posting a thread to multiple forums, or to the wrong forum.

http://twitter.com  for now. Yes there are apps but I would recommend waiting until you understand how twitter works first. Kinda like how you'd show someone how to turn on a TV and change changes and volume before you'd show them how to change inputs and record a show on the dvr.

Says the squatter.[whip]

As stated above hashtags are tags preceded by the hash sign, hence the name. They were originally just a user-invented means of searching the plethora of twitter posts (unusual character followed by a subject), but have since been implemented into the software. Most people only throw in relevant tags, and do it mid-post to save on characters. Some people abuse them in the same way that some websites abused metadata tagging, it's pretty easy to filter out the chaff once you get used to it though.

Possibly, but it does make you a twatter if your a female.