louisgray.com - Latest Comments in http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

blujam — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:52:04 -0000

Thank you for the insight Louis...

I find it highly irritating that twitter can't even
eliminate the programming glitches in their front
end, much less the goofy limitations...

it's awful confusing, but you shed some
light on it, thanks...

Jeff Davis CEO
WorkAtHomeJobsNow.com

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Al Mac — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:45:20 -0000

Interesting stuff. The trouble with spammers is they are like badly behaved children, they need constant supervision. I'm sure the tweet team did not want to have to deal with that side of things, who does? Perhaps people will migrate to a slicker service and we will fight the same battle there, or perhaps Twitter will revolutionize the way spam is handled without effecting their service. Lets hope for the later.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

geogeller — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:06:21 -0000

twitter was designed in response to sms txt messages as is the 140 characters but they are stuck in their old model and believing in their own propaganda

twitter as i wrote yesterday in a tweet is about follwoing ideas/people not just people to cap twitter at 2000 following by some arbitrary nonsense defeats it purpose and potential as an open inviting social sculpture - i have a tag #end2000followlimit - its just a way of saying i think twitter is running with their shoes tied together - they are falling in to the abyss of not listening to their audience and believing in their own propaganda - facebook mistake to twitters benefit among other things is there 5000 limit which is also crazy for people who have more followers they can't follow - i can't follow my own family and friends right now unless i delete some or somebody has enough of my nonsense - so actually facebook made twitter more then it is by playing the same limitation game - do you think chris brogan and garyvee and many others would have stayed with had they had 2000 caps - food for thought geo geller

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Bill Sodeman — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:14:34 -0000

So has Twitter jumped the shark?

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

mysticventures — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:55:23 -0000

It always amazes me when service providers in the social media arena fails to communicate with the community that drives their service.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

@JoeHobot — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:03:15 -0000

Louis, this twitter cap is pure BS ...dev's should go on strike! ....... :)

N'ways : I just wish the Suggested User list would never existed.

Wrong people are put on the list and don't deserve to be promoted by that devil's ev list :).

It's same like BS with Facebook Ego....if Julia Allison wouldn't do a great BJ to Zuckerberg , she would of never been promoted on FB....well now she is... :) there I said it hahahah.......

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Dave Saunders — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:47:32 -0000

I wonder if there's actually a scaling problem with the Twitter software and their dictating how Twitter is best used is actually a smoke screen for poorly designed software?

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Dave Saunders — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:45:12 -0000

I think Twitter is completely wrong in telling the public how Twitter is and isn't best used. Can you imagine visiting a party and refusing to accept a business card from someone who asks for yours? Most would see you as an arrogant snob. Saying that you can't follow everyone who follows you creates the same sort of elitist air through Twitter as well.

As for their suggestion that "no one can keep up with so many followers," Twitter isn't email. Run one of the many fine Twitter clients like TweetDeck to keep an eye out for conversations in which you're interested and see what's happening in your Twitter stream here-and-now, but scroll back and see what your list has been up to since you last logged in? C'mon, we barely do that with email, why would you do that with Twitter?

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Ari Herzog — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:55:37 -0000

This new decision must be revenge. For several months ending last Thursday, I was following approximately 10% of my followers. After abruptly changing my Twitter strategy to follow everyone and further auto-follow, not to mention follow folks in neither action, I'm now prevented from following more.

It must be revenge. So.. now I go to twitter.com and see who I can unfollow so I can follow someone I just tweeted with, but then I'll bet the auto-follow will kick in and BAM again.

This new policy bites, and Robert Scoble nailed why.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

US — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:18:48 -0000

So what about the 1.1 ratio or 110% formula for following..?

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

cleveridea — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:19:22 -0000

But, how is this affecting Robert Scoble? ;)

Seriously, whenever Twitter institutes one-size-fits-all solutions to problems they see they are demonstrating blindness to their greatest strength: Twitter is open and flexible enough for users to use it in radically different ways.

It wouldn't take more than average design and development effort to implement limitations that overwhelmingly affect only the spammies and kooks. They should aim higher in their constraints.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Gary Tripp — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:15:56 -0000

Great post ! @ihospitality

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:36:12 -0000

Twitter made a very conscious effort to nurture these applications - and they still do.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:32:22 -0000

Twitter has designed a very clever tool and despite the various bumps in the road they have clearly made some good decisions. Good design is not about leaving everything optional and up to the user but to make the right choices for users so they do not have to. So if one feels the need to follow all their followers simply to make them feel good (because it is not practical to really follow thousands of people) I think Twitter is totally right to take measures to stop that.

This is just like the 5000 friends cap on facebook were some very vocal user made a lot of noise. There the answer was not to up the limit but to change the paradigm by introducing fan pages to the mix.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Scott Manesis — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:19:37 -0000

That stinks.If twitter does start capping followers they won't have an issue for too long as this opens up a market for a new mini blog site to put them out of business simply by offering no limit following. This is a dumb move on twitters behalf.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

guruvan (Rob Nelson) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:16:00 -0000

:-)

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Andy Bakun — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:15:00 -0000

Nice chrisloft.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Chris Loft — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:15:00 -0000

Twitter caps - OPRAH KNOWS ALL ABOUT TWITTER CAPS

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

guruvan (Rob Nelson) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:13:00 -0000

<sarcasm> </sarcasm> lol! gotta use the tags sometimes

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Andy Bakun — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:12:00 -0000

guruvan, I know (that was sarcasm). -- Can we get some sarcasm metadata flag, FF? COMEON!

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Ken Sheppardson — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:11:00 -0000

Robert: Yeah, I got carried away there for a minute :-)

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

guruvan (Rob Nelson) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:11:00 -0000

Andy: The limits that they're using are dead wrong to achieve their stated goals, and the goal you're suggesting

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Andy Bakun — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:09:00 -0000

Come on, folks; by using caps, twitter is _protecting_ the social graph! If everyone was linked to everyone else, there'd be no useful information to mine. Like who you should follow to reach your follow limit.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Robert Scoble — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:06:00 -0000

Ken: totally wrong. I know several such hands that Twitter has bitten.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/04/twitter-caps-following-limits-denting.html

Peter — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:04:30 -0000

The fix for this is to have Twitter allow DMs from people you don't follow, if you select that option. The fix is *not* to follow all 12,000 people back, because then your timeline is too full to be actually useful. Unless you only use Twitter for DMs and @replies, in which case you might as well use email.