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What is being done about FolloWhores?
What is being done about FolloWhores?
a FolloWhore is a spammer/marketeer that follows tens of thousands of people, for the primary purpose of directing traffic to certain websites... FolloWhores typically have very low update counts, of ZERO value to their few(i.e. 100-ish) followers. They present a tremendous strain on Twitter's already frail API's and infrastructure.
Suggestion(s):
1.) Put Follower/following ratio limits into effect. i.e. they can't follow more than 5x or 10x their followers
2.) Place restrictions on how fast people can follow and/or how many people they can add per day/hour, etc... (i watched someone follow 1000 ppl in 20 minutes)
3.) Add a "report spam/abuse" button next to the Block button., and regulate it like CraigsList does... TwitterBlackList is a good start, but doesn't close the loop.
Thanks for listening., I'm looking forward to seeing a solution.
AceyTech
a FolloWhore is a spammer/marketeer that follows tens of thousands of people, for the primary purpose of directing traffic to certain websites... FolloWhores typically have very low update counts, of ZERO value to their few(i.e. 100-ish) followers. They present a tremendous strain on Twitter's already frail API's and infrastructure.
Suggestion(s):
1.) Put Follower/following ratio limits into effect. i.e. they can't follow more than 5x or 10x their followers
2.) Place restrictions on how fast people can follow and/or how many people they can add per day/hour, etc... (i watched someone follow 1000 ppl in 20 minutes)
3.) Add a "report spam/abuse" button next to the Block button., and regulate it like CraigsList does... TwitterBlackList is a good start, but doesn't close the loop.
Thanks for listening., I'm looking forward to seeing a solution.
AceyTech
I’m angry, frustrated
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Tell me when someone solves it.
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The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?These are very good suggestions hopefully the Twitter people will respond with a better, usable service.
I am so frustrated with Twitter and the continual downtime they have that I am so very close to just dumping the whole idea of micro-blogging.
Gary -
Inappropriate?This is a problem. I am with you why do people follow so many people and they only have 5 post. Why? That is not the purpose of this service. -
Inappropriate?I agree with the Following limitations but not the Followed limitation. Someone like Wil Wheaton has 11,628 legitimate followers, while he's only Following 48.
Twitter, you need to swing that hammer of Justice or your service will disappear into the "remember when" category.
I’m waiting for Justice
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Inappropriate?"Get 'er done". There's no good or rational reason someone needs to follow 1000's of people. They can't possibly read them and they don't! I read all mine. I follow 47 folks. Most don't post often. Please do something soon so I can actually keep using this. I would be sad to see this go the way of the Dinosaurs...
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Fwiw, I think Twitter will start adding and enforcing new limits on the system, based on this new FAQ page that I only saw for the first time yesterday.1 Comment
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This solves the problem
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That FAQ page is promising but I think Twitter should disclose the limits, or at least some of them. I'm guessing the limits are geared toward FolloWhores and so would not affect typical users, but if the most popular users are hitting these limits and getting frustrated, they may give up on Twitter, possibly taking faithful followers with them. On the other hand, I can see how Twitter wouldn't want to disclose something like a limitation on the number of new follows (not followers) in a given period, as software could be developed to automatically add x users every y minutes, with x being the max number of new follows allowed in y minutes. -
Inappropriate?This is perfect! I'm for all 3 of those suggestions and they need to be implemented very soon!!
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Be Fair: BarackObama is a follow whore because he cannot be reading all the tweets of the people he is following, and also is causing a load on the server by doing said following.
(Free way to boost your follow count, follow barack for a second and then unfollow, he will follow you)2 Comments Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Read again Thomas.. Item #1 above: follows 5-10 *times* the amount of people that are following 'said person'
Obama follows 1:1(nearly) A system that used these 3 rules above, would not consider him a FolloWhore.
Thanks for joining in over here tho! -
Hmm, but still, Leo uses the "popular person" system where he doesn't follow everyone that follows him. Auto-followbacks should be discouraged. Only follow if you find the person interesting or otherwise want to read what they write.
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Inappropriate?Fwiw... I used to follow-back everyone who followed me (this was back when there were no spammers yet in the system and @replies didn't exist yet).
I was doing this not necessarily because I wanted to hear from all of them, but rather because by following them back, I also gave them the ability to send me a DM.
When Twitter later introduced the Replies tab and made it so that it showed @replies even from people I'm not following, I stopped following people back and have in fact started pruning my Following list... have cut down by over 200 so far. I'm hoping to get my Following list down (eventually) to around 500 because anything more than that is tough for me to truly follow. -
Inappropriate?Ugh, one of the more annoying things is LOCAL follow whores now. "Hey, you're near me, how about I follow you not because I find you interesting as a local person but because I see you as a potential sucker!" I've had a real estate agent, a PR agent, and someone trying to win a local beauty contest.
One weird one is @investigator1, which is apparently a private investigator in California and Virginia. I guess his goal is to follow everyone, keep notes, and see if we're 'cheating' on our partners? "@alice see you behind stuckeys at 1am, @mary will be fast asleep by then. @investigator1 must never know." -
Inappropriate?I also would like it if when I "blocked" these lovely, classy and respectful ladies if they would disappear from my Followers list. It's not that I don't WANT to see their faces - but who can handle that kind of compitition??
I’m a little intimidated by the..ahem..feminitiy of these women. Get 'em off my page!
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Inappropriate?I also would like it if when I "blocked" these lovely, classy and respectful ladies if they would disappear from my Followers list. It's not that I don't WANT to see their faces - but who can handle that kind of compitition??
I’m a little intimidated by the..ahem..feminitiy of these women. Get 'em off my page!
