Slashtags are a set of short community-created conventions for attributing information on Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, also called microsyntax. They are designed to be succinct and provide an easy way to provide metadata about a tweet, especially when "retweeting".

History

Slashtags were introduced by Chris Messina and given their moniker by Chris Blow.

Usage

A slashtag is preceded by the "/" character (called a slasher). It is stated that after the initial slash, the slasher is not required for subsequent slashtags. Slashtags normally appear at the end of a tweet.

Current slashtags

• by
• cc, for, tip
• thx, ty
• hat tip, ht, via
• oh

Examples

These are example tweets with fictitious Twitter usernames to show how to use Slashtags.

• Here is something I think everyone would find useful: /cc @someInterestedParty

• Something someone else said. /by @thePersonWhoSaidIt

• RT @OriginalSource Retweeted text. /via @3rdPartyYouHeardItFrom

• I stand corrected. The info you want is here /thx @PersonWhoInformedYou