Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

Alright, you know that I hate marketing spam on Twitter.You know I think the people that think Twitter is the greatest thing since sliced bread are a bit loopy. You know I think the people that think Twitter is a community are well off their rockers.

So, what could I be griping about today?

People. That is what I am griping about today, people. And this gripe plays in to the myth of the community, conversation, or whatever else crazy kumbaya stuff people say about Twitter.

**redundant alert**
Before I get to what bothers me, let me say this, Twitter is a numbers game for most that are on and active. Let me also say that a lot of folks that have accounts are not active. Let me also say one more time that with the growth of third party apps, a lot of people ghost follow a large portion of folks on their list. Okay, one more time, and yes it is redundant. For most people, Twitter is a numbers game more than a conversation or a community.
**redundancy off**

Now to what is bothering me.

I get a lot of emails telling me of new followers. So much in fact, that if I were to respond to them all when they come in, I would be working Twitter all day.  I usually let these notices build up and then handle a bunch at once. Still, if you look at my Twitter account, you will notice that my numbers don’t change much. This is for two reasons.

1. I check out your account and find marketing spam or other reasons not to follow you back, and thus get unfollwed eventually.

2. You have pissed me off by making it known that I am not interesting enough to follow, you just wanted another reciprocating follower.

One is self explanatory. Two may need some explaining.

As I said above, I usually wait to go through my new follow notifications after they build up for a few days. I look through them every five or six days on average. Guess what I usually find. These nutcases have unfollowed me by the time I go through the notices. I am talking days, most definitely less than a week. I did not immediately follow them back, so they dumped me. How do I know this? After I do follow them, I get a notification saying they are now following me back. They did not follow for content, or interest, or just because they liked my mug in the avatar. (who does?) No they were fishing for follower numbers, and when I did not immediately give them another follow, they dumped me like a bad habit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously. I was frustrated the other day with Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio. I was wondering if anyone else knew of a good sports talk radio station that streamed on the net, so I turned to Twitter with this:

Anyone know of a good sports talk station that streams at this time that does not have Colin Cowherd as the host?

I got only one response–which says something I have always believed about Twitter, but that is another post. The response I got is below.

adamdavs @RfL_Productions, I recommend http://su.pr/1aAKj1, where you can compare the top 10 web hosting services.

Alright, that is obviously an automated response. Someone is using the Twitter API to scour the postings for certain keywords, which upon finding such words, in this case ‘host,’ they spam with an advert of some type. Who knows if adamdavs is even a real person. If he is, he now looks very stupid.

I doubt he cares one bit. People like this are a big reason I have shifted how I use Twitter. The ‘conversation’ aspect that was so touted at the beginning is just ridiculous now, unless you are one of the anointed. Even then, it is mostly one way. Services like Tweetdeck and the other third party apps make it possible to follow thousands but ignore all but a few, which means your wonderful groundbreaking tweets are heard by practically no one.

That works to the advantage of the types above. Using auto-anything on Twitter usually makes you look stupid. So stop, please.

I am now going top block adamdevs. His bad.

Gordon, Scott, and Pat acting the fool by Totallyangel

Everyone is new at something at first. I know, that is a redundant statement, but it makes sense to say considering what this post is about.

What is that, you ask?

Newbies and social media, or networking, or whatever.

The curse of the noob is not fun. Noobs come in and barnstorm where decorum is the name of the game. Where things are riotous, they come in and try to be authority.

They are, well, noobs.

Hell, we have all been there. My noob experience was filled with the dreams that come from “make money online” gurus. I had every free e-book, and I shelled out some serious cash for the programs. I was going to take over the world.

Well, that didn’t happen. Luckily I am quick with the learning curves. I learned the lay of the land and followed my passions. Design, media, research, and meeting new and interesting people that enhance my web networking experience.

But, noobs, they are always there. For every web user that elevates above noob status, three or more jump in to take their place.

The type of noob that is aggravating me right now is a bit personal, as I was close to that type of noob myself.

Luckily back in the old days when I was an aggravating noob, things like Twitter did not exist. Hell, AOL, Yahoo, LiveJournal, and forums were still the lay of the land. I had to work at aggravating others, and my reach was pretty dismal.

Unfortunately, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, and the like do exist now, and the noobs are amplified.

I get friend and follow requests everyday from people that have nothing in their streams but adverts for the same stupid make money online programs from back in the day. No following community decorum, no real posting, just puked up, canned ads. It is crazy.

There is even a guy in England (I will keep the name out of it as who knows which name is real?) with several different accounts all offering the same crap “get rich quick” or “get new followers fast” products.

The thing that elevates this guy from aggravation that does not conform to community standards, to total asshole, is when you un-follow his accounts, he un-follows and re-follows, several times, trying to get you back.

Getting hit by a double-decker bus is too good for him. He is pure evil.

Listen folks, I get that you have this great program or script that got you 17,000 followers even though you only have 25 posts. Good for you. I would put my measly 1400-1500 followers up against yours any day. I have carefully cultivated this list and I get value from most of the people on it. Yes, some are filler, like those with forgotten and unused accounts, but I can guarantee your accounts are almost all filler.

And then comes the money schemes. Only morons are clicking on your links. I know there are morons out there, but come on, do you really want that online rep?

You did not make a fortune. You are not rich. You did not find the freakin secret program. You just did not! You are another noob, sitting at home with dreams of overnight internet wealth and the fame and adoration that goes with it.

Now, let’s go to that next level, the auto-responder. If I follow you, I am giving you the benefit of doubt. I am giving you a certain level of trust, but it is only a test. How do you fail that test, by hitting me up with an auto-respond direct message trying to “help me” or show me the way.

Hey, idiot! I was here before you. I know the way. You showing me your bad manners and lack of etiquette right from the go only shows you to be someone that needs to follow for a while, not lead, or “show the way.” You are an asshole. Seriously.

Okay, so you got the griping, now is there an answer? Nope.

I can hope that a noob reads this and self identifies and starts on the path to being a proper online citizen.

I mean, we could mass shun the gits, but then the gits would just flock together and organize. Could domination be far behind? Yeah, probably not.

Unfortunately, as the web gets easier to use, and the online services and apps get better, we will get more noobs and more aggravation. Hopefully the learning curves will get faster as well.

We can hope.

Cheers,
Eban