Twitterers are being very vocal about how much they dislike the new “Who To Follow” feature on the Twitter website. In fact, a hugely popular article by @kitchenmage on how to block the “Who To Follow” feature has gone viral across Twitter.
Like it? Loathe it?
While I’ve heard from a few users who liked the new feature, many more have decided that “Who To Follow” is best described as “WTF.” In fact, I’ve heard a lot of different reasons people have for disliking it. Like it? Loathe it? Please click here and tell me why. Thanks!
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Another failed attempt to copy Facebook. Why won’t Twitter learn? Very frustrating!
It shows me people I would rather block! It’s more like a “most popular” feature of people who are celebrities. They’ve been working on this in one form or another for a long time now, I can’t believe they keep getting it so wrong.
Twitter doesn’t seem to have enough users on their “recommended” list yet. I think they’re concerned that the bigger the list gets, the higher their risks are in recommending folks inappropriately.
Aug 09, 11:02pm via tweet
@TweetSmarter yes a huge mistake!!
Aug 09, 11:02pm via Tweet
@TweetSmarter it is too much like Facebook
If I wanted Facebook features, I’d go sign up at Facebook. WTF
I don’t know what everyones problem is with this feature. If you don’t like, ignore it. It’s not like it takes up the majority of space on the screen. I wouldn’t mind if you could choose to turn the feature off but honestly, I wouldn’t. It’s made it easier for me to find people who may be interesting to me and if I don’t want to follow that person I tell Twitter to “hide” them.
only n00bs use the web interface anyway
I was just thinking that!
Aug 09, 11:12pm via Tweet
.@TweetSmarter How about they just show us at-replies to ppl we don’t follow—like they used to, that was the best way to discover new ppl.
I loathe the ‘who to follow feature’. Reasons are as follows :
1. Suggestions are in-accurate : There is more to the decision to follow or not than ‘common interests’. I do not follow people who have no links to share. How will Twitter know that? I also do not follow people who share a common interest but have no value to add to my timeline. How can Twitter judge that? Algorithm cannot replace the human element involved in deciding whom we wish to connect with!
2. Its intrusive : One sees the same faces appearing on one’s page again and again whom one had decided not to follow or have already unfollowed. Such suggestions distract and are uncalled for.
There might be arguments that there are other websites using this feature successfully. My humble submission is, Twitter is Twitter and its users are a set of people different from those using other media. Let us not confuse the target segments and copy others!
Aman Sharma
Twitter id : @amancool5
12:03am via tweet
@TweetSmarter I keep having suggestions for people I used to follow and deleted. Suggested followers – fail!
12:24am via Tweet:
@TweetSmarter “Some users really like Twitter’s new suggested users feature” Not a single user in my timeline has said they do
I’ve been known to criticize Twitter but I like the new feature. Of course most users with high following count will find it useless since they auto-follow or don’t care to vet rendering a suggested follow based on common interest meaningless
Appreciate Aman’s thoughtful response but I don’t find it particularly intrusive since I think you can permanently nix a suggested follow. So I do like it. I even find it useful
2:53am via Tweet
I quite like it – I’ve followed quite a few people through it. I hate the equivalent on facebook because fb is a closed community for me – this feature makes sense on twitter though. And actually seems to be pretty relevant!
The idea has potential but randomly generated suggestions are probably the lamest things on the internet today and only good as search engine bait.
I dislike not having control over what people see on my profile that should be mine alone. The very least, users should have the option to turn off the suggestions in the sidebar. It’s annoying when they pop up when following people, too.
It could, however, be a beloved feature if they gave the users control over what users appear as suggestions.
Companies/organizations/newspapers could link sister accounts and personal accounts could link people they believe to be relevant to their content.
They could make the connections a pool from which 3 or 2 (or as many as currently needed) accounts are randomly selected and presented.
The sidebar widget really needs to be optional. That’s what’s annoying me the most.
Great idea to give users some control over suggestions!
I hate it with a passion! It shows people I have blocked and are trying to avoid, why do I wanna open up my page and see some person that I am trying to avoid? WTF?
It also shows me the same freaking celebs all the time… i don’t care about them, if I wanna add them I would have done it, over and over I sign on and there the same people are. What is this paid ads? Twitter is not all about the celebs… the celebs did not make twitter what it is today.
I hate this crap!
Yeah, Twitter is being pretty conservative by sticking to extremely well-known accounts (celebs among them). I appreciate they don’t want to risk making a bad recommendation, but they need to improve their strategy.
I wonder HOW they decide who I should follow? While I am open to suggestions, I don’t think suggesting I follow someone who hasn’t tweeted in almost a year will enhance my Twitter experience. Just sayin’
The suggestions are based on several factors, including people you follow and the people they follow. Learn more here. But based on user feedback, it needs a lot of work before many people would find it useful.
Comment from twtpoll.com
More people might appreciate it if the algorithm was better. Tweeps interested in politics get too many suggestions they don’t like now.
While I do understand negative voice against this feature – why are people so negative about this? OR is it a viral negation that people wants to spread??
This is just a SUGGESTION by Twitter about following few people. They do not force people to follow but just suggest. I did get lot of good leads through this. People can choose to ignore and why is so much noise??
Sometimes I feel people negate just for negation!!!!
Messing with Twitter feels very, very personal to a lot of people. They resent the intrusion into their love (or addiction) relationship!
Agreed 100%! How can anyone be so incensed over something that is very easy to ignore?
Have not found it really helpful yet but wait to see if it works
I believe in the philosophy of live and let live, so please just give the Twitter users who share my impatience with irrelevant suggestions a WAY TO TURN IT OFF. Thanks.
That’s a great idea, and Twitter has a form you can use to send them your suggestions. Go to http://bit.ly/twicket and choose “I want to share an idea…” from the first drop down box.
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