Where they follow, I'm not leading

[robotech_master]

I'm really getting a little fed up with the various follows I get from people on Twitter. On the one hand, there are the followspammers: people who follow you, and then end up having only one update, which is a link to some Really Amazing Offer. (More recently, some of them have gotten a little smarter, and set up a fake trail of previous "real life" entries to lead up to the R.A.O.)

But then there are those people who are seemingly real people, but who are following some outlandish number of people. For instance, this morning I got followed by one @fatherdave, who is followed by and is following nearly 5,000 people.

I have enough trouble keeping up with almost a hundred people, and I've followed all of them expressly because I was interested in what they have to say. How on earth can anyone follow 5,000 people?

Answer: They can't. They don't even bother. Twitter, for these people, is just about them, not about the people they follow. They're only following you to say, "Hey, look at how neat I am! Come and look at me! Follow me back so I can market to you!"

I just don't think that's how Twitter ought to be used.

Comments

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

That's kind of ridiculous, all right.

There's no way that following someone creates an obligation in them to follow you. That kind of thinking is just dumb.