Some more random (very) thoughts about Twitter and tweets

Once again my Twitter count has me concerned about its authenticity. Right now people reading this are probably thinking that this is a complaint expressed many times by this blogger. Really, it shouldn't bother or concern me in the grand scheme of things but it does.

Let me clarify that Twitter is a useful communication tool. As a writer, it's a means in which to publicize my blog updates. I mean, there's no sense in sharing one's view if nobody reads it. Right? My philosophy in as far as "following" people/places/things is that it has to mean something to me personally. Being that I'm an aspiring playwright with hopes of having one of my plays produced before I depart this world for that great theatre in the great beyond (feeling very philosophical), I'll follow and tweet theatres and theatre-related people to keep abreast of the business. As an artist, tweets and updates from creative types following me will be reciprocated, as are humor writers/writing blogs and literary matters. Then there's the cornucopia of tweeters who might not be related to my interests but intrigue me on a personal level to follow them.

It's somewhat trivial but there is something annoying upon discovering that my "follower" count has dropped. True it doesn't happen that often but it's disturbing not knowing who dropped me and the reason. So I'm thinking here, perhaps Twitter should provide a category for this very issue. Something to the effect: "Hi blank-blank! Just a short note to tell you that I'm not following you anymore because you didn't follow me back." At least there would be a reason - not that it would make a person feel better. Perhaps another space could be provided where the drop-ee could ask for re-consideration: "Please reconsider following me again because..."

On occasion Twitter does make errors in their tweet updates and in the past, it/they/whatever Twitter is, reversed my followers and following lists. Twitter has this subject covered in their "Help" section under the "My follower count is wrong" section:

• If you received a message from Twitter alerting you to a new follower, but don't see that person later in your followers list, it's likely that user was removed for spam activity, unfollowed you, or deactivated their account.

Naturally, e-mails were sent to notify them of the errors of their ways but in the end, the count remained the same.

Another issue is nowhere is it mentioned how to determine the identity of the drop-per so it's pure speculation at best. In the end it's all a numbers game, anyway, and every tweet counts. To paraphrase a line from an Elvis song: tweet me right.

Twitter followers falling by the wayside. Calling Dr. T.W. Itter!

I'm developing a Twitter complex and there's very little, it appears, that I can do to remedy the situation.

"So tell us Eleanor," Dr. T.W.Itter, Psychiatrist, DFS (dropped follower specialist) would ask if consulted about the complex, "how did this come about?"

At which point I would answer Dr. T.W.Itter, "well y'see doc - a while back I decided to sign up to Twitter as a means to communicate with others who share my interests, and to pubicize my blogs. I have a lot of blogs, y'know! Seven in all!" I would answer him.

"Ahhhhh - seven blogs, Dr. T.W. Itter would comment, while scribbling notes madly on his pad. "So why do you have so many, anyway? Most people have one...two at the most."

"I'm a person with varied interests," I would state matter-of-factly while explaining my rationale for seven blogs. "One to rant and rave and comment about life...another for my art...and so on. But can we get back to the reason for this consultation?"

"Refresh my memory - why are you here?" Dr. T.W. Itter would ask.

"I'm dropping Twitter followers again," I would explain forlornly. "One minute people are following me and suddenly, they start dropping me like flies sprayed with Raid."

"Hmmm...do you think it's something that there's something wrong with your tweets, possibly?" he would or could ask, which is a logical conclusion.

"I doubt it. I mean, I'm beginning to think that I'm - you know - well...boring. People are intrigued to see what I'm all about and once they do, they decide my tweets aren't interesting."

"Hmmmm....dropped followers. Yes. This appears to be a common complaint among Twitter-ers but there could be another explanation," he would suggeset helpfully. "It could be a technical glitch for this occurrence. Have you tried contacting Twitter?"

"Not yet - that has happened in the past. A Twitter technical bug reversed my followers and followees. Lost quite a few as a result of that," I would elaborate.

"There is also another possibility worth considering," Doc. T.W. Itter would offer. "As much as this hurts me to have to alert you of a practice observed by some people, I feel I must. Some people may follow you just so you will follow them back and then when you do - they drop you and your Twitter count. That will be umpteen dollars. Pay the nurse on your way out."

"But doctor," I would protest, "this is not a way to boost my confidence! "what should and could I do to change this upsetting situation?"

"How would I know. I'm a pyschiatrist - not a Twitter expert," he might comment. "By the way - do you follow me? I'm on Twitter too. If you follow me, I'll follow you. A follower is a follower is a follower."

Everybody's got an angle!

Dear Ms. Mr. Anonymous...about followers

Dear Ms. Mr. Anonymous

Thank you for the interesting comment/feedback you made to my complaint/kvetch regarding the Twitter ‘following/count’ situation. While it's true that it’s a free service, one wonders if the service would be better if users had to pay for it. Perhaps yes or perhaps it would be the same. We'll never know unless - heaven forbid - they start charging to tweet.

In your comments to my blog comments, you wrote:
“In the end, does it really matter whether anyone has 150 followers? Or 151? For most people, the follower count naturally fluctuates from one login/visit to another. That's just the way things work. Seriously, who cares?"

Can't speak for other Twitter users but actually, I obviously care as do many others who have added their names to the Twitter complaint lists. The fact that Twitter features the "following" and "follower" ...whatever you call them, means that there are others "out there" in Twitter-land, who feel the same way. As proof of this, singer John Mayer and Ashton Kutcher were determined to have the distinction of acquiring 1 million followers. Why, if this wasn’t important, would they make a point of attempting to get tweeters to follow them? Apparently, having people follow them was an indication of their success. See what I mean? In fact, many celebrities use Twitter to promote their popularity and increase their status.

So y'see, Ms. Mr. Anonymous - followers are important to some of us.

You also commented:
"Twitter is a great way to connect: Use it for its intended purpose and learn to live with the little inconsistencies that crop up along the way."

On that we both agree. It is a great way to connect but it's those littler consistencies along the way that get to you, like incorrect follower count. Ask me about it.

Yours in Tweeting,

Eleanor

When is a tweet not a tweet? It's not tweet!

Checked into Twitter as I do every morning as part of my daily regimen of keeping up to date with people's lives and what should I find? Dear Twitter still hasn't updated my followers count.

Quelle surprise!

Checked the "ticket" page to see if my problem had even been among those worked on and was greeted with "no ticket."

Again - quelle surprise.

It is even more annoying since four new followers have found my updates interesting enough to...follow and Twitter doesn't acknowledge their existence. I mean, can you imagine the reaction of the new followers?

"How d'ya like that?" they most likely say to themselves upon realizing that they're not counted in the count. "Now I won't receive updates on those wonderful tweets from Eleanor!"

It's possible somebody might have said or had that thought.

What is most bizarre is that the following thingie works. In other words, when I follow somebody else, it matters but if they follow me back, it doesn't.

On top of which I'm experiencing problems signing in and have to keep changing my user name. Thing is, I keep forgetting the new user name, which means I have to keep changing and changing and... You get the idea.

So I'm going to mark each day that the problem continues here in this blog - with commentary of course. Curious if anyone else reading this has experienced similar problems. You begin to wonder if Twitter really cares about its tweeters.

New day/week /month - Twitter doesn't tweet

How tweet it is - not!

Seems that Twitter is inviting its users/followers to try out their latest version of Twitter. Thanks for the invitation, Twitter, but perhaps you should attempt to solve some of the existing problems in the old version. On a personal note once again my new followers are not being recognized by Twitter. I mean, what's the use of creating a "followers" category if it doesn't follow?

This time round I decided to go through the "normal" route and attempt to voice my displeasure in their Twitter support centre. The "Missing Tweets from your Account" section advises tweeters:

"Are you missing all your tweets from your Profile page? If so, do not worry, we are aware of the issue and are working with the engineers to resolve this. We apologize for the inconvenience caused."

Somehow this doesn't make me feel better. Don't worry? Really, there are more important things in life but nevertheless, it's aggravating. New Tweeters find our tweets interesting enough to follow and because of technical glitches, Twitter refuses or can't recognize them. Somehow, the "don't worry" advice isn't exactly reassuring given their advanced technological knowledge. In an attempt to fix the problem, just added my frustration to all the other 936 comments in the "missing Tweets" section:

"Yet another attempt at getting Twitter to recognize new followers. Appreciate the update and appologies but the problem is ongoing. Please find solution."

As mentioned in the previous Twitter-related piece in this blog, there are not a lot of "followers" following me so every follower counts. The challenge is how to make Twitter react accordingly. One can only hope - and wait and wait and...

A Twitter tweet is a tweet when it tweets

Different day, still on-going problem with Twitter counts. I dunno - given my somewhat limited number of followers - compared to other people with thousands or hundreds-of-thousands of followers - everybody counts. It is for this very reason that a count verification is in order whenever another person follows me. Whenever I receive notification to this effect, it elicits a "oh super - another person is following me!" to be followed by "damn - they dropped me!" feeling if the number decreases. However, another on-problem is that in the past and once again, the "following" and "followers" columns are reversed. Any newbies are reflected in the "following" category, which is just not correct. Hence the frustration.

In order to alert Twitter tech. of this problem, there is a "contact" at the bottom of the page. Clicking on this word brings one to a sub-list of categories including "something's not working" and clicking on these three words leads one to long list of problematic situations that tweeters are experiencing. My problem is in the "following" category and further clicking leads one to "my follow count is incorrect - known issue" section with the explanation provided:

"Currently we do not have a work around to fix this problem and Support agents are unable to fix your account for you. For this reason we would appreciate it if you could leave a comment below rather than submit a help request."

There are currectly 231 tweeters who have registered a complaint in this category. Twitter prefaces the complaint list with: "UPDATE: 06/07/2010 This issue is still set to lower priority for other higher impact issues to be solved first. Thanks for your patience!"

For the record I have added my complaints to the list in the past and tweeters wait until a Twitter techie is assigned to the case and will work on solving the problem. Hopefully. On one occasion a techie provided an explanation that "followers" for whatever reason drop tweeters and this could be one explanation I suppose. It's been my experience as mentioned in a previous Twitter-related rant that once a person is followed, the followed are expected to reciprocate and if not - tough - they drop you. Another techie requested that I prove my new followers. I mean, how many people actually keep track of "blah-blah is following you" notification?

We'll see how long it takes for tech. to fix the problem, if ever. It's enough to give a tweeter "twitterfollowphoebi-itis." Ask me about it.

The Twitter complex

"Twitter is a communication service that enables you to quickly send out short messages about what you are doing to a network of people."
(Wiki Answers.com)


Like many people around the world, I'm a twit. Let me clarify this statement: I'm actually a Tweeter who uses Twitter to update my status. Doesn't everyone or at least those with extra time on their hands who want to be socially relevant.

My official status in case anyone reading this is interested is 158 followers or people who find me interesting enough to want to keep up with my thoughts or impressions and related matter. In addition I'm following 179tweeters some of whom I'm genuinely interested and others because - well - they follow me so I feel it's only right that I follow them back. No insult intended, by the way. Kind of pathetic when you think about it.

There have been a few issues with Twitter, which have been brought to the attention of their techies, for example, they have reversed my followers and following count.

After searching the Twitter site extensively for an e-mail to make them aware of this error, I finally came accross a usable link. The first Twitter techie was helpful and made the necessary changes after a while to correct the reversal, however subsequent techies were indifferent to my plight. Their solution is to direct tweeters to their forum where everyone can complain about their various issues and there are lots and lots of issues.

The negative aspects to being a tweeter is that a follower can drop you at any time. In conducting my daily check-in a while back, I discovered to my chagrin that 3 people had dropped me for whatever reason. That's the thing: you just never know why a person stops following you! So you speculate that perhaps my tweets are boring, or perhaps it's a result of declining the offer to follow them... It's enough to give a person a tweeter complex! The challenge is to make an enticing statement within 140 bytes or extra words end up in the dastardly red letters minus sign.

There is some positive news. Last week a few more people were added to the followers column but how long they will stay is anyone's guess. I'm always betwixt and between tweeters.

Update: once again it appears that Twitter has not recognized a new follower today by not recognizing it in my numbers. ~ sigh ~