I also constructed a Twitter watchlist in my browser to see what...

I also constructed a Twitter watchlist in my browser to see what the ex-HC posters were talking about [about 30] but it has been months since I bothered looking through it. What used to happen on the STT thread is a spec would get talked about and it would frequently spike... the early birds made money but very, very seldom would those stocks hold their price. A lot of the stocks I would see the twitterati talk about did exactly the same thing. The popularity of the STT thread has radically declined since those punters moved to Twitter... but as far as I am concerned I think good riddance. I am not in the slightest bit interested in making money simply by pumping a spec and drawing inexperienced people in to the trade. The attraction of Twitter, imo, is it is not moderated... people can say and imply almost anything and they are unlikely ever to be called on it.

How things are now different on the STT thread is when a stock is mentioned it often comes with an explanation of the business case for it. I am seeing more and more posters presenting stocks I had never looked into. IMO... although the number of views is still below that of years ago, the quality of information is becoming more reliable. If that continues the thread might easily attract more of the astute [and genuine] traders, with sound ideas, to post their thoughts.