What happens if I hit a Twitter limit?

Wow, cool, I had no clue there was a DM or daily tweet limit!

Regarding the maximum number of follow attempts in a day, is that a recent addition? I won't mention any names (*cough*), but I've seen people who have followed over 100,000 people in one day not too long ago. Gotta hate the follow spammers.

Yes, the maximum # of follow attempts is recent (and is not daily).

Ah, okay, cool. :)

I would block all follow requests through the API, since that would stop most of the script spammers following the public timeline. And don't just restrict the spammers. Remove their accounts. They're still following tens of thousands of people.

While this information is nice to know, I find it a bit odd/weird that an employee is asking questions just so she can answer them.

Am I the only one that thinks this way?

"70 API requests per hour"

Isn't it 20 API requests per hour right now? I -wish- it was 70 requests an hour again. :|

I just set up thwirl and hit my API request limit before seeing a single tweet.

So what's the follow limit if it's not daily?

The conclusion of the story? Friendfeed and Plurk.

http://www.christopherspenn.com/2008/...

You cant hear that, it is a huge sucking sound...

How do you even know if you hit the follow limit? I thought it just didn't tell you and didn't e-mail people that you were following them.

Also, why not let users have a medium between private and public, where you basically say "have users enter a captcha to follow me". You already support recaptcha for signup...

Someone says she was notified when she hit her follow limit.

See http://twitter.com/CreativeSage/statu...

Ah, it didn't take long for ZD-Net to blow this out of proportion: http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=154

What happens for API users when the request limit is reached? I have a fairly high volume wordpress blog that uses the SimpleTwitter plugin to display tweets, and it's been hanging for three days now...

Hi Crystal and Ev -

Thanks for posting on GSFN about this. I'm glad you're putting limits in place to discourage spammers.

However, there are many of us who are using Twitter in a legitimate and respectful manner who are being blocked from following.
I didn't receive any notification that I had reached any following limit. I got the "Something has gone wrong" message repeatedly until I surmised what was happening.

I'll email Support to discuss this, but I wanted to point this out here since a discussion was already in place.

We have such a fun Pandora community going on via Twitter, I'd hate for it to be hampered. In terms of proving I'm not spammy, I'm happy to provide previously-twittered testimonials regarding how "useful" and/or "fun" my 2,000 twitter followers have found my twitterstream.

I'm very careful, as a Community Manager, about how I use Twitter. I hand-pick who to follow. My followed-following rate has always been close to 1-to-1. I only tweet a few times a day. I’ve repeatedly posted my personal email address in the stream, for conversations that require more than 140 characters.

Thanks very much for your attention, and for all your hard work!
I hope this gets sorted out soon. I've been enjoying the community of Pandora-lovers who have been bonding via your service.

Sincerely,
Lucia Willow
Pandora Community Manager

@pandora_radio on Twitter

I'm relieved to be able to follow people again - but wonder when the next 'surprise' will crop up.

I *totally* understand Twitter's desire to do something proactive to combat those folks abusing the community, the servers, and the bandwidth - but can you please maybe consider not springing stuff like this on us without notice? It doesn't take the malcontents long to figure out how to go about their business circumventing the system - but it's kind of hard on those of us who are trying to support Twitter.

You guys have the BEST community... really. Trust us to help.

Twitter - you guys have said many times that you will be continually reviewing your approach to fighting spam and refining yout tactics over time. I've been tracking the new follower limits very closely and I can't imagine that you guys were targeting @pandora_radio, @comcastcares, and dozens of other legitimate businesses and individuals with these limits. And telling them to just wait a few days to add new followers is asking for a tremendous amount of patience from some of your most loyal users. Please tell us that you guys are looking closely at whatever algorithm is behind the follower limits to insure that only the *real* bad guys (like the6figureteam.com spammers) are being flagged, not the good guys.

Hi,

I have submitted a Twitter support question about this a few days ago but never got any answer.

Why is it impossible to follow back someone who is following you? It's very frustating not to have the right to do this.

Also, the policies of Twitter re. spamming are not very clear. It changes very often. Why not be more clear in the terms of service???

I am not playing a game. I am not a bot. I give EVERY DAY a lot of news for free on my Twitter that people really appreciates it. For me, it's a new way to blog and interact.

So i experiment like i gave training courses for non profit about Twitter and how to use it since more than 10 months.

Twitter policies seems to mix real spammers with other that don't spam but really socialize in a good way... simply to share...

I am very frustating about this.

http://twitter.com/jeanlucr

Thanks. I received the receipt.

Thanks Thomas and Vicki for try to answer... I copy and paste the message i have just received from Marc (from Twitter staff) because people here wants to have more details about Twitter policies

---

Here is the message i received today from Twitter (Mark):

"> Hi,
>
> Thanks for your email. The reason you're receiving this error is because
> you've reached your follow limit. To follow more people you'll first need to
> remove some followers. This post from our forum may help explain what the
> limits are and why we made the decision to enforce these limits.
>
> http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/to...
>
> If you have any questions please let us know.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mark

----

And my answer to Marc :

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your answer. But what you mean exactly by SOME followers? Please give me a number. i have read the Twitter article i have commented and in my case, you don't give me any numbers. When you change Terms Of Services or policy, these ones can be clearly enounced and written which is not actually the case (When there are rules on a service like Twitter).

What do you think to Vicki remarks which are very interesting:
http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/to...

Best regards,

Jean-Luc

Hi Crystal,

So please update this information:
http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=...

because it's not very clear there.

This doesn't really answer the question. It also doesn't let one know how to start a new Twitter account, for example, for a brand. What happens if the brand tries to follow a bunch of people to get established and join the conversation? Is it too late for a new account on twitter to get popular with these limits?
Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, people.

Yes, because of course, no one except spammers want to start an account on Twitter to talk with their customers any more.
There's a "block" button when people you don't want to follow you, like @longerdonger, show up. Use it.
For those of us who actually want to use this system to bring companies into the 21st century concept of listening to their customers, these limits are, well, limiting. So this is an opportunity for a discussion about this. To, well, get satisfaction on the topic.

Hi howardgr. Here are some ideas that I hope you'll consider if you're starting out as a company on Twitter.

1. On your company's website, link to your company's Twitter account.

- That will bring visitors and potential followers to your Twitter account.

- It will assure everyone who sees your Twitter account that it is legitimate

2. Link your Twitter account's Bio URL to the page on your corporate website that talks about your Twitter account

- The intent is to provide independently verifiable evidence that your Twitter account is legitimate.

3. Use Twitter Search to find your most devoted customers on Twitter and add one or two dozen of them as friends

- I would advise against adding more than that if you're just starting out, because you'd look like a spammer.

- If the people that you've followed are really devoted to your brand, there's a good chance they will tweet about being followed by you and help spread the word about your account without you asking them to do so.

- follow no more than 5 new people per day after that. If people like your product or your company, they'll add you back, and that should boost your follower numbers and allow you to follow more people.

4. If you really need to reach out to a specific customer, send an @reply.

You can send an @reply to anyone, whether or not they're following you.

And IMHO, it will help if your @reply to them acknowledges their specific problem in some way (meaning it's not a generic @reply) so it feels a lot less spammy.

For example: Instead of
"@joe I might be able to help you with that"

you can send
"@joe Your speakers are fried? I can help. Send email to help@mycompany.com"

5. Consider using GSFN's Overheard feature. It's another way to reach out to customers via Twitter

There's a good overview of the Overheard feature also on the GSFN blog.

-----------

Some people say they need to follow all their customers on Twitter because this is the only way a customer can send you a direct msg with private information.

I think the 'private data' requirement is better addressed by simply giving your customers an email address that they can write to. You can always indicate that email address on your Twitter account's Bio info.

You're always better off getting customers to write you directly anyway, so you can get their email address and reach out to them again later. You can even ask them if they'd like to opt in to any of your other online programs. If you rely solely on Twitter direct messages, you won't be able to directly contact your customers again in the future *except* through Twitter.

Personally, I feel it's counter-productive to try following *every* Twitter user that mentions your product because, frankly, not every tweet they make is going to be about your product or company anyway.

The Twitter Search service lets you zero in on the specific tweets that are relevant to you so you don't waste your time wading through unrelated tweets.

The best example I can provide of someone not needing to follow people in order to help them is @firefox_answers. While not an official agent of mozilla, the man must be up 23 hours a day. All he does is use the search.twitter.com service to find posts complaining about Firefox or looking for help, and he @replies them with something that may help the user. I love using @firefox_answers as an example of how companies (yes he's not a company but he still answers questions about a product) can use twitter without following a ton of people that they're actually not interested in.

Also, whatever mdy said is true and correct. Especially about e-mail, there's 3 quicken employees here and on twitter that just tell people an answer, or a link to the official quicken forum, or their e-mail address. They wanna help, and they know they can have issues that take more than 140 characters to explain. As well, they can use get satisfaction's overheard feature for things that aren't private but take more than 140 characters, as mdy mentioned.

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.

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

I find this series of tweets interesting and relevant.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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

What is twitter doing about this?

I thought it was a ratio thing that's limiting. I have almost 700 followers. I was not able to follow more. I thought if I unfollow people that would help. But now I have unfollowed almost everyone, under 100 I'm following, including people who I said I'm following back, and I still can't follow more!!!

This is extremely frustrating, when I have emailed Twitter support 3 times, with no response. The whole concept is flawed in the first place.

If this continues I am sure plenty of people will stop using twitter.

Would appreciate if you guys can look into this for me. Twitter username is HongKongWong.

Rick Sanchez from CNN claims to be receiving preferential treatment

**from Rick's producer** Twitter folks tell us the "follow limit" issue is a bug. They are working to fix it now.

The twitter limit for number of people you follow could lead to people using multiple accounts.

I use Twitter to understand a group with similar interests. One easy one to reference is Realtors. I am interested in what is going on in the local markets and I want the local view. Twitter Realtors might be a self-selecting group but it still works for me. If I follow a lot there is little reason why they would follow me back. Somewhat asymetric information flow by design.

Hitting the limit without any real information about what my choices are leads me to consider just watching different accounts when I want to understand different topics. Maybe not post from different accounts submitting a Tweet has a different purpose than observing a group.

I get the idea that keeping some things quiet makes it easier to fight SPAM. I do not see why following too many triggers SPAM if I am following but not many are following me. It could be that I am just naive on this one.

So Twitter has imposed an arbitrary cap because users are too stupid to change their settings? Brilliant!

Ken

I was only trying to suggest that if it's an annoyance, it seems like a better idea to disable the notification system than to set arbitrary limits for everyone.

Nice opening line, though, genius.

Ken

Being followed by a large number of spam followers is far more annoying. I've had to protect my updates to stop them and I need the email notification to let me know when I've got a genuine follower. If you've not experienced 10 followers in 1 hour all with the same ad which can range from lame to pornographic, you will have no idea what it's like.

Isn't that what the settings are for? Can't you set them so you approve followers? I know many on Twitter do that.

Here's an idea: let me block someone via the lingo so that I can do it from my twitter client without loading the website.

People should be able to follow and be followed by an unlimited number. I can see restricting tweets and directs, but limiting the service's ability to serve as an information feed is nuts.

I have hit the 2000 follower limit and I can no longer add users to my account even though I have people requesting me. Yes I don't have a 1:1 following ratio but I am not some crazy spammer. I have a semi popular blog and people keep adding me... How to I get my limits raised besides being Robert Scoble or someone like that.

I am well under 2,000 (1,105), but still unable to be following more. Only reply I receive to query leads to this page. This is not helpful for me. Limit may be best if equal to at least double number of followers (567 x 2 = 1134)

I too have also hit the 2000 follower limit and can no longer add users to my account. I find it a necessity to continue to follow new people who follow me. I don't go around spamming people and have a genuine interest in everybody that follows me - and the people that I follow.

I can understand limits of number of tweets per hour or minute or stuff that can affect the twitter servers .. but I don't see how limiting my followers saves twitter.

Please remove the ban from my account.

HART aka PetLvr
HART-Empire Network.

I'm with you, I'm annoyed by Twitter's 2,000 following limit

I can understand having following limits on NEW follows, but we should be able to follow those following US without limits. How can we show mutual "respect" to those following us if we can't follow them... hmmmmmmmm!!

how do i bump up the limit to follow more than 2000 people?

Can we request the limit be lifted on a case-by-case basis?

I believe you can only follow more than 2000 people when you have 2000 people following you back.

Also, unless I've misunderstood, I believe that whitelisting is possible for third-party applications rather than for individual users. Whitelisting lifts the 100 requests per hour limit for the API... it doesn't actually allow you to follow more people. (Though I could be wrong about this)

HOW do I get whitelisted? I'm a journalist. I'm not selling ginsu knives, SEO secrets, or porn. Without being able to follow a many people on my beats as possible, Twitter's appeal becomes extremely limited to me.

Thomas, any reason you're so combative?

My Web site is http://www.rblevin.net if you're concerned about my credentials. I've covered IT for over 20 years. And I don't just "follow" people; I engage them.

And I have no problem following or interacting with 2000 people. That's one of the points of social media. It allows you to scale your personal network globally. I also have several hundred RSS feeds I track.

I don't use Twitter to read. That's for RSS. I use it to engage and build relationships with people who might become sources. And last I checked, the IT biz is a global beat, not a local one.

Please, chill out. Kick a ball, not me.

Thanks for pointing out where the answer is in this long thread.

No, but you do have to follow them to narrow your field of interest and squelch the noise. I'm personally not interested in what people had for dinner, but I am interested in reading what journalists, PR peeps, and IT peeps are talking about.

It's not noise if it's on topic. Of the 1800 I now follow, probably no more than a few hundred, if that, actively update.

Besides, I'm used to information overload. My eyes and brain are scalable.

Is there any easy way to identify them and unfollow?

Twitter could benefit from some simple managment features. For example, a basic database report on following/followers that shows name, # tweets, date of last tweet, etc., and allows selection of groups for unfollowing, etc.

Wow, I'm really surprised at the tone people are using to answer RB's very legit question. It is perfectly fine to follow that many people, no one is reading every tweet anyway.
RB - you might look at TweetDeck.com or PeopleBrowsr to help create an interface that let you manage the various twitter streams (@ you, Directs, and even searches). Hope that's helpful.

Thanks Howardgr.

So, Thomas, interesting from a fellow whose get satisfaction profile says "Dont' take me too seriously" - you're taking this situation too seriously.

RBLevin asked a question, and you've managed to put him down, insult PR people, journalists, people who 'can't possibly' follow more than 2000 people, and people who live in small towns.

Stop being so helpful here. Your water analogy doesn't, um, hold water.

Because of bad actors, we should all behave and use twitter the way you want us to?

It's more like - "well, no one could possibly read all the books in a library, we should limit them to 2000 only. Oh, maybe someone should burn the ones I don't want people to read too."

One limit you mention is "70 API requests per hour." What is "API," esp as it applies to Twitter? I'm new to all of this and quite "green" re all-things-tech. Many thanks.

API is an "application programming interface" - typically how computer programs talk to servers or to each other.
What it means for you is - if you were to use Twitter via a client software program, something like TweetDeck.com, you can only "ask" twitter for information and updates around one time per minute.

If you're just using twitter via the web or text messaging it is not something you'll have to pay attention to.
Good luck on Twitter. Whats' your twitter name so we can follow you?

thanks for the quick answer. also happy you mentioned tweetdeck and other client programs. i've been testing out a few - twitterific, twitterberry and tweetdeck - in the hope of learning more and figuring out my real needs/preferences. (fyi, i find the UI on twitterific frustrating and clunky.) one Q about those: do actions i take, eg, favorite-ing, deleting, etc., on one client, automatically show up on the others?

my mistake - i meant to write that i find twitterberry clunky, particularly in terms of UI. i'll keep what you wrote in mind before considering a test of Twhirl! thanks.

WHITELISTING is not available to non-developers. Per Twitter:

RBLevin:

Thanks for requesting to be on Twitter's API whitelist.
Unfortunately, we've rejected your request.

Here's why:

Apologies, but whitelisting is only for developer use.

Please address the issues above and submit another request if appropriate.

Thanks for your interest and good luck!

I got a message telling me I exceeded the hourly limit, maybe its down to refreshing but how can you have conversations with people if you are watching how often you refresh? 100 seems way too low.

I've been unable to follow anyone who's following me... usually if someone follows me, I will follow back. I have not been able to do so in the past few days. It's PISSING ME OFF. I want to be able to interact with people - start a conversation, share important information, etc.

So I'm moving my unsatisfied Twitter-butt over to http://www.tiseme.com
You can share whatever the hell you want and follow whomever you want - start a conversation and join in a conversation. The CEO even joins in on the conversation. It's all about customization and being involved with the users and making them happy. Why try to be a company with limits - I swear, once folks get BIG their attitudes change. Get with it - it's the users that drive your applications...dissatisfy your users and they will ultimately leave, slowly yet surely.

Elle, I agree with you because of the limits, I have now left twitter, I can't be bothered with their pathetic limits anymore

Thomas - isn't that what Twitter is for? For individuals, businesses, products, services, etc to advertise - whether it be a short 140 character post of "what are you doing" given we post short urls that directs us to what we're reading or wanting to share? It's like DIGG on crack. My twitter followers follow me because I share information based on what I do for a living - the same information in which they are interested in based on finding me through twitter search or any of the other twitter apps or by an @ reply to someone they follow because of the conversation we're having... twitter has taken off like a speeding bullet train and i think they're finding it hard to control, monetize, etc... it's taken a life of its own thanks to mainstream media. Not everyone uses it for SMS purposes and the ones that do actually regulate who they follow so they won't get bombarded with messages. I however, shut those alerts off and don't use SMS -- I do however, create a rule in Outlook (email) for incoming twitter messages. I really think Twitter should cut the follow limits and put the task / responsibility on the users of who they want to follow and unfollow without it becoming some sort of political thing where it's pissing users off. They should focus on the real spammers - the ones that post the same message 24/7 like it's the red light district...

hey in just half a day i was suddenly mass un-followed on twitter.. about 30 people unfollowed me suddenly.. Can someone tell me why it happened?