I read this article on Friday that was written by Maggie Mason of MightyGirl.net. I immediately shared it out in my Google Reader because I thought it was SO spot on. I then Twittered about how I was rethinking my twitter existence because of the article, and might have mentioned that some things about Twitter annoy me.
Then…two things happened. One - I discovered that the article pissed a lot of people off. Two - I discovered that I had pissed Twitter off. Since the article mentions the followers/following numbers…I paid attention to the number of people I was following for the first time ever. It was like 450+. I clicked around awhile to see how that numbered compared to others, and when I came back to my profile? It suddenly said I was following SEVEN people. It went from 450+ to SEVEN in a matter of seconds.
I figured it was a glitch because all of the photos of people I follow were still showing up and their updates were showing up on my main page. So - obviously I was following them - Twitter just couldn’t count. THEN…later that day…the updates stopped appearing. Suddenly my front page showed only my own updates. And then…today? The pictures of people I follow disappeared.
Evidently I have angered the Twitter gods. Suddenly I am not longer following anyone. At least according to Twitter. I’m going to give it a few days and if it doesn’t fix itself, I’m going to have to go re-follow them. All because I casually mentioned that there were somethings that annoyed me about Twitter.
So - Let me explain myself before the Twitter gods delete me all together. I’ll touch on some of the points of Maggie’s article that either had me shouting, “Amen!” or “Uh Oh” because I’m guilty of some of the offenses she mentions.
3. Consider pausing between tweets.
Twittering 30-plus times an hour pushes other people’s messages off followers’ homepages, and sends mobiles into convulsive twit-fits (to say nothing of excessive SMS charges). If you have a lot to say, but still want to engage with followers without alienating them, consider making more liberal use of DMs.Also, don’t you occasionally need to use the restroom? Please don’t take your phone in there. Thanks.
I have logged into my Twitter page before and seen 20 tweets from one person IN A ROW. And all 20 of them are in the last 5 minutes. I’ve never un-followed anyone because of this, it’s just something that I find a little annoying. See, Twitter - it’s not you, it’s them!
5. Accept that some people will use lots of @s.
If you’re getting a lot of nonsensical @ messages because you don’t follow the same group of users, either subscribe to the people being mentioned so you can follow the thread, or turn @ messages off. And then stop complaining.
This is the key part: because you don’t follow the same group of users. I follow a bunch of people who follow people I don’t follow. So, yeah, I get VERY confused. I find myself sometimes very lost and that’s exactly why! I don’t follow the same group of people that the people I follow, follow. (Are you confused yet?) Now…I’m not going to turn off the @ messages (yet), but I will take Maggie’s advice and stop complaining. That’s just annoying.
8. What’s rude in life is rude on Twitter.
Passive-aggressive tweets are never as inscrutable as the sender thinks. When you’re being mean, even covertly, eventually everyone figures out the target. And then they start firing the arrows back your way.
I have been the target of criticism a few times on Twitter, that’s never fun. And there have been other times where I’ve seen someone else get attacked in the same passive-aggressive manner. It always makes me feel VERY uncomfortable. Like, I immediately want to cover my ears and run away. I never like to participate in conflict because it upsets the peace-loving hippy inside of me. So this part of twitter? The comfort it gives people? Makes me uneasy. Why can’t we all get along?
12. Leave when you want.
If you want to stop following someone, stop. There’s no need to send a breakup note. Unless you’re having Twitter sex.
I never quit following anyone intentionally. I did accidentally follow EVERYONE following me once, and found out there were a bunch of spammers out there. So I un-followed them, but they don’t count. I’ve never un-followed anyone but I WOULD like everyone to know that I don’t pay attention to who is following me, so if you un-follow me? I won’t notice so no one’s feelings will get hurt! I understand that my tweets are boring…it won’t hurt my feelings at all if you un-follow me!
13. Plug moderately.
Lots of people ignore this guideline, but if you’re almost exclusively using Twitter to plug your blog posts, events, or products, or to ask people to vote for one of your projects on Digg, you’ll lose some followers.
This annoys me. Period. People who ONLY tweet when they have a new entry on their blog. I should probably just un-follow those people. OH, WAIT. Twitter did that for me! As it is right now, I’m not following ANYONE, so NO ONE I’m following does that. Anyway - I do NOT mind the occasional plug, but when that’s all it is? Bugs me…that’s what I subscribe to RSS feeds for.
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So, there’s where I stand. I don’t hate you, Twitter! I just get irritated that - like everything in life - some people don’t want to do it my way! The nerve! I know that’s unrealistic and to be honest? I don’t spend that much time on Twitter anyway. So, not too big of a deal. I think Maggie did an excellent analysis of Twitter and it’s users. And I’m even guilty of some of the annoying things she mentions. If Twitter ever sets my account back right again, I’m going to treat it better. I PROMISE.
I don’t Twitter. I don’t know anything about Twitter. But people blog a lot about it so sometimes I feel like I should get a clue. But then I realize that I feel about Twitter the same way I do about MP3s and Facebook…partially lame because I don’t have or use one but also partially smug that I’ve avoided the latest thing everyone is doing. I usually jump on the bandwagon after everyone else has jumped off and moved on to the next thing.
I don’t use Twitter anymore. I’m a Plurk fan. I find it so much easier to keep up on conversations there, and you can mute certain conversations but allow other conversations to be available. If Twitter continues to be a butt to you, I’d introduce you to the fabulousness of Plurk!
Twitter intimidates me. I haven’t checked it out, but just hearing what everyone mentions about it in their blogs makes it seem such like such a big commitment.
I like twitter…for the most part. I have met some really cool people here in the NOLA area due to twitter…and found more blogs to read. I have more followers than what I am following because I think a lot of them are spam. It interesting….hopefully the Twitter gods get it fixed for you!
Like Sarah, I don’t twitter anymore. I think that many of the reasons why are things that you highlighted on your post. I couldn’t STAND how some people (QOS) monopolized twitter with her constant plugging of her various and sundry blogs, vlogs, and god only knows what else. DROVE me BONKERS. I unfriended her, but because so many other people were her friends, I couldn’t follow converstations. Plus, much of what I twittered went into the breeze.
Now plurk, it’s so different and SO much more condusive to good converstation. Like usenet of old, Plurk has threaded conversations so you can follow everyone that comments, regardless of whether or not you’re following them. It’s MUCH more manageable, too.
I’ve made a lot more friends on Plurk than I ever did on twitter, mostly because twitter seems to have an ‘in-crowd’ of BlogHers that really just ignore people they don’t like. It’s way too snotty high school for me.
Try plurk. Really, it doesn’t have any of those problems you mentioned.
but if you’re almost exclusively using Twitter to plug your blog posts, events, or products, or to ask people to vote for one of your projects on Digg, you’ll lose some followers.
This bugs the hell out of me. Chances are if someone is using twitter exclusively to promote his/her blog, I’m less likely to read that blog. Of course, a handful of my contacts already do this, so I shut up about it.
I use Twitter moderately. I think a lot of folks take it too serious, and it has sooo many followers that trying to control people’s action will not work. So, yea like you said, don’t complain and if you don’t want to follow someone than don’t.
Passive agressive is not fun. Thankfully, I am so low on the radar that most of my tweets are just ignored.
I think people take it a bit too seriously, too. I may have to check out this Plurk. I’d never heard of it before now.
I totally do some of the things Maggie warned not to do but she still follows me so I’m thinking her rules are pretty flexible. Hell, if I didn’t drunk twitter I wouldn’t twitter at all.
PS. Twitter constantly loses my followers and followees. Or perhaps I’m blocking people while I’m drunk. Sounds like something I’d do.
I would call myself a moderate Twitterer, I tend to forget about it on the weekend.
I hate tht I’m the most boring person on my Twitter feed (you are far more interesting than I am) and I worry that people will wind up deleting me for being dull.
How sad is that?
You never really know when the Twitter gods will decide that it’s past time to mess with your following/followers list, do you?
Just for your reference if you have to re-add people manually? http://mytweeple.com/ is the fastest & easiest way to go through and figure out who all those followers of yours are and find the ones you wanted to follow.
Good luck!
I like Brightkite, but I forget to use it.
Also, about #5. At one point, I went around and tried to follow the people that the @’s were to so that I could follow the conversation. Then I just ended up following a bunch of people I didn’t know or read and I lost interest. Whereas it used to be a way to keep up with people throughout their day, it seems more like a chatroom where everyone talks at once now. I get lost there.
A little tidbit for you - I signed up for Twitter so I could follow you the day you went to the doctor and found out that you had miscarried the last time. Thoughts, prayers, vibes, just didn’t seem like enough, and I wanted to be right with you, sending as much virtual support as possible. The tweet came through and I sat and cried my eyes out. I don’t know if Twittering made you feel less alone that day, but I hope it did. Because I know there were a lot of people waiting with you that day.