Qwitter: Twitter just got shitter
fail whale
I’ve already had emails asking why I don’t follow someone. And emails asking why I appear to have stopped following someone. And emails telling me that someone’s friend was upset that I’d blocked them, and could I please unblock them and follow them again. Actually, it reminds me less of blogrolls than the primary school playground.
Which is why I’m so distressed to hear about Qwitter. Qwitter emails you when someone stops following you on Twitter, with a message telling you what your last post was. It’s possible that people will be able to use this to measure the effectiveness of their twittering: is the signal-to-noise ratio wrong? too many tweets? too many @ private conversations going on in public? too much spam social media marketing?
Or not. I think TechCrunch has it right:
If someone unfollows you, you’ll know and you’ll be able to ask them why.
I don’t want to have to justify my unfollowing. I just want to read the people I’m interested in reading, and ignore the rest, however much I might like them in other contexts. I don’t want to turn this into an ego contest.
Tags: bad ideas, Qwitter, social media, Twitter
It seems totally bonkers to me. The whole point of something like Twitter is that you see if something interests you and then, like a magazine that was interesting one week, but not the next, you stop subscribing.
What’s wrong with that?
(although I shall be heartbroken if you stop following me…:-( )
It really depends on one’s views of Twitter. Some view it more like a community like Facebook, given the status updater. Others don’t take it more impersonal and could care less if someone qwit them or not.
By the way I love the “You have the conch,” bit for comments. Are you a “Lord of the Flies” fan?
Best thoughts,
Matt
Oops on the “don’t” –Matt