My Love For Twitter Has Diminished: Why My Account Got Suspended
photo credit: monkeyworks illustration
Did you notice?
Did you notice that my old account got suspended?
Want to know why? Let me quote:
“Hello,
Your account was suspended for aggressive following behavior, a violation of the Twitter Rules (http://twitter.com/rules).”
Yes people, I broke the rules; I aggressively followed people. I should take it like a man, learn from my lessons, and never do it again right? I’d agree with you and wholeheartedly answer yes if it wasn’t for the fact that my account got suspended for following back the people that followed me. Confused? Let me start from the top.
About a month ago I got this problem with Twitter spammers. Let me tell you +100 daily Direct Messages from people telling you to:
- Increase your penis size
- Buy their “How To Use Twitter” book
- Find a girlfriend/boyfriend:
- Whiten your teeth
- Visit (insert porn site)
- etc.
Makes you never want to check your DMs ever again. And sadly, all the real DMs from people got lost in the shuffle (sorry to those I never answered back).
Wanting to solve the issue decided to “Bulk Unfollow” about 80% – 90% of my list. So my twitter stats changed from
Following : 6,170 Followers: 5,739 Listed: 72
to
Following : 170 Followers: 4,739 Listed: 67
*I can’t remember the exact numbers of the top of my head, but those are close estimates.
I lost followers in the process, but I didn’t really care because I figured the people that stayed are the people that weren’t spammers and generally followed me to here what I have to say. It wasn’t all love though, a few people got “mad” that I unfollowed them, said “I was exhibiting spammer/diva qualities”, and decided to unfollow me back, and on top of it blocked me. And still, I didn’t care. I for one realized that these people only followed me so I could follow them back (which I had done), and I was glad to have lost them.
In the weeks following, my Twitter life was basically bliss. I had solved my spammer problem, reveled in the fact that a majority of the people that followed me decided to keep following me, and I even started talking with more/new people. Twitter life was great!
But I noticed something about two weeks ago. Most of the people I talked to eventually wanted to Direct Message me, but couldn’t because I wasn’t following them. Most were okay with emailing me, but I saw the trouble they were going through just to talk to me, and frankly I check my Twitter account more than I do my eMail.
After thinking about it I decided to follow back the people that follow me (minus the obvious spammers), and take advantage of the Twitter Lists functions. My plan was to follow back the 4,739+ people that were still following me, but while following them back I would be adding them to individual lists which I could keep a better eye on (the lists were private because I didn’t want people to follow them, or think I was showing favoritism to certain people). But, Twitter has this follow limit thing in place. You can only follow about 1,000 people per day. I, having over 4,000 people to follow back, realized that I would have to set aside the next 4-5 days just for following people. And that’s what I did. For about 5 days I followed back people until I hit that days “Follow Limit“. Eventually, I was done. My task complete, I relaxed, logged out, went out, and took care of other things in my life.
Imagine my surprise when I logged in the next day to find my account suspended? I had “exhibited suspicious qualities“. So I wrote a complaint letter to Twitter, telling them that if I was suspended for following back the people that follow me, then frankly I didn’t do anything wrong.
Wasn’t the whole point of social media, the being social part?
A friend of mine (who I met through Twitter, who I talk with constantly, and who I followed back so they could DM me) even took the time out of their day to write another complaint letter on my behalf (I won’t name them unless they tell me I can).
Twitter answered back today (a whole week delayed). They said I had aggressively followed people, a few people had blocked me (remember the people who blocked me earlier because I didn’t follow them?), and thus I would never get my account back.
Thus, I found myself making a brand new Twitter account today and ranting about it (same name though @dancePROOF).
I’m not saddened by the loss of followers, I’m more saddened by the loss of trust, the loss of a history (I had over 15,000+ tweets!!!), and the loss of time (re-establishing all the connections I had with people is going to take time).
My new Twitter stats = Following : 185 Followers: 167 Listed: 2
I have to thank Twitter for making me realize something though. Thank you Twitter for making me realize that although I have my name and info on my account (and practically my entire life), my Twitter account doesn’t really belong to me. You have the power to shut of my “voice” whenever and however you want to (unlike my blog). And on top of it, you don’t even have to reasonably tell me why, or listen to my valid arguments (don’t give me the excuse of your under-staffed, I know you outsource some of your services).
With my new account I won’t make the same mistake twice; thinking I could actually follow back the people I talk to regularly. My new account is currently following 166 people, and that number is bound to change slowly. Sorry if you follow me and I don’t follow back, I can’t really do that without getting suspended now can I?
So, like a boyfriend who’s been cheated on, my heart’s been broken, and I enter this new relationship weary and untrustworthy (especially since it’s the same “partner”).
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Written by Arsene: Hey, I'm Arsène. To sum everything up briefly I'm a krump dancer/teacher, mixed-media artiste, social media manager, writer, ex-ubervegan, ex-polyphasic sleeper, and a genocide survivor (yes, that's the brief version). If you must label me, call me "fool" or "revolutionary". I don't mind, I've been called both countless times. Find me working on my current project over at Quotes-Clothing.com <--- Quotes can change the world. |
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6 Responses to “My Love For Twitter Has Diminished: Why My Account Got Suspended”
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That’s ridiculous.
I noticed when you went through your “cleaning” — and frankly, I think more people should at least cull their list of who they follow.
Well, glad we’re twitter connected again.
but you live and you learn. Glad you decided to stay.
RT @dancePROOF: dancePROOF Post: My Love For Twitter Has Diminished: Why My Account Got Suspended http://ow.ly/1dxQU
dancePROOF Post: My Love For Twitter Has Diminished: Why My Account Got Suspended http://ow.ly/1dxQA
So that explains why I couldn’t view your profile. I was wondering what you could’ve done
@dancePROOF has diminishing @twitter love. Reading this, I don't blame him. http://bit.ly/bwj4Ha