you could reconstruct the debate on the weblog eg. the issue is….
the 2-3 positions were.
the arguments for these positions were.

it can be done in a shorthand kind of way.

then other webloggers –eg .,me– could pick it and kick it along –then we have amore permanent conversation.

I’d go with just archiving it yourself within the three week time frame. Or use a hashtag and feed that through Google Reader like Dave suggests.

Imagine the space required to archive all tweets – retrieval could be a nightmare too!

http://bit.ly/4tZ8i3

Thanks

@robertpickstone

I’ve gone back to blogging.

it is not IRC, it is more like the lunchroom in school.

;^}

jeffs

Google works well for search, and there are a few tools for threading and saving conversations between people.

And to be fair, how many conversations have you had verbally in that time which have not been archived or recorded? (Unless the Government may have been keeping tabs!) There’s been some discussion about the benefits of things actually fading over time – if the conversation was truly good enough you can save the relevant points as Twitter Favourites, or use Delicious or similar.

Incidentally on paywalls, I’m a firm believer that they can only ever work if something is of a significant niche interest – e.g. when I worked at Emap, a title like the Middle Eastern Economic Digest would work, because there were never likely to be many free alternatives.
But for anything which is likely to spawn two or three rivals, which can be run by one or two people on an ad-supported model as a minimum, a paywall makes no sense.

If I am having a general conversation with friends then it is very unlikely that I will want to keep a record of everything that is said. This is similar to keeping old text messages or emails. Unless they are of a very personal nature then I would not want them. They wouldn’t be online conversations anyway in that case. Due to nothing of any great value being exchanged it does not bother me if these records disappear.

If I am using Twitter for work purposes or I am discussing a personal interest and I come across an interesting source of information then I save this file or link myself straight away. I can then take another look at it whenever I want to.

For me, the problem of not being able to retrieve old twitter conversations arises when the context in which the information saved is not clear or if you can’t actually remember the direction and/or development of the conversation.

In general though, if something pops up in a conversation that is worth saving then do it straight away. Twitter is just making you make that choice a little bit quicker than you would like to.

Rob (@robertpickstone)

Whilst it wont give you what you are looking for here, right now, it is feasible it could in future – and quite easily too.

It may be worthwhile leaving feedback on that site about what you want ( ie: a virtual press conference/discussion tool), to see if they have plans for that soon.