There are a few folk I chat with on a daily basis, whether it be about our latest works-in-progress or exactly what we'd like to see Jared Padalecki do to Bradley Cooper (God bless the internet!) and though it's a good place to exchange interesting links, photos and jokes, Twitter does have its faults.
You've got the Fail Whale which crops up rather more often than you'd like, but there are other niggly things that really boil my piss. Chief among these irritants is the habit of flooding my bloody tweetstream.
Please, for the love of all that is holy, give it a fucking rest. It happens three times a week and I don't want to have to trawl through twenty, thirty, forty tweets just to get something that isn't a bunch of pink 'n' perky recommendations of who's teh c00l3st!!!!111!!!one!!eleventy!1!
I'm not just speaking for myself here, but on behalf of a number of Twitterers (Tweeters?) of whatever stripe who are a tad more self-controlled than I as regards the matter, but it must be said:
We don't give a flying fuck about Mention Monday, Writer Wednesday or Follow Friday. We do not need a thrice-weekly listing of every fucking person you follow.
Seriously. If I want to know who you follow, there's an easy way to access that information. I click on your profile and from thence, to the list of people you're following.
Think about it. You're not the only person on my follow list doing this. Even one or two people listing fifty followers means in a matter of seconds, my laptop screen is flooded with pink URLs to people I don't care about because if I did I would already be following them.
Not only that but you then have to put up with the interminable "Thanks for the #FF!" tweets. Okay, people, someone recommended you on Twitter, you're grateful, but let's not assume you're anything special. The fact you're one name on a list of a couple of hundred scrolling across the screen three times a week proves that. I'd be more inclined to think you were a standout tweeter if you did stand out, but Mention Monday, Writer Wednesday and Follow Friday have become mindless laundry lists, rendered meaningless by repetition and volume.
I follow people based on liking their books, exchanging a few @-replies, searching them out myself. I like to think the people who follow me do so because they've interacted with me somehow, read my books, laugh at my tweets, know me a little, perhaps - dare I say it? - like me. Not because they mindlessly hit 'follow' because they're one of the sheeple.
Your flooding my tweetstream with name after name after name doesn't make me any more likely to follow them.
It does, however, make me more likely to unfollow you.
Aw shucks, I can't start the KB is awesome Sundays hastag?
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize that it is irritating as hell especially when you don't know what the hell their posting when your still trying to figure twitter out. I have had an account since twitter started but traveled so much without a laptop I never used it. So I''m still playing catchup with terms and trying to read post of those I follow. But I can't when 50 of those blubbering I don't know what the hell their saying are rolling across the screen.
ReplyDeleteThank for stating the obvious especially for those of us still trying to at least read a friends post.
Darcy
A reader
I've found you funny since AW, so I do follow you on Twitter for a good laugh. I do agree about useless tweets. They're a lot like when some posts on Facebook that they are going to work. They do it because they want the attention. Which is sad, because I'd pay them more attention if they said something interesting.
ReplyDeleteKB - only if there are accompanying photos of James Purefoy. Sorry, them's the rules.
ReplyDeletePomma (for short!) - I wondered if I'd gone too far with this post at first, but after several Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with nothing but profile links filling my page, I burst. These people don't even give reasons for why I should follow their associates. It's as interesting as reading a school register.
Noree - Exactly. Make it interesting. Say, a mindless tweet about Bradley Cooper. I'd pay attention to that! ;)
Lol, I agree with you on the lists and lists of people. Although I am one of those people who does thank those who list me. (I'm southern, I think it's ingrained that I have to say thank you--a DNA issue I believe. Can't be helped.)
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, you may get some relief soon. I can't remember where I saw it but Twitter is tightening up their spam rules and one of the things that's going to be flagged is endless lists of names, so it may actually fix the #FF issue.
I don't mind a #FF if someone makes it specific to one person. i.e. Follow so and so because she tweets hot pics of so and so. THAT might actually get me to follow someone. But I have to think no one pays attention to those long lists. I know I don't.
Yes! I totally agree with you Roni - if it's one name, with a reason, I don't count that as spam at all. It might interest me, it might not, but at least the other person's making an attempt to show WHY I should follow this third party. "Hot pics of so-and-so," would certainly intrigue me.
ReplyDeleteAnd good news about the Twitter spam rules. I hope it comes into force.
Oh, I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not interested in who other people follow and I certainly don't want to see a constant stream of tweet about it.