There are people I do know on Twitter but do not converse with them on there. I email, text, or IM them. Always use the best tools that are available...

I agree, use the best tools. But if you email or text them, there is no way for other people to join the conversation. Think of a twitter conversation as one at a party where you know people. Anybody can come join in, and can add value. It's more akin to conversing on IRC than over email.

Holy crap, now it's a multi-person conversation? I would say let's meet for drinks... How about Hangouts or what ever one uses on iPhones? Maybe this is more for the under 25 crowd who like to do things the hard way on 5" screens with no keyboards. Not me...

It can be. This conversation is a multi-person one too. That's still different than, say, hangouts because everybody is free to reply, not just people you invited. Maybe somebody neither of us know will read this next month and come up with an interesting counterpoint.

In any case, using some form of video calling is too intrusive. I can type this reply, do something else for 10 minutes, then check back. But then I was always one for text mediums rather than video or audio calls :)