hi
u can do did -ra $dname ID %var
for the init if !%TwitSearchName it's ok but about the rest is useless u can put the variable %TwitSearchName in dialog like this

edit %TwitSearchName, 4, 4 4 85 10

on *:DIALOG:twitter_stats:init:*:{
  if !%TwitSearchName {
    set %TwitSearchName $$?="Please enter your Twitter name:"
    did -ra $dname 4 $!
  }
}

about $did($dname,4).text u can remove the ".text" and $dname

so u can use only $did(4)

dialog -x twitter_stats twitter_stats
th second "twitter_stats" is useless u can remove it
dialog -x twitter_stats can close the dialog

about your alias twitterstats u can do this

alias -l twitterstats dialog $iif(!$dialog(twitter_stats),-v,-m twitter_stats) twitter_stats

finaly about did -a twitter_stats 16 Error, Please try again. u have to add "r" so

did -ra twitter_stats 16 Error, Please try again.