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I approved someone to follow me, and now I am automatically following them.
But I don't want to be. And now I feel I can't remove them for a while without hurting their feelings. Or it is just rude. Actively removing people from your various social networks is a far cry from never adding them in the first place.
Is this following reciprocity normal? I don't think it should be.
Is this following reciprocity normal? I don't think it should be.
I’m just trying to be polite.
6
people have this problem
I have this problem, too!
Tell me when someone solves it.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The best solution from the company
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This is unintended behavior and it affects users who are protected. When they approve a follower request, they end up following that person back.
It's obviously mysterious and having an actual opt-in for following the person doing the requesting would be much better.
The company and 4 other people say
this solves the problem
The best solution from everyone
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yes, there is a very high correlation of followers and followees (e.g. check out "Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities", it's available in PDF online), and it's always good to be polite, but with some social networks (twitter included), i think active pruning is etiquette-wise perfectly O.K. i (personally) feel that the rule of thumb is that if the connection implies an active participation on your side (such as paying for SMS messages) then the bar is much lower, in contrast to something like linkedin where there is very little active consequence on your time/energy/wallet.
but etiquette per se is a social convention, of course!
that said, Twitter has recently changed how they handle followers/friends/notifications. check out http://twitter.com/blog/2007/07/frien... - so you now have a potential alternative for you, namely, leave the person as follower but turn off notifications.
I’m enjoying a sunny day!
5 people say
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?yes, there is a very high correlation of followers and followees (e.g. check out "Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities", it's available in PDF online), and it's always good to be polite, but with some social networks (twitter included), i think active pruning is etiquette-wise perfectly O.K. i (personally) feel that the rule of thumb is that if the connection implies an active participation on your side (such as paying for SMS messages) then the bar is much lower, in contrast to something like linkedin where there is very little active consequence on your time/energy/wallet.
but etiquette per se is a social convention, of course!
that said, Twitter has recently changed how they handle followers/friends/notifications. check out http://twitter.com/blog/2007/07/frien... - so you now have a potential alternative for you, namely, leave the person as follower but turn off notifications.
I’m enjoying a sunny day!
5 people say
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?This is unintended behavior and it affects users who are protected. When they approve a follower request, they end up following that person back.
It's obviously mysterious and having an actual opt-in for following the person doing the requesting would be much better.
The company and 4 other people say
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?Agree that sharing and listening rights and choice should be separate issues. I want to listen to some services, but do not want to share with them. Other times I want to share and not listen (web, SMS, or other). -
Inappropriate?The twitter conception is complete nonsense regarding protected updates.
Just imagine the following case:
I'm a successful private micro-blogger. My words are so great that 10.000 persons follow my twits. everyone of them follows his 10 friends plus me. Their life is cool. Bu mine isn't : I 'm flooded with 10.000 users' updates ?!?!
Why should I be punished and forced to follow 10.000 persons just because I wanted to keep control of who can read me or not (protected updates).
Complete nonsense !!! This is a true bug in the twitter conception !!!
I’m disappointed
1 person says
this solves the problem
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Inappropriate?ditto. i only follow my friends, people i know, because i get what they're saying. I don't mind if people want to follow me on request if they have something in common and aren't trying to spam me, but I don't care to follow them because I don't know them and most likely won't "get" any of their tweets.
But... I try to unfollow them and it removes them completely so they're not following me, after I JUST accepted them. Now I feel bad, like I rejected them. :(
Even worse, I can't post a tweet saying, "hey sorry to whoever I added and removed, it was Twitter's fault" :) because my updates are protected so they'd never see it!
I’m bitter about this one
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Inappropriate?This problem also limits one of the potential advantages of using Twitter to create a closed circle for a special interest group. For example, we've set up a Twitter username for our feature film which is private for now so that only those in the cast and crew can receive the updates. In time, we intend to make it open, once the film is closer to its release date. However, now everyone following the username can read all the private Twitter updates of the cast and crew. This seems likely to discourage our cast and crew from following the updates for the film - I know it puts me off!
By the way, the 'Block' feature not only stops the film from following me but also stops me from following it, which defies the objective of the exercise. I also tried the 'off' feature to stop the film's username from following my Twitter updates but Twitter tells me it can't find me and asks whether I've misspelt my own name ... . May I suggest that this is a bug rather than a feature?
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Just cross-linking these because they seem to be very related: http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/to... -
Inappropriate?There are now several threads that talk about a problem or show that users are confused by protected or private accounts. Here they are for quick reference:
1. I lost all my follower requests when I made my account public
2. Protected my updates, page now screwed
3. How can I identify which friends can view my updates
4. How do I change notifications on someone with protected updates
Perhaps we can tag any future ones that come up with "private accounts" so they can be found through the Tag Search feature. -
Inappropriate?This problem is vexing me. My profile is private. I want to let a someone follow me without having to follow them back. I don't understand why this is still a discussion and not a problem solved. -
Inappropriate?I've deleted my twitter account because of this problem, and after almost 1 year, it still remain unresolved. What the hell are the twitter staff thinking? I really want to rejoin Twitter, and now they've left me no choice but to look elsewhere.
I’m ANGRY
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Inappropriate?"What the hell are the twitter staff thinking?"
I think they are thinking that the scalability issues they've been having come first. Also I've talked to some of the engineers and it seems like it is a more difficult thing to fix than one might think, because it is a result of some decisions that were made really early on before they knew where this whole Twitter thing was going, and as a result this functionality is pretty firmly embedded in the architecture.
They know it is a problem and have pledged to address it, which I assume they will. It is a bit annoying to me, but also not something I am going to get too worked up about. I mean, you gotta have some perspective on this -- it's just Twitter!
I’m doing something useful while I wait.
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Inappropriate?And besides, it's only been six months since you asked the original question, caweena. Yes, we're all annoyed by it but unless you've actually run an exponentially growing web service, you probably aren't aware of how minor this issue is compared to things like server overloads causing major site outages.
This issue affects only people who have private accounts (which, by my estimation is a very small percentage). Failwhale affects 100% of all users. Twitter is focusing on exactly what they should be right now and they will get to this problem as soon as they can.
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