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It's all very well saying you'll unfollow a spanner but these things take time and when you get more than 6 in half an hour, it gets very time consuming. I've got no problem with legitimate companies but there are quite a few that keep coming back under different user names with over 2000 people that they follow. As they appear to have just joined, it makes a mockery of your limits

I agree, TheSterlingJoe. And it looks like the spammers have found a way to get around the current limits, anyway. They just set up multiple accounts, which is tons more annoying. – FamilyDoctorMag, on August 20, 2008 20:47

I agree as well. I'm fairly new and nearly left due to spammers in my first few days. – DalekKiller, on August 12, 2008 13:33

wow – Cyprus Moments, on August 12, 2008 09:20

I like what was proposed by Crystal about businesses, and people using Twitter for business, using the search and @reply feature to have conversations instead, of mass-following everyone that's used a keyword.
This way companies have to engage the customer via @replies and then the user can determine if they want to engage the conversation, block the user/spammer, follow the user, etc.

howardgr - Your idea to check the most blocked votes risks the problem of censorship. Say a popular SEO is accused of a heinous act of Black-Hattery and is blocked bythe huge community of SEOs on Twitter. Suddenly he's had his ability to communicate effectively with all of the other people who may not be SEOs and still enjoy reading his posts. – Sassmo, on August 12, 2008 07:34

While I disagree on the argument that this isn't a good thing, I think you brought up a good point in this post. Having a way of filtering the people you follow so you can analyze whether or not they're worth following would be awesome. I have people on my list that I followed when they were active but now they haven't Tweeted in a month or 2. The reason I follow a lot of the people that I do is for Geographic reasons. I use Twitter to stay abreast on what's happening in the places I care about. I want to know if there was a huge fire in Makiki, Hawaii, or if traffic is backed up in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, WA. If those people no longer live in those areas and I hadn't established a bond with that user, I want to know when they move out of that area so I can unfollow them (especially if they're not following me back). – Sassmo, on August 12, 2008 07:19

While I disagree on the argument that this isn't a good thing, I think you brought up a good point in this post. Having a way of filtering the people you follow so you can analyze whether or not they're worth following would be awesome. I have people on my list that I followed when they were active but now they haven't Tweeted in a month or 2. The reason I follow a lot of the people that I do is for Geographic reasons. I use Twitter to stay abreast on what's happening in the places I care about. I want to know if there was a huge fire in Makiki, Hawaii, or if traffic is backed up in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, WA. If those people no longer live in those areas and I hadn't established a bond with that user, I want to know when they move out of that area so I can unfollow them (especially if they're not following me back). – Sassmo, on August 12, 2008 07:18

I've had this problem for about a week now. Very frustrating, as I get new people following me every day, and can't return the favor. I also get the b.s. message that says someone will contact me shortly, which has yet to happen. – radioproducer1, on August 12, 2008 04:26

Then why do I get this message day after day? It's been almost a week now, and I have not been able to add anyone, while I continue to have people add me. I also get a message when I fill out the bug report about this which says I will be contacted soon. I'm guess "soon: is a relative term, since this has been nearly a week and I have heard nothing.

This is day two for me since Twitter disallowed me from following new ppl. What gives? how long do I have to wait and what is all this about being a well mannered Twittered determines how long I'm restricted?

tigoe: More info regarding the /account/rate_limit_status API method is available at Twitter Development Talk.

Well, number one, this thread isn't about rate limits for the API. Two, you can pull http://twitter.com/account/rate_limit_status.xml (or json) and it tells you how many you have left and when it resets. – Thomas, on August 10, 2008 22:50

So if I hit a rate limit (100 requests per client per hour, because I've been working on a new client), I can't clear it. But can I at least query either

* how long til the limit is cleared, or
* how many queries I've made in a given hour?

Either would make for more effective development time, rather than waiting around until I can make a request again.

You can spam to get people to follow you. Let's say you setup a bot to follow 100,000 people. They get emails saying you're following them. Some decide to follow you. Then you put out a bunch of spam tweets. It happens a lot more than you think. – Chris Thomson, on August 10, 2008 22:34

The concept of following/followers twitter is absurd. I see following and unfollowing do not cause a problem in spam. If they want follow me and it is ok with me.

We understand that when we tweet and the public can watch us. The following feature is to help make our tracking a person easy.

If I don't want them to follow me, I block.

If I don't want to follow them, I unfollow.

It is simple and it doesn't cause spam problem. The spammer is the one that send the direct message and hijack the twitter.

It is manageable by unfollowing.

Why can't I follow. Twitter controls me by said "to control the spammers". It is absurd.

Twitter already empowered us the ability to unfollow, follow, and block. It works great!

Now, I can't follow due to the spamming problem? When I follow and how can I spam?

When they follow us, I can spam.

Limits on following to control the spams don't make sense at all.

Saw a tweet from @ev (which I believe is about Follow limits) --- Ev: @jesatiu sorry for the frustration. we're assessing the situation and trying to find the right balance about 9 hours ago from web in reply to jesatiu. The URL is http://twitter.com/ev/statuses/874060675 – mdy, on August 01, 2008 06:16

"just to laugh this rule Crystal gave me (a difference of only 100 following - followers) has no sense." I agree that this makes no sense at all. Once again I have to ask Twitter - are you guys looking at refining the algorithm or is this set in stone? There are way, way too many examples of perfectly normal people, businesses, etc. getting caught up in these limits. – stopthespam, on July 31, 2008 16:13

For your information, he took me 5 hours manually to unfollow around 4500 Twitter accounts... I am not really satisfied by the Twitter policy about this because Twitter has changed the rules without being clear openly about the rules. They seem not to consider seriously that there are different uses of twitter uses (not only for business but also to give news, for non profit...) and they put also the same rules for everybody... but i am not sure for everybody (and i quote examples to Crystal - twitter employee). They also seem to forget that Twitter is not only a following-followers tool but a "What are you doing ?" tool this seems you have different ways to exchange with your community not only one to one but also one too many, and many to one. Now the "official" rule seems to be a difference of only 100 following - followers per account with being blocked in the possibility to add followers.

I do add i have unfollowed all Twitter employees and Ev too (because they don't follow me!!) so i have to restrict strictly this! lol!!! this example just to laugh this rule Crystal gave me (a difference of only 100 following - followers) has no sense.

I suggest Twitter to work with a researcher in CA in social networks and also with an additional real community manager. Trust and confidence in the users is a good way to walk for the future. These past months and weeks, Twitter has clearly failed about that and this not because Crystal, Mark, Jason... But because decisions or undecisions of Twitter management staff.

I add that i have had yesterday a long and interesting discussion with Crystal by email about this.

best regards from Paris - France,

Jean-Luc
http://twitter.com/jeanlucr

Hi guys. I am very frustrated by this issue as well (follow limits). In fact, I've tried Unfollowing a few people so I could follow others, but that has not worked. First off - if they expect us to "clean" our follow list (I didn't know mine was dirty), it might be nice to have some functionality to do that. For example, sort based on frequency of tweets, # of tweets, whether there is a picture, etc. Do you expect me to page through 3600 Twitter followers? BTW - not all of the causes of this issue are created equallly. You are using too broad a brush!

I also have to tell you - Having a "Get Satisfaction" page up does not constitute Customer Service imho. This conversation feels more like you are jerking us around - providing a space to vent but doing NOTHING about the real problem. I submitted the help form, got an auto reply, and then got another auto reply saying, it's resolved. Sorry but this is not resolved.

I happen to be one of the most persistent people on the planet, so I will not let up until this is resolved in a way that I accept. For me, that is lifting the limit of who i can follow. M followers are my content / community and i want to manage them the way i see fit.

We might have to start a twitter revolution supported by the REAL people in your community that have done nothing but support and love Twitter (on panels, in the press, on blogs, on trains, on planes and at the grocery store). I find it hard to believe that you can't use a HUMAN to look at the list and adjust your algorithm appropriately.

Please call me at 646-408-3318 so that this issues is resolved properly.