• 

  Linda @ My Trendy Tykes said,

  Oh No! The requests drive me nuts too. Like you, I also feel obligated to do Thank-Yous and it does become overwhelming.

  Haven’t seen the RT’s but have to admit those would be pretty annoying too. LOL! (Kind of like….LOOK AT ME!)

  I also never know whether or not to put #follow friday or #ff.

  Great post.

  Twitter: @trendytykes
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks Linda,

  If you do it I recommend #followfriday with no space in between. The idea is that people can search on this tag to see great tweeps to follow. Although I couldn’t imagine that people are still doing this with all they would have to sift through to find quality recommendations.

• 

  Kyra said,

  Gabe,

  You make a great point. I have even started un-following people because they send out lists and list of #followfriday. I really like when someone takes the time to give one or two reasons why I should follow someone. To me, this means much, much more than being showered with people to follow. I don’t have time to click through to everyone’s profile on those lists to find out that I would most likely not follow him or her anyway. On another note, I don’t get offended if someone doesn’t thank me. I RT because I think the information is worth RT’ing and I try to make good recommendations for #followfriday (when I am actually logged in on Friday, which has been rare lately). Once again, great information Gabe!! I couldn’t agree with this post more.

  Twitter: @milogirly
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks, Kyra

  Now I consider myself the king of “why I unfollow people” (see other blog posts) but I hadn’t thought of unfollowing because they tweet out large #FF lists. Hmmm… Might rethink that strategy. :)

• 

  Danny Brown said,

  Couldn’t agree more, Gabe – what started as a wonderful way to recognize someone in your network has quickly changed into a free-for-all where people are actually bartering for recommendations. GAH!

  I use Mr Tweet quite a bit now as well – like you say, it’s a great way to show appreciation and I think it’s what #followfriday could have been if the original idea had stuck.

  Although if I see a “Please recommend me to Mr Tweet” message, I’m tempted to unfollow that person. Vanity, thy name is loud…! ;-)

  Twitter: @DannyBrown
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hey Danny,

  Thanks for pointing out that “Please Recommend Me” phenomenon – this is an absolute reason to unfollow someone. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to convince people how pompous you are.

• 

  Amy Shropshire said,

  It’s gotten to the point, where I try to think of every possible excuse NOT to log on to Twitter on Friday because then when someone asks why I didn’t return a #FF rec I can honestly say “Oh I wasn’t online Friday!” Cowardly, yes. Easier than saying I’m tired of all the lists and empty conversations, yes.

  For my personal account, I only do Follow Friday for people I actively talk to who have just started on Twitter and may need some help getting involved in some conversations. My client’s account, I pick one person and write a profile about them on our blog. Not only does it feel more relevant, but I learn a lot more about the people I’m talking to everyday as well!

  Twitter: @amshropshire
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi Amy,

  Very sound advice. It seems like other people are sharing our concerns with #followfriday. I think it will be difficult to turn this train around though.

• 

  mzzlee said,

  YES YES YES. I am with you on this. It has started to feel like reading a train schedule. UGH! I love follow friday and I love giving clear reasons why I feel someone is wonderful! I have actually done *other* day follows to kinda escape the fray… I thank you for this. It is validating to know I am not alone in my frustration…

• 

  Gabe said,

  Wow! Still not one opposing viewpoint. It’s early yet I guess… Does anyone think we can have a positive affect on turning things around?

  What I plan to do this Friday is tweet this blog post with the preface: “Before you #followfriday you should read this…” Anyone with me??

• 

  mzzlee said,

  sounds like a good idea…i like it!

• 

  Mary Ellen Wilson said,

  #followfriday has become an endless list of names crammed in to one tweet. I usually log in to my personal page on Friday to find a long stream of #ff tweets. Now I only check out the ones that have a reason to follow. I participate in #ff but I limit myself to one person per tweet. But I am definitely in the minority.

  Twitter: @mew4teaching
• 

  FancyThat3 said,

  I just couldn’t agree more with you and yes you do feel obliged to mention people and people seem to get offended if they don’t receive a mention. I totally agree that the whole point is to connect, however I do feel that some people for whatever reason and I suspect its just collecting numbers like trophys, do not wish to interact or connect which i find a bit hyprocritic, but I suspect at the end of the week we will all be “follow friday but hopefully with a bit more constructive thought and credit to only those that we truly connect with.

  Twitter: @FancyThat3
• 

  Rev. Anne Presuel said,

  As my list has gotten bigger and bigger, so many people are now recommending me on #FF. My time spent thanking them has grown unwieldy and I have found the past several weeks that I didn’t even take the time to do this!

  (guilt, guilt, guilt…)

  Then I decided to put myself in someone else’s shoes. If I recommend them, do I necessarily expect a response or a TY? Am I ok if I don’t get it! Well, not really (answer to question #1) and Heck, Yeah! (answer to question #2).

  So. While I’m still not quite ok with not saying TY to someone who #FFs me (I think at last count there were about 30+ who did), I am better about doing it 1-2x/mo.

  Btw, I like the idea of just doing one or two a week. But I have so many wonderful tweeps! How to choose??? hmmm… #FF is tomorrow… better decide SOON!

  Twitter: @RevAnne1
• 

  Gabe said,

  Rev. Anne,

  You raise some good points. I think it would be next to impossible to keep track and thank everyone as your list gets longer. For the people who recommend dozens I doubt if they expect a thank you from everyone either.

  I really like the idea of recommending fewer people each week but give quality recommendations. Then include different people the next week.

• 

  Karen said,

  Hi Gabe,

  I couldn’t agree more!! When I joined Twitter a few short months ago, I looked forward to Follow Friday because I could find more interesting people. Now, so few actually do meaningful mentions, that I just almost completely ignore it. It’s as if people enjoy mentioning the most amount of people possible, in order to get recognition that they are mentioning others… and it defeats the whole purpose! Cheers to you for writing this! I hope the trend catches on…
  :)
  Karen

  Twitter: @Dreaminthelife
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hey Karen,

  Every once in a while you will see someone give a valuable #followfriday recommendation. They are out there (and I usually follow those people). I hope to see more of them tomorrow. :)

• 

  Jayson said,

  Awesome post. Thank you. I get tired of the list of blind ff names. I’m practicing recommending one person per tweet and giving a good reason why or what the person’s about.

  Thanks again!

  @jaygaddis

  Twitter: @jaygaddis
• 

  Jesse said,

  Great post, I like the concept behind follow friday but I too saw it as a chore and didnt look forward to it. I now only fo one or maybe 2 FF tweets each week and I give a reason why those 3-5 people are worth following.. a blind recommendation is worthless, put some heart into it and it serves a purpose

  Twitter: @ad0
• 

  Gabe said,

  Jayson and Jesse,

  Looks like we have a few people here who want to see change happen. Let’s hope we can shake things up a bit.

• 

  Nancy said,

  This might be your first comment w/a bit of opposition. What I like about several people within a tweet including myself is that I get a quick reference of whom my friends are following and recommending along with me. I find great people to follow after follow Fridays by reviewing my @ address.

  The other advantage of recommending the same people weekly is that as my following grows, I recommend these people to my new followers.

  This all being said, it makes a difference whether you’re just starting out or if you have thousands of followers.

  Having been on Twitter for a while, I have been recommending the same people for weeks on end, and am starting to shift to Mr. Tweet. That’s my plan for this week.

  If I keep going, I’ll have to turn this into my own blog. Thank you for your thoughts. It is definitely worth thinking about as one could devote a lot of time to this (as we’re doing now :)).

• 

  Sandra Sims said,

  I agree, one or two followfridays each week is more that enough. I don’t do them everyweek though, because like Jesse says above, it can just become a chore. I only do them when I really do have some great people to recommend.

  Twitter: @sandrasims
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi Nancy,

  It’s about time we got an opposing view – I welcome them. That’s an interesting viewpoint about seeing who your friends are following. Do you really click through all those names and follow them? I think that most people do not.

  I don’t believe I was against recommending the same people each week per se, it’s just as your followers grow and if you keep recommending the same each week you are bound to have huge lists as you recommend new people.

  Thanks for adding a different view to this. :)

• 

  Nancy said,

  Hi Gabe,

  I don’t click through all the names, and sometimes they are the same as weeks before, but I do find some great people to follow that way.

  I’m not sure if my view is really opposing. Like I said, I’m switching to Mr. Tweet, partially because I just don’t have the time to think through it as my followers grow, and the nice thing about Mr. Tweet is that the recommendation remains.

  I also agree that I don’t like seeing a large stream of #FFs in the updates, and try to limit them.

  I think people RT the FFs sometimes to show the common recommendations to other friends, not always for vanity :).

  Anyway, thanks again for the post.

  Nancy

• 

  Cyndi said,

  I couldn’t agree more. I started using Mr. Tweet last week. I also agree that today’s RT-ing of lists does seem to have eased up a bit. Hopefully that trend will continue. It is a good idea that has just gotten out of hand.

  Twitter: @muchmorethanmom
• 

  Jon Aston said,

  Thanks, Gabe, for the special mention – and for bringing my attention to it. You are very kind.

  While I completely agree that #FollowFriday has lost much of its lustre (for the very reasons you’ve outlined above) I still think it has it’s place.

  Receiving a personalized tweet that highlights the tweeter’s reasons for recommending you, and only you… is infinitely more personal. It’s a more direct connection. You’re not one of many. It’s a spotlight, not a floodlight.

  And while the blog approach may create a more permanent record, it’s static, rather than dynamic. I might (have, in reality, and will again) #FollowFriday certain people repeatedly, several times over the course of a year. Each “in the now” #FF is different and reaches a different audience each time. Sometimes they even get shared by followers who agree with the #FF.

  Additionally, people actually have to click through from a “Come see my list #FollowFriday recommendations on my blog” tweet, rather than simply seeing the recommendation. And, finally, I don’t know about you, but I can’t recall ever RTing “Come see my list #FollowFriday recommendations on my blog” tweets.

  Not saying the blog approach is bad, just that both still have their place.

  Thanks again!

  Jon

  Twitter: @jonaston
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks for the great input, Jon. To be clear, I do agree that #followfriday has its place and the only thing I would really like to see is that people make their recommendations a bit more personal. Your example is the epitome of what a recommendation should look like. I gave a similar one this morning and got a response that thanked me for mentioning that person in that way and they are now following them. Never gotten that when there are twelve or so on the #FF list. :)

• 

  Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth said,

  Appreciate the convo/clarity here, esp. as a newbie to tweeting protocol, who has relied on Chris Brogan’s informal netiquette here: http://tinyurl.com/l7ed8m.

  I sure like the idea of #FF as a newcomer, but without context it’s laborious, so I always group a short header for recos, e.g. ‘for parenting’…for media literacy…for edubloggers, etc.’ so my question is two-fold:

  1.) Is there another way to thank folks for a RT or #FF if they don’t have a DM option? (e.g. I really do NOT want to get into the ‘thank you for the thank you’ revolving door, so I’m sure have offended many by not dutifully acknowledging)

  2.) I haven’t set up TweetDeck yet as I’m brand new, but is there a ‘filtered’ way to organize and tab favorites you don’t want to miss?

  (I’ve been coached to “pop in and out with a timer set” to make sure I don’t get caught in the quicksand of responding to everything as a tiny nonprofit with no staffers…but I’m missing vital tweets by popping in when there’s maybe one dominant thread or person clogging the stream, and have to drill down with ‘more’ to get diversity…Any tips there, all you Twitter veterans? ;-)

  Thanks in advance for your time.

  Twitter: @ShapingYouth
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi Amy,

  So sorry for taking so long to respond – things just got away from me. :)

  1) What I usually do here is thank a bunch of people at once publicly. That way they are seen as people who are generous to my followers and I don’t clog up everyone’s Twitter stream with individual thank-you’s.
  2) There are several tools to help you do this – Tweetdeck is mine of choice. You can also use HootSuite, Seismic Desktop and even Tweetgrid if you don’t want to install anything. Tweetgrid is great for keeping tabs on just a few people or keywords, etc. I think you will find that any of the others is worth the install.

  As far as how you spend your time goes, that is a very personal concept. I try and keep up with it most of the day at least as to how my replies go. I have a dedicated machine for that. You could have Tweetdeck on and have it notify you only when someone replies to you or tweets in your groups. (It refreshes automatically which is a great thing.) For more on managing time you may get some insight from the discussion on my other post, “Is Twitter a Time Suck?” http://www.justgabe.com/2009/06/18/is-twitter-a-time-suck/ Good luck!!

• 

  Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth said,

  Thank you SO much, Gabe…very useful info! I had another response in a DM that was interesting too, saying to ‘do what Guy Kawasaki does and set up a separate ‘GuysReplies’ kind of account which is only to thank people and keep it from clogging the stream…I kind of like that idea too, but then, it seems a bit impersonal and admin/duty-ish vs. genuine…and that’s NOT what I want. (you can tell I have a bit of ‘the disease to please’ in my personality ;-)

  That said, I’ve been hardcore about ONLY following those that directly add to my collective knowledge bank, and actually ‘blocking’ money maker peeps and random follows that appear to be P2P baiting. Hopefully this is pragmatic and sound? Still making my way here, and will try Mr. Tweet too, as many applaud the recommend portion there.

  Thanks again for your help! :-) Am checking your time mgmt. post next!

  Twitter: @ShapingYouth
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi Amy,
  I agree that Mr Tweet is a great resource. Hadn’t thought of creating a whole new account just for thank-you’s. Have to think about that one. I feel like I am giving you a lot of “suggested reading” but I might humbly suggest you pick and choose from the “Twitter for Beginners” category I have here and especially the post on followers: http://www.justgabe.com/2009/06/11/to-follow-or-not-to-follow-2/. There will be a test on Friday. ;) -Gabe

• 

  gloria said,

  Hi Gabe

  Great point, well made. A few weeks ago I decided I’d only do 3 people and would give reasons as to why but I haven’t really stuck to it (whoops) mainly because I feel obliged to followfriday those that do it to me or my organisation and sometimes I have so many people that I want to recommend and I can’t choose only 3.

  Your post just made me realise I must be more disciplined myself to maintain the integrity of what mashable were trying to do in the first place!

  Twitter: @gl0ria
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks Gloria,

  It is difficult I know. There are so many people on Twitter who deserve recognition and I wish there were a good way I could get everyone to follow all of them. But then again, there are lots of Fridays, too! :)

• 

  Jeanne said,

  Hi Gabe,

  I have been struggling with this for awhile. At first, I wrote out #FollowFriday. As time went on, I switched to #FF. I don’t ever RT FollowFriday lists. Even if I really like every single person listed in a FF tweet… I don’t ever RT them. If I am making a FF recommendation, it should come from me.

  I did FF faithfully each week until one week I was too sick/tired to do so. I felt badly and had some concern that people might feel I was ignoring them but I couldn’t do it. This was somewhat liberating! While I did go back to doing FF the next week, I soon found myself skipping about every other week. It has just become TOO MUCH.

  Now, I have bent over backwards to try when possible to mention in the tweet something personal to give people clues on WHY they might want to follow someone. However, with my health being very poor and with the time strain this whole FF process has put on me, there are weeks I do send tweets listing multiple worthwhile people to follow within 1 tweet. (It saves me lots of time over many separate tweets). They are ALWAYS people I have checked out/know well enough to feel comfortable recommending. I never FF someone from a RT or without having a twitter relationship with them, etc.

  Unlike some FF participants, I don’t automatically follow back everyone who follows me. I also don’t send out recommendations of people I don’t think are worth sending out.

  That said, I have felt pressured by this “cumulative effect” of adding more and more worthy people each week. It has gotten out of control.

  I am inclined to possibly discontinue FF altogether. I interact with so many amazing, thoughtful, wonderful people that picking 1 or 2 a week would be very hard for me to do.

  I am leaning towards just discontinuing FF.

  I just tweeted this very post out with my whole “I wonder if I’m going to keep doing FF” thing.

  Time will tell. One way or another, this post raises excellent points. I don’t want to feel like I’m getting spammy. Honestly, sometimes when I do my FF tweets… I feel like I’m flirting with the spam zone.

  As I am a very vocal opponent of twitter spam (and have been known to send out angry tweets about this on occasion), I certainly do not wish to become part of the problem.

  So I will have to give even more thought (after reading this post) to this subject than I already had. Frankly, the whole FF thing has gotten really old.

  If I want to acknowledge someone on twitter/recommend people follow them, I can do that 7 days a week… no hashtag required. There’s no law that says I have to recommend people using #FF or #FollowFriday.

  Great post!

  Jeanne

  Twitter: @jeanneendo
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi Jeanne,
  Wow – you really have given this thought. Just know that many are in the same boat regarding trying to “keep up” each week. I also think that many people either have these long lists or stop doing it altogether. I see nothing wrong with the latter. The long lists in my opinion are a waste of effort that get little attention anyway. Also realize that FF is a very personal thing to each of us. There is no way I could give props to each person each week one tweet at a time. So I only do a few. The next week I will do some other people. That really works for me because I have no pressure to keep up, and I do feel I am posting good shout-outs to deserving people. -Gabe

• 

  Jeanne said,

  Hi Gabe,

  Yes, I’m a heavy twitter user… So I had given this plenty of thought long before I read your excellent post that really summed everything up nicely.

  I got your tweets and totally understand what you’re saying. I also apologize if it appeared this post link had been “hijacked” for a movement to boycott FollowFriday. :)

  Your post just served as a jumping off point for several people who are not happy with how FollowFridays have been going recently. It was a conversation starter, so to speak.

  Basically what happened is I sent out a retweet or two last night of this post and several of my twitter friends immediately emailed me about how they are very tired of doing FollowFriday.

  One even said that she had some of her followers ask her to stop “spamming” them because she had sent out some of the list type tweets. She actually had people unfollowing her because of her FF messages! (Kind of defeating the purpose if scaring away existing followers).

  Having sent some list type tweets of my own, I feel a bit uncomfortable… as if I was getting a bit spammy with this whole FollowFriday thing.

  In any event, several of us decided that, for us, discontinuing the use of #FollowFriday makes the most sense. As you pointed out, #FollowFriday is a personal thing and there’s certainly nothing saying that people who choose to use it can’t do so or shouldn’t do so. :)

  I think it great that you can narrow it down to 1-2 per week. For the advocacy work I do, I can’t imagine naming just 1-2 people a week with hurting feelings and having people feel left out.

  So, for me… I think I’m just going to skip it.

  I know the whole notion of boycotting FollowFriday may seem a bit radical. Basically, what happened last night was that right after I sent out your link, one person after another contacted me saying they want to stop FF altogether OR that they already had (for the reasons you outlined and more).

  The bottom line is this was a great, thought-provoking post that is obviously resonating with many people. I totally agree with you that it’s a personal decision for people to decide how to handle their own FollowFriday tweets.

  I plan to recommend people as I go throughout the week/as the mood strikes me. No hashtag required. I’ll just send tweets like ” @abcde is doing amazing work on behalf of the homeless and I highly recommend following him” or ” @12345 is doing outstanding work advocating on behalf of endometriosis and infertility patients & I highly recommend following her”.

  Thank you for the thoughtful post!

  Jeanne

  P.S. Not only do I not find that the numerous FollowFridays I get don’t translate to followers but in my case I already have more followers than I feel I can properly keep up with and I don’t fight to increase my following numbers as many do. I actually actively reduce my numbers of followers (purposely) by manually blocking spammers and such that didn’t get caught by my anti-spam twitter application.

  I want to have a personal connection with each of my followers. I don’t get into these contests over who can get X number of followers. It’s not a popularity contest.

  Anyone can get a high number of followers by just leaving everyone who follows alone. I don’t do that. I don’t want inappropriate accounts linked to my account. So even if they are following me and I’m not following them, I still worry about having those inappropriate accounts showing up on my twitterpage as followers. So I block them as frequently as possible.

  Twitter: @jeanneendo
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks Jeanne for another well thought out comment. I am in agreement with many of your points, and am glad that this post helped some to think about their #followfriday habits. -Gabe

• 

  Fatigued Angel said,

  Have any of you EVER thought that MANY of us here have Serious Illnesses and USE Twitter as a way to Connect with others as opposed to living alone with our illnesses, AND that we don’t have much time or energy to do everything you suggest, AND that WE use our #FF to THANK those folks that ARE being our new Friends, AND that we also do not give a Rat’s *#% if you follow anybody… we are Simply showing Thanks and don’t have the strength to write a personal note with each one??? Most of us Screen for Spammers anyway because we ONLY want to/have the energy to deal with folks that we SHARE interests health or otherwise with. NOT everyone is physically healthy and has BIG Ego’s ..
  I do NOT use #FF as a way to suggest you Follow Anyone..
  I am Thanking those I Follow… Period.
  And I also do NOT have the strength to do it in the old way, so I have created a word.doc and simply C&P it maybe in Wed, maybe on Thurs..
  if I do it ON Friday that means I Happen to feel OK that day…
  I didn’t name it Follow Friday..
  I do it when I Feel WELL enough to do it……
  Walk a mile in some other moccasins ….

  Twitter: @ME_CFS_unite
• 

  Gabe said,

  Fatigued Angel,

  From your tone I would surmise that you would not be happy with any response I could give you, but let me offer these observations.

  As I mentioned in the beginning of the post (via @mashable), #followfriday was created for the sole purpose of recommending others to follow, yet you use it for something else. I do think that most people understand this hashtag as meaning we should follow the people you recommend. If this is not your intent, why not simply thank them – I do that all the time to a group of people when they retweet me and it doesn’t have to be on a Friday.

  Secondly, I have never pretended to be some sort of Twitter authority whose words should be followed verbatim by everyone. I offer my opinions but always expect people to do what they wish – as they should – and they (and you) have every right to.

  That’s the great thing about Twitter – we all have a choice of who we like to follow. -Gabe

• 

  Jeanne said,

  Gabe,

  I agree with you that a great thing about twitter is that we all have the choice of who we like to follow (aside from the spammers who follow me faster than I can block them, of course… but I’m working on keeping up with them). :)

  While #FollowFriday used to be one of many methods I used (in a sense) to express gratitude to my twitter friends, I have always understood #FollowFriday as having been designed for the purpose of “referring” people to follow others.

  When I want to thank someone on twitter, I just do it as I go… throughout the week. In the past, I may have “thanked” a twitter contact I really like by “referring” people their way in a FF… but I wasn’t just listing twitter accounts I was thanking and throwing a #FF hashtag on it.

  I HAVE (and DO) walk in the chronic illness “moccasins” and the last thing I am concerned with on twitter is ego issues. I don’t see where this post is unsympathetic in any way to the chronically ill. On the contrary, this point has saved me (a chronically ill patient) a lot of headaches/time!

  As I explained previously, I have made the choice that I’ve decided works for me… which is to discontinue #FollowFriday altogether. I am fully aware that others may have much different ideas on this subject.

  For the record, I am far from physically healthy, I do not have a big ego, I DO express gratitude regularly to my twitter friends, and I do NOT hear anyone here telling anyone else what they must do/must not do with their FollowFriday habits.

  I took your post as simply a thought-provoking jumping off point to examine how I have been spending my time and, frankly, overdoing in a way that is unhealthy for my numerous chronic illnesses.

  Gabe, thank you for your post! It has clearly resonated with many people.

  Jeanne

  Twitter: @jeanneendo
• 

  Fatigued Angel said,

  Dear Gabe,

  I am sorry you thought I was directing that message ONLY to you…
  This may be your blog, but as there were Many replies I was Simply stating another Point of View for ALL to Consider.. I did NOT address it to you like I did this one or anyone in Specific..

  I know WHY #FF was started, but I also know that many things on this earth are created for one purpose and then used for another.. I do not use it blindly, that was my main point. I was trying to explain that I use it to show Gratitude for those I follow.

  I am sorry if you felt I was attacking you or anyone.. That was NOT my intent or purpose.. Just like a piece of music that was originally composed as classical can be rearranged into a jazz tune.. The one thing in this life we CAN count on is Change… I was simply explaining
  the way in which my usage of #FF had changed from the Original purpose.. @Mashable even refers to it as a Game.. I was explaining a new evolution and usage..NO insult or anger meant.

  The “you” was like the Royal “we” meant for all the readers..In fact,
  I even said “any of you” …Again, sorry if anyone, including you, felt anything other than a different opinion being offered. Since #FollowFriday is not even spelled out any more it ALSO can also
  morph in meaning… as #FF “Friends I Follow”.

  Many times a RT does not even allow room for any Thank You’s.
  So this is the method I have adopted. I have never been one to live
  IN a box and I guess maybe that led to my morphing of the usage.

  I am sorry if my tone came across harsh. That was probably aimed at the Spammers that want 10,000 followers overnight for some $$scam reason.. I care MORE about Quality Followers than Quantity.
  My cat also just died and I am sorry if my pain came thru in my tone.

  Twitter: @ME_CFS_unite
• 

  Gabe said,

  Another good thing about Twitter is that because the decorum is generally very friendly, we can air our differences and still remain friends in the end. The written word is more difficult to interpret when it comes to the actual intent of the tone. Thanks for coming back, Fatigued Angel, and clarifying your position for us. I am so sorry you lost your cat – we have a family of two dogs and a cat (and are about to terrorize the poor cat with a third dog) so I am extremely sympathetic when it comes to the loss of an animal.

  As I said before – in the end we all respect how you use Twitter.

  And Jeanne – thanks again for adding so much value to this post.

  I do have one favor to ask of Fatigued Angel – if you leave another comment can we know your first name?

  Thanks,

  -Gabe

• 

  krellpw said,

  Hi Gabe,

  You definitely got folks attention with this one. I confess, I didn’t get through all these blog comments, so if I’m repeating someone else’s thoughts here, I’ll apologize upfront.

  My opinion is not really not one of opposition, but I’d submit that a list of @’s has a utility IF the tweeter is being careful. I for example follow a bunch of different music artists, so I’ll offer a tweet something to the effect of “some great #blues #musicians worth a listen…” with their handles to follow. I have no issue with clustering like friends/followers that way. Gets back to your initial point of at least offering some reason for following them.

  But I do agree that people have gotten carried away and try to exploit the trend.

  I’ve come to find that in Twitter just like the offline world there are people that I’ve come to trust and I’ll look long and hard at the folks that they offer for a follow Friday. There are a lot of folks just making noise. You let them talk, and then move on.

  For me in offering my own follow friday suggestions, I put out a couple (2 or 3) in a single tweet, and limit myself to 3 or 4 tweets on a given Friday. Don’t know that it’s right or wrong, but it seems to work for me.

  Twitter: @krellpw
• 

  Gabe said,

  Hi PW,

  Since I couldn’t find your first name anywhere, I hope you don’t mind I call you PW. :)

  I think that does work if you at least classify the people you recommend in the beginning.

  As far as I am concerned there is no right or wrong – there is what works for you. So in the end it’s all good.

  Thanks for your comment.

  -Gabe

• 

  Tabitha said,

  I have to agree with you. I’ve been wondering when I see the recommendations “why should I follow this person?” There’s no reason given.

  Twitter: @ichoosebliss
• 

  Shaping Youth » Twitter “Women2Follow” Dedicated to Inspiring Girls! said,

  [...] an example of insightful tips and great dialog in his post, “What’s Happening to Follow Friday?”) It really helped me wrap my head around the ‘whys and hows’ quite nicely. (btw, Gabe is [...]

• 

  Warren Whitlock said,

  I don’t agree that FF is dead. Too many each Friday for that to be true :)

  It’s going to take a while for all the auto posts people set up weeks or months in advance to go away. (I get a few that are the same exact tweet/list every Friday).

  Like auto follower DM’s, it’s an idea with that most tried with good intentions. I’m glad there are new alternatives.

  Twitter: @warrenwhitlock
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks Warren,

  That leaves me wondering how Twitter’s new policy of blocking duplicate tweets works with these auto posts. I had never considered that people were doing it that way. I guess Twitter doesn’t compare the tweets very far back. -Gabe

• 

  heather aka NiftyKnits said,

  I completely agree, I’ve given up ff-ing and try to ignore them now. I feel the same about lists actually – I’m in over 400 now, some of them are quite obscure and I can’t think how I’ve fitted the category.

  Twitter: @Niftyknits
• 

  Gabe said,

  Thanks Heather / Nifty,
  Interesting point about the lists. I have created a couple in case people would like to follow them but I don’t necessarily trust that I would want to follow everyone in someone else’s list. I learned that the hard way when I used TweepML to follow a few lists. I noticed that I’m in some that I wouldn’t personally classify myself as being pertinent to.

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