Friday, December 30, 2011

Twitter Cricket Hashtags : Calling for a standard

Writing this with the overwhelming Sri Lankan victory yesterday against South Africa - The first test win after like one and half years. Increasingly the cricket updates in Twitter is becoming interesting and is a perfect way to keep updated on the match while you are on the move. Like my friend  told me Twitter is a real fun way of following cricket because of all the hilarious comments.

Before i get in to the real call

What is Twitter?
Is a social network like Facebook (Second in popularity only to Facebook) based on text updates of 140 characters (Imagine a public SMS system). For more watch this video on Youtube.



What is a hashtag in Twitter?
The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Read

How you can track a match in Twitter is by following the match hashtag usually with the format countryVcountry. For e.g. #AUSvIND for Australia vs India or #SAvSL for South Africa vs. Sri Lanka.

There are two major confusions in Cricket hastags - 


1. Which country first
The problem arises when one countires' cricket fans put their country code first and the other country does the other way.

For e.g. Pakistanis tweet #PAKvIND and Indians Tweet #INDvPAK, The Sri Lankans (Always trying to make a balance between the two) tweet with both #PAKvIND &  #INDvPAK so both countries fans will read. This happens in every country in every match.

For this I recommend going in Alphabetical order. No matter how big

2. Just "V" or "VS"
Other confusion is whether to use VS or only V between the two country codes. For e.g. Some tweet #SAvSL while some tweet with #SAvsSL. Here I recommend using only one V, since it saves a character and time typing another letter S.

According to the above - The final hashtags to be used will be (Please ignore page formatting)

Country Australia Bangladesh England India New Zealand Pakistan South Africa Sri Lanka West Indies Zimbabwe
 AustraliaAUSvBANAUSvENGAUSvINDAUSvNZAUSvPAKAUSvSAAUSvSLAUSvWIAUSvZIM
 BangladeshAUSvBANBANvENGBANvINDBANvNZBANvPAKBANvSABANvSLBANvWIBANvZIM
 EnglandAUSvENGBANvENGENGvINDENGvNZENGvPAKENGvSAENGvSLENGvWIENGvZIM
 IndiaAUSvINDBANvINDENGvINDINDvNZINDvPAKINDvSAINDvSLINDvWIINDvZIM
 New ZealandAUSvNZBANvNZENGvNZINDvNZNZvPAKNZvSANZvSLNZvWINZvZIM
 PakistanAUSvPAKBANvPAKENGvPAKINDvPAKNZvPAKPAKvSAPAKvSLPAKvWIPAKvZIM
 South AfricaAUSvSABANvSAENGvSAINDvSANZvSAPAKvSASAvSLSAvWISAvZIM
 Sri LankaAUSvSLBANvSLENGvSLINDvSLNZvSLPAKvSLSAvSLSLvWISLvZIM
 West IndiesAUSvWIBANvWIENGvWIINDvWINZvWIPAKvWISAvWISLvWIWIvZIM
 ZimbabweAUSvZIMBANvZIMENGvZIMINDvZIMNZvZIMPAKvZIMSAvZIMSLvZIMWIvZIM

But we need to find a way to communicate this standards to all Cricket fans. Please comment below with your ideas.

6 comments:

  1. Very Insightful Post Nadheera. I have also come across situations where I am confused in what hashtag to use when posting cricket match stories and updates on Twitter.

    Normally I use my own convention ( ex: #SLvsEng) or simply put the hashtag #cricket so any cricket lover can follow those updates.

    I like your hashtag convention approach. I think its more simple and easy to understand. Communicating this to All Cricket Fans is the Challenge; yet,any challenge can be overcome over time :).

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  2. Thanks for the comment Chamindra.

    I think #Cricket is also essential but at a time when two matches are happening at the same time - A match specific hashtag will be preferred.

    Communicating - Yes we can somehow make it happen. My idea is to TT this to all Cricket fans during a major cricketing event like the T20 world cup coming up in Sep 2012 in Sri Lanka.

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  3. Interesting. Completely agree with the alphabetical order thing. But most us are used to vs instead of v. :/

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  4. yes.im going to reblog this with vs instead of v. BTW RIP Tony Greig - cant forget that today for being a Sri Lankan Cricket fan...

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  5. Nice to see all collection of information. Thanks for your great input.

    Please update in 2015 too ;)

    International Calling Card

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