I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
I Have Made The Twitter Gods Angry
Monday night there was a chat on Twitter for homeschooling parents. All you had to do to join in was add #hsc at the end of your posts. Sounds simple enough, right? Except none of mine were showing up. I tried TweetGrid, TweetChat, and the basic Twitter Search. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Not a single comment of mine at all.
After a lot of fretting over settings and Java and trying various Twitter programs I gave up. Forever doomed to wander in silence in the Twitter-sphere. And then I found out I wasn’t alone.
Apparently Twitter has been blocking various people from their Twitter Search. And since so many other Twitter chat clients use the search, these people are essentially blocked from those places also. Go on, do a Twitter search for me. I don’t exist.
Now, the question remains as to why people are being blocked. I’m certainly not a spam account, and neither are lots of other people who are finding themselves invisible. Karoli thinks there might be a sinister motive behind the seemingly random blocks. Or maybe we all just suck at following the rules?
Wait a minute. Does that first rule mean ReTweeting someone? Because damn, almost everyone does that. It’s common practice to share when someone writes something awesome. It’s practically a common courtesy on Twitter!And what exactly is a misuse of hashtags? What if someone uses a tag a lot in a single night, say during a special Twitter chat? Crap. I don’t do any of the other things on the list, but the first two are in iffy territory. Iffy enough, apparently, to get me blocked from the search features.
Luckily Shoq has a post up detailing exactly what to do to get me back in the search, so I’m crossing my fingers that it works. I don’t like being left out in limbo like this. It gives me the chills.
Update:
Well, I’m back. Sorta. Out of the over 7,600 updates I’ve made on Twitter my last 2 are now showing up. Heh.
My theory, which could be complete crap, is that Twitter has in place a script or code that searches for people who post a lot of links. That way it’s automatic to block Twitter spam. Maybe an algorithm that, after a certain percentage of your tweets include links, you are automatically blocked.
Sucks that so many real accounts are affected though.
Well…when companies change their shit without letting people know because I’m betting that’s what they did…everyone gets a kick in the teeth. We shouldn’t be punished for it. They just need to set their rules and leave them alone.
Jenny\´s last blog post..A Whole New Start
Your last couple of tweets seem to be there now. I hope it’s all fixed. You would hope Twitter would let you know if they’re being filtered, so that they can address any issues. It sucks that you only found out through sheer happenstance. :/
Amber\´s last blog post..Is the Baby Getting Enough?
Summer Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Well I guess two is better than none! LOL
Delbius specifically said Retweets were not the issue. She goes on to say it’s some sort of amorphous malware link posted by users. I’m not buying it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that she doesn’t point to the specific link.
I’ve worked in online communities bigger than Twitter’s, and I know it’s simple enough to identify an offending link and identify it.
In my view, they either acted without verifying the flag, or else they are intentionally filtering certain timelines with specific links in them. Either way, it’s not a productive way to do business.
The approach they have to those using their service is atrocious.
Karoli\´s last blog post..cycles
@Resourcefulmom has the same problem every time she does a Twitter Party. She and her speakers all go missing. Very suspicious indeed.
Tiffany\´s last blog post..I Need A New Drug