Things on Twitter might get nasty because of Karma tool
Written on February 5, 2008 – 12:18 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
On December 26 @StephAgresta said: “Twitter desperately needs page navigation on followers / following list. Also sort functionality by type (reciprocated or not) is a must.” One of her followers, Dossy, immediately started working on a tool. He writes on his blog:
I suggested a simple mashup that implements this and started hacking on it. Three days later, it has enough functionality that Stephanie said she thinks I should release it publically. (December 29, 2007)
The flash-based tool checks who you’re following and who follows you back. It’s called Twitter Karma, and it might have an huge impact on the way people use Twitter. Ignorance is bliss, they say. Well, I think you can say that about Twitter followers as well. What will people do if they find out that their so-called Twitter friends aren’t actually following them?
Of course the explanation not always has to be a negative one. I for one stopped following some people because they only posted personal stuff like: ‘drinking my first coffee of the day’. If it comes to those people, I’d rather follow their blog. Since they DO talk about their professional experiences there.
But such explanations and subtleties aren’t visible in Twitter Karma, thus it could actually cause some hard feelings. So this is just a warning, be prepared for some questions, and maybe a drop in your Twitter followers. Maybe you’ve already noticed it, since the tool is up and running for a month now.
But if you haven’t yet, check out Twitter Karma yourself. It might just give you an interesting view on who your real fans are…
[WebTipr: David Petherick, United Kingdom]
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By John Johansen on Feb 5, 2008
Social media is not for the faint of heart or thin-skinned. The unspoken social contracts for these services are still being worked out, if you don’t want to be part of that process, you’ll probably want to wait before jumping into a place like Twitter.
On the other hand, I found Twitter Karma very useful because it gave me a quick way to decide, of the people that are not following me, which ones are really relevant enough that I am willing to listen without having a conversation. Pared my list down and I’m happy with it.
By thunderror on Apr 23, 2008
Do you really need an application to check out whether ppl are mutual friends or not? Wont it just be apparent from your followers/following list (if you can send personal msgs to them, they are mutual friends..simple..)