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OK, I don't know what happened yesterday, or what the hell it was that I must have signed up for, but the number of my Twitter followers has doubled between last night and right now.

At the start, I was, "Yeah, baby, I'm popular!"
But now, I'm starting to find it a pain in the ass.
First, most of these people are damn boring and keep telling me what they're listening to on this Blip.fm thing.
And between you and me, I couldn't care less.

When I signed up on Twitter, my followers were mostly people from BC, whom I had interacted with on the forum or via my blog, or from my IMDb boards. And I kinda liked my little Twitter gang.
But now their tweets are getting lost in all the crap that gets piled up in my Twitterfox as soon as I step away for five minutes.

Which brings me to the Twitter clients thingies.
I've tried installing Twitterdeck, because I read that with it, you could organize your Tweets, contacts, etc.
Can't even download the thing. I keep getting an error message.

So I tried Seesmic. After much fiddling, I managed to install it.
Problem is: I hate it. It's clunky, it's ugly, and it couldn't be more user-unfriendly if it tried.

So my question is: is there some kind of Twitter organizer out there, that is user-friendly, with a clean layout, which would allow me to keep my "good" Tweets separate from all the junk and blips and stuff that I keep getting?
I don't care if it's very basic and isn't compatible with a gazillion other networks. As long as it works and allows me keep my people organized, I'll be happy.


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User Comments

  1. Norski
    I'm sorry to hear that you're having a bad experience. I have a bit of a time keeping up with all the tweets - but that's my own fault, since I'm following some rather prolific tweeters.

    About "tweets are getting lost in all the crap" - my approach has been to unfollow the over-prolific and under-interesting people and organizations - and use my browser's search function to find what I'm looking for.

    Just a thought.
    1. salomey5
      Thank you Norski.

      I'm kind of annoyed too, because I now realize I was enjoying my smaller group of Twitterers much more, because I was interacting directly with most of them.

      I have done what you suggest, and unfollow the dullest ones, but I must have hit a bad batch, because for the most part, these new people are boring, but still won't shut the hell up.

      Plus I read something about a ratio? That you're supposed to have roughly the same number of followers as followees, with a difference of no more than 10%...?

      It's crossed my mind to create another account and only use for my "friends", but I don't like juggling multiple accounts.
  2. melindaville
    I only use Twitter to announce my latest blog entries. I simply don't have time to keep up with it.
  3. libdrone
    you know you Don't have to follow everyone who follows you, don't you? I follow people I know from different forums, people I know in real life, authors, publishers, publicists and library workers and a random few others that I find genuinely interesting.

    Really, your Twitter experience can be whatever you decide to make it.

    I have Tweetdeck and I Love the way it lets me organize the people I am following into groups, but I Really Hate the way it constantly pops up notices of new tweets, which often interfere with things like playing video so I mostly just use Twitter Fox. I can see tweets flash by while working in Firefox doing all sorts of other things and only open the window to look more closely if a tweet especially interests me.
    1. salomey5
      "I follow people I know from different forums, people I know in real life, authors, publishers, publicists and library workers and a random few others that I find genuinely interesting."

      Ditto here, that's what I was using it for until this sudden influx of blatherers.
      I just feel like I'll come across as some kind of a snot if I don't follow the folks who follow me.

      It's really annoying me that I can't seem to be able to download Tweetdeck; from what I've read, it seems like that's what I need, but I spent hours on it last night, to no avail.

      The Seesmic thing I have on right now works, but I just don't like it. So for now, I'm sticking with Twitterfox for the most part.
    2. libdrone
      ummm if you find them to be boring blatherers why care if they think you're a snot?

      no clue about your troubles downloading tweetdeck, but maybe a more technically advanced user could help you with that.

      (and I just followed you, btw. Feel free not to follow back if you find my tweets dull)
    3. salomey5
      Ah, no, not another follower!

      The thing is, all the people from BC that I'm following are the fun ones whose tweets I enjoy. Hence I will follow you back, so there.

      From what I've read, it seems my issue with Tweetdeck is pretty common, looks like a lot of folks are having problems downloading it too. I have installed Adobe Air and everything, it said it the installation was good... I don't know, I'm at a loss with that one.

      So I'm hoping to find an application similar to Tweetdeck, but that will work. Or maybe I'll just contact the Tweetdeck people and ask them if there is something else I can try.
  4. MadameX
    It doesn't sound to me like the problem is with Twitter. It sounds like the problem is that you followed a bunch of people you weren't interested in, and then didn't use some sort of application to group and filter them.
  5. PotatoChef
    I installed TweetDeck without any problems. I am not a techy type person...so you might want to try again.

    Of course I need to let you know that I think Twitter is the most overated, useless application on the internet. I don't use the TweetDeck or Twitter very much at all.

    I do have to admit that if you like talking to yourself, or like watching other people talking to themselves..then Twitter is the place to be.
  6. witewood
    I agree with you, in my own case I don't consider it a worthwhile way of spending my time on all the twitter crap. Too many use it ONLY because they think it will help their traffic. Too much junk.
    1. salomey5
      I must admit, I only signed up on Twitter because I read it was an effective promoting tool.
      In my case, it hasn't really paid off, but I thought it was at least fun to exchange updates about American Idol with other viewers, while watching the show, for instance.
      And I also got to read good articles because of it.

      But now, I'm starting to find it a little overwhelming. Hopefully, I'll find some app that will help me keep my friends separate from my other contacts, so that their tweets don't get lost in the mix.
  7. Tonyboy
    I just signed up with twitter yesterday, I find it a bit weird I am not sure if I fully understand the concept.
  8. PetLvr
    I prefer to use iTweet.net .. you don't need to install anything (Adobe AIR) and it has everything integrated (search, etc)

    You can sit there and watch the tweets - and the people that don't interest you - you click on their avatar and unfollow.

    Keep in mind - you don't have to follow everybody ... because my username "PetLvr" contains capital letters, the Replies link of twitter doesn't always catch all messages to me, but if I put @PetLvr in the search field - i see everybody who messages me, whether I follow them or not. You can do the same thing with your username to see if you are missing anything.

    Keep in mind - if you are not following people, they can't DM you.
    1. salomey5
      Itweet, you say...? Will it allow me to organize my contacts into groups, like "BC friends" etc...?

      I'll take a look at it later, sounds interesting. I know I've had some issues with Adobe Air, but they seemed to get solved after running some Microsoft cleanup app.

      But thanks. I'll check it out.


      So you guys think I should stop bothering with that 10% followers/followees ratio, and stick to only following the folks whose online company I actually enjoy?
    2. PetLvr
      I personally never recommend to any of my friends, family, online IM chatters etc to start aggregating followers into "groups". At one point, you will only realize it never works, or needs to be regrouped, or you aren't really classifying people correctly etc.

      The twitter search is best to find anything you want about a person - and if chatting, click on the @twittername and then those of who they follow.

      If you want to keep track of your "best" twitter friends .. mark them as "Favorite" (the star)
  9. gosmelltheflowers
    Tweet deck is also worth a look - provided your specific with twitter then it's worth a GO!
  10. salomey5
    I like Twitter again!

    I finally just got Tweetdeck, and unlike stupid Seesmic, it only took me thirty seconds to figure it out.

    I've had it for like 7 minutes, and I love it already.

    I think there must have been a bug with the download thing and the Adobe Air other thing.

    Anyway, yeay Tweetdeck!
    1. crpitt
      /pats head
  11. filmasia
    Twitter is a time-wasting tool which I think is more suitable for social networking like making new friends.

    For increasing blog's traffic it is really USELESS to rely upon.

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