brentcsutoras.com— In an attempt to stop spammers, Twitter users can now only add up to 2,000 followers before being limited and receiving this error message: "You are unable to follow more people."
Aug 11, 2008View in Crawl 4
People who follow 2000+ Twitterers usually don't actually 'follow' them anyway. They'll generally filter out the people they don't really care to hear from. So what is the point of following a whole bunch of people if you're not even listening to what they have to say? I welcome the 2000 limit. It might make the 'following' count actually meaningful unlike the status symbol of facebook friends, myspace friends, xbox live friends, etc.
I use Tweetdeck, which lets you add your own filters to create groups. In one column, I have Tweets of all users I follow, in the next, all replies, in the next, the Tweets of people I follow whom I have met in person. So, you can actually keep up with people you care about, even if you follow lots of other people as well. No one who follows more than a dozen people can read every message. Looking at the tweets of people I follow, is looking into the cloud of conversation of everyone in my extended network (about 800 people right now). I don't think I'll approach 2000 anytime soon, but there are lots of people who do.
Spammers create twitter profiles. They flood their twitter profile with crap. Then, they follow a s**tload of people. Each of those people (if they opt for it) get a notification that said spammer is following them now. They click on the link to the profile of the spammer and blam. Spam. And it works well enough for spammers to keep doing it.
But ever since he was knocked off the top spot he's been saying that it's the people you follow that are important, not the number of followers.I don't understand how this stops spam though. If you have a lot of followers they have chosen to hear what you have to say, but if you follow a lot of people all it means is you get a lot of messages from them. The great thing about Twitter is you only listen to who you want.
Why would anyone care about what more than 2k people are doing at any given point? It's just noise. The reason to follow that many is only to spam them with the initial follow request, hoping for mutuality.
reemixxAug 12, 2008
People who follow 2000+ Twitterers usually don't actually 'follow' them anyway. They'll generally filter out the people they don't really care to hear from. So what is the point of following a whole bunch of people if you're not even listening to what they have to say? I welcome the 2000 limit. It might make the 'following' count actually meaningful unlike the status symbol of facebook friends, myspace friends, xbox live friends, etc.
berryAug 12, 2008
I use Tweetdeck, which lets you add your own filters to create groups. In one column, I have Tweets of all users I follow, in the next, all replies, in the next, the Tweets of people I follow whom I have met in person. So, you can actually keep up with people you care about, even if you follow lots of other people as well. No one who follows more than a dozen people can read every message. Looking at the tweets of people I follow, is looking into the cloud of conversation of everyone in my extended network (about 800 people right now). I don't think I'll approach 2000 anytime soon, but there are lots of people who do.
ironiridisAug 12, 2008
Spammers create twitter profiles. They flood their twitter profile with crap. Then, they follow a s**tload of people. Each of those people (if they opt for it) get a notification that said spammer is following them now. They click on the link to the profile of the spammer and blam. Spam. And it works well enough for spammers to keep doing it.
stuartgibsonAug 12, 2008
But ever since he was knocked off the top spot he's been saying that it's the people you follow that are important, not the number of followers.I don't understand how this stops spam though. If you have a lot of followers they have chosen to hear what you have to say, but if you follow a lot of people all it means is you get a lot of messages from them. The great thing about Twitter is you only listen to who you want.
jayadelsonAug 30, 2008
Why would anyone care about what more than 2k people are doing at any given point? It's just noise. The reason to follow that many is only to spam them with the initial follow request, hoping for mutuality.
uponthedownsideSep 5, 2008
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