My weekly blog - ASIAN INTRIGUE

Twitter – Three things I do not understand

5/9/2013

I live in China, so here is a Cute Panda Pic.

I have been on Twitter now for nearly a year, and I have to thank twitter for allowing me to broadcast my insanity to my growing band of mainly loyal, always friendly, and sometimes normal followers – and all for free. We must never forget that twitter is a free service when we criticize them, but, as I see it the ’blue bird of happiness’ does not always deliver.

Here are the three things I either do not understand or hate most about the miniscule avian.

Number One. “ Visit this site to buy 10,000 followers for $27” Twitter rules say that this is not allowed – yet my tweet stream is clogged up with hundreds of sexy girls with unpronounceable names offering to do this for me. I am sure Twitter could easily stop this is they wanted to – it must clog up their systems too. For those of you who are not aware, these are fake accounts produced by robot machines. They get shut down after a while as Twitter realizes what they are, but surely it would be far easier to tackle the problem at its root!

Number Two. Every day I follow most of the people who have followed me overnight there are always a few that, when I click ‘follow’ it changes to ‘pending’ and gives me a message that the follower must approve my follow first. Huh? They followed ME First? Can anyone explain this?

Number Three. I am a shy and retiring individual who is easily hurt (?). Sometimes I will try to follow another writer or a service and get a message that I have been Blocked from following them! I go to their profile, they seem like nice people, but I do not know them and have not, to y knowledge upset them – why would they block me? – and before you ask I am NOT one of those people who keep following and unfollowing people. Once I follow you – you are permanently followed

I love Twitter, and despite the above I enjoy the interactions and I am grateful for the friendships i have developed . If anyone knows the answers to any of the questions above, I would be grateful to be enlightened. If you do not want to make a public post, please email me on arthurcrandon@yahoo.com.

Finally, for more of my offbeat ramblings please do ‘like’ my facebook page - arthurcrandonauthor (I am not going to criticise FB – they put you in FB jail far too easily!) and follow me on Twitter - @arthurcrandon.

To lighten the load and ease the stress, various furry pics are here again. Enjoy. – Until next time.

15 Comments

David Prosser link

5/10/2013 10:57:47 am

Couldn't agree more Arthur. Most of the social sites are inexplicable as far as rules go.

arthurcrandon@yahoo.com

5/11/2013 04:23:00 am

"Twitter moves in a mysterious way, it's wonders to perform!" I guess I will never get the hang of it, but I will keep trying, David. :-)

Jane link

5/10/2013 11:49:50 am

Arhtur - I've already "Liked" your page (I think) Will check.
Maybe you are "blocked" from being people's friends, because at some time in the past you were the subject of a scam, containing a virus of sorts, and inadvertently contaminated others?
That happened to me in my first month on twitter, people told me I was contaminated. So the next time I got a suspicious message, I "blocked" the sender.
It was only since then that I knew to just delete the messages and take no action.

arthurcrandon@yahoo.com

5/11/2013 04:24:44 am

Maybe that' the case, Jane - and interesting idea. I never use twitter private messages - too full of rubbish :-)

arthurcrandon@yahoo.com

5/11/2013 04:25:36 am

Thank you for the like! -)

Belinda Nicoll link

5/10/2013 02:03:48 pm

I'm sorry but the sexy girls need to be blocked. For those who block you but seem nice people, nevertheless, don't feel too bad ... a slight twitch in an arthritic finger can cause you to hit the wrong button. Nice post :)

arthurcrandon@yahoo.com

5/11/2013 04:27:16 am

Thank you Belinda - It goes against all my instincts to block a pretty girl, but I guess you are right :-)

DJ link

5/11/2013 02:46:15 am

#1 - I'm pretty new to Twitter. Thanks for explaining the robot accounts. I wondered about them when I saw that they say 'get 1000's of followers as I did in 24hrs' and you look at their followers and find they have 20... I just ignored them.

arthurcrandon@yahoo.com

5/11/2013 04:28:34 am

Best to ignore - or block. Twitter coukld easily do more themselves - I wonder why they do not. never mind.

PT Dilloway link

5/14/2013 09:17:38 pm

Most of the robot accounts are probably based in other countries and like a hydra you cut off one and two more will pop up. I use an app called Just Unfollow to analyze who's following me and who unfollows me as some people will just follow you to get you to follow them and then quietly unfollow you.

Ben link

5/14/2013 11:09:59 pm

I'll go in the opposite direction to "DJ" above, who said the robots who promise lots of followers have none themselves. I've also seen accounts who appear to pump out spam promoting this kind of stuff and they do have 10,000 or more followers. Perhaps that proves their point - but what I wonder is how do so many people fall for this trick and follow them! Don't simply block them - there's a "report user for spam" on the person's profile that will block them and also report them to Twitter HQ. :)

Robin Karleskint link

5/14/2013 11:29:51 pm

I have to admit, I wasn't following you on Twitter until just now, but I saw this post when @KathyLLogan, who I do follow, tweeted a link to it. I hope that helps the good make up for the bad on Twitter. ;)

Anyway, I'm relatively new to Twitter, but I think I have some answers or explanations to the annoying things you mentioned.

2. You can set your Twitter account to "Private" (or "Protected," or something like that), so that only "approved" users can view your tweets. Someone with a Private account can follow you, but in order for you to follow him back, he must "approve" you first. I understand protecting your Tweets if they're mainly about family, etc., but I suspect some people set their status to Private so they appear more "exclusive." That's silly.

3. Not sure on this one, but I think people's accounts show as blocked when they are being reported or reviewed for spam and other rulebreaking. I had one follower block me, and I thought it was weird and out of the blue, too. The next day, though, I could view her tweets again and she explained that she'd had her account frozen for 24 hours. Her tweets are repetitive and marketing-heavy, and that might be why Twitter froze her account. So it's possible that those users aren't necessarily blocking YOU, but that they're just being blocked from view in general.

Carrie Ann Lahain

5/16/2013 12:12:23 am

I have learned not to over-think social media. It seemed a little chaotic and overwhelming at first. Then I just decided to be myself--if a little more polite version--and trust that I'd find my way. And, despite the strange parts, like being "blocked from following those who've followed me, or being required to undergo "verification" before gaining acceptance as a follower, I've met some fascinating characters and even made a few friends. Good luck with your own navigation through this strange cyber-universe. Carrie

Santa Clara Dating link

10/6/2013 08:42:37 am

A little off-topic but just wanted to say I liked the layout of the site

Arthur Crandon

10/7/2013 07:18:04 am

Thank you so much. That meas a lot because I have built it all myself using the Weebly tools - I am useless at IT, but I managed it - Still a long way to go -

Meet the author

Arthur Crandon is a lawyer, the boring office kind, not the exciting (and much better paid) courtroom type. He worked as a solicitor for a while before embarking on an interesting life overseas. He has spent most of his time in recent years in South East Asia, more recently in Hong Kong. Before that, Arthur lived and worked in the Philippine Islands.
He loves to fish, and play the piano – but spends most of his time writing, eating, drinking and sleeping
– usually, but not always, in that order.
His first book, Deadly Election, draws on his strange imagination and his
experiences, together with those of others, in a land that, beneath a veneer of civilisation, operates like the Wild West and is very
dangerous to innocent and gullible foreigners.

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Twitter – Three things I do not understand

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