I’ve noticed lately that some of my colleagues online have a very large number of followers. Not to assign them a nefarious motive, but I wondered if folks really check out followers to determine whether they’re real people or spammers. It’s a question that interested me, and just for kicks I sent it out to Twitter. Here are the 15 or so responses that came in within an hour. Looks like most folks do check it out.
- NMHS_Principal: I try my best to block obvious spammers, other than that anyone can follow
2010.12.30, 2:18am - russgoerend: new follower invites filtered past my inbox in gmail. I go through every few days to follow back, etc.
2010.12.30, 2:51am - Digimom: If the name makes it obvious it's a spammer, I block. Otherwise I don't worry about it until/unless I get spammy retweet
2010.12.30, 2:23am - msstewart: I occasionally go through and delete obvious spammers but only bc I like to tidy up
2010.12.30, 2:13am - paulrwood: I go through the list about once a month. Do a little weeding.
2010.12.30, 2:23am - dmcordell: I do check - won't follow spammers or people who just RT without ever injecting original content or engaging in conversations.
2010.12.30, 2:17am - jorech: I look...anyone but spammers...
2010.12.30, 2:12am - savasavasava: I DO care. I look at them all and decide whether to follow them
back or not, report spammers, etc. I'm on twitter to interact :)
2010.12.30, 3:09am - bcdtech: I do check, and block some. I have tweetdeck running in school, so anything that comes up must be Ok for kids too.
2010.12.30, 2:11am - mikekaechele: Check em all and block spammers
2010.12.30, 2:17am - dogtrax: I check because I hate it when marketers and businesses try to follow me. I refuse to be a "number pawn" for them
2010.12.30, 2:12am - EricTownsley: I'm a let anyone follow.. if I see a spammer saying something about pictures or such.. I block, but open to almost all
2010.12.30, 2:26am - robkmil: yes i do, mostly to get rid of spammers and commerical tweeters that i don't want to be associated with
2010.12.30, 2:25am - tcooper185: I check my new followers, and report some as spam. Don't care about the Realtors and other randoms who follow me.
2010.12.30, 2:27am - theartguy: I clean out my followers on a semi-regular basis. If I think someone's spamming out follows, I tend to block them.
2010.12.30, 2:30am - janesingh: I block spam and real wackos but don't care about the others. They usually drop after a while if I don't follow them back.
2010.12.30, 6:26am - ajam00: I look at new followers to see common interest. I have not blocked anyone yet although I don't always follow back.
2010.12.30, 6:08am
