For some time, I followed most (obvious) non-spammers that followed me on Twitter. I expected Twitter to give me better tools, and better filters over time. They haven’t.
Today I started unfollowing people that weren’t adding any value to my social graph. I am sure I made some mistakes, and unfollowed a few people I should not have – if that is true in your case – if we know each other, please email me and I will follow you back.
I am doing this manually, one account at a time – so I am trying to be careful. I meet so many people in so many different contexts though – I am sure I will unfollow someone I didn’t mean to.
Don’t take it personally. E-Mail me and I will add you back.
So – why? Noise. I used to enjoy Twitter, when I could have a conversation on Twitter. Then I followed too many, and it ALL became noise. The people I wanted to hear were lost in the clutter.
So I started relying only on Twitter Search – which only showed me what *I* was interested in, and not what each of you were interested in. Again – much less fun – but at least manageable. But I lost the value of your inputs. The conversation disappeared.
So now I am going back to a “thin-stream” – a stream of input from people I know, admire, like, and/or trust.
I thinned several hundred accounts out today, and will continue to do so – one account at a time, through personal inspection. Until I have a feed stream I think I can manage (perhaps 500-1000 people).
Sorry if I stepped on any toes.
Twitter was just becoming useless to me as a tool to keep track of what my friends were talking about. I miss that.
Rob
I was in the same spot. A year ago. I wrote a script that autofollowed about 1000 people (those people @scobleizer was following). I was overwhelmed within days, and wrote another script that unfollowed everyone
And started from zero again. Made twitter useful to me again.
What about using TweetDeck and setting up Groups for those people you especially want to follow or converse with? I’ve found it very helpful.
I use TweetDeck – When I am not mobile (while I often am). It takes up WAY too much screen space, but it is useful.
Rob