In the Twitterverse there has been the on going battle between two syntaxes of reposting a user’s tweet. These two are “RT @username: Original Tweet Text” and ” Reposter’s text (via @username). The “RT” vs the “via”. The “awesome” vs the “sucky unless used correctly”. I don’t dislike either one, as I use both. I think both have their special place in Twitter.

   First off let me bash on via. Too often times I have been in this situation: I am looking through my timeline and see a post from someone that says something like this…. “I’m so excited! I’m pregnant!” By reading that you are thinking “Wow that is so cool!” But then you realized that the poster is a guy… So you are little confused. But then you read further on and see the “(via @pregnantgirl)” and THEN you realize that your guy friend is not actually a scientific wonder as you once thought only moments ago but he was reposting a tweet incorrectly. Too many times have I read something thinking it was coming from one person, when in reality, it was just a repost of another person’s tweet.

   Now that via has been bashed around a bit, I’ll see if I can cheer him up. I DO think via has its place in a tweet. I think the via syntax should be used to cite a source and not to repost a tweet in verbatim, or word for word. For example, say someone posted a link to a video that he found hilarious. Here is what he posted “OMG GUYS I JUST SAW THIS ***** VIDEO! *****. SO ***** HARDCORE! http://tr.im/mPAr ” So you watch the video, and you too found it extremely funny, but you don’t like to use vulgar language. So obviously you wouldn’t want to use a word for word repost. This is where the via syntax comes in. You can, in your own words, say that this video is really funny. i.e. “Wow, I couldn’t stop laughing after I watched this video http://tr.im/mPAr (via @ISwearTooMuch)”

Use via the way it should be used.

   For word for word reposts, where you want your followers to see exactly what the original poster said, the RT syntax is much better. The reader can right off see that the post is a verbatim repost and was said by someone else, and not by you. In the @pregnantgirl situation, if the user would have tweeted “RT @pregnantgirl: I’m so excited! I’m pregnant!” or “Awesome! Helga is expecting! (via @pregnantgirl)” there would be no confusion and everything would be awesome.

In short, the RT syntax should be used for verbatim, word for word, reposts. And via should be used to summarize, cite, or put in your own words, what another user has posted.