I have my account profile protected and accidentally blocked @someusername. Can you please unblocked it for me (and accept).

On that point:
Why is the ‘block’ right under under the ‘Accept’ instead of to the right of the ‘decline’. Also, why is there no confirm?

New request message for protected accounts - as is

Not being funny but it’s a really bad interface design you have there. So easy to misclick, no confirm and impossible to undo without raising a ticket (like this one).

~ Paul

Below I’ve added an editted version showing how it should have been coded. It still bothers me that with all their staff and venture capital millions in the bank Twitter are unable to get something as simple as a web interface right! Personally I’ve have looked at working something to report spam in there as well, but it seems Twitter are happy to turn a blind eye to that problem!

New request message for protected accounts - as it should be

(It should be noted that @justamoochin is on my friends list. Which emphasises how easily it is to accidently block (and plus flag!) a friend.)

Having the devil’s own job with adding followers, been like this for the past 8 days, (noting the issues on your status page). Firefox gives no error message, just sits there with the icons thing spinning at the top.
MS Explorer tosses up an error message like this one:

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; SU 3.23; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.2)
Timestamp: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:44:59 UTC

Message: ‘$flash’ is undefined
Line: 1
Char: 721
Code: 0
URI: http://assets3.twitter.com/static/1245990937/follow.js

What’s particularly irking is I never add/remove more that a few hundred at most a day – and that manually – and always keep the numbers balanced. Yet I’m seeing spammers (using automated software) harvest 20,000+ followers with no problem whatsoever. You see spammers like ‘johngoogle’ with literally hundreds if not thousands of accounts at a time harvesting away, yet using Twitter properly with just a web browser seems to get you penalised.

While using Twitter, I had a problem/bug report

My request is in regard to the Web::Followers/followings

I feel: very frustrated

Fixed!

What I forgot to add – and I stupidly forgot to take a screen grab – was that one one point I had a load of spammers in my ‘following’ list that I’d never added (nor could I remove). Possibly a database listing error?

Here’s my take on it: if they don’t RT … if they don’t @reply … then it is almost certain they also don’t read YOUR posts and offer little if any value to you. Worse, you are almost certainly missing interesting stuff due to their spam.

For this account I want to MANUALLY gain 1,000,000 followers, simply to prove anyone can with the right effort.
I am prepared to follow back the same number.
However:
It is my firm belief and experience that between 95% and 99% of the 32 million+ Twitter accounts are now in the hands of self-interested affiliate marketers, spammers, phishers and worse parasites and predators.

At present, due to the insane task I’ve set myself, I’m not following all these rules for @milliontwits, but you can be assured I rigidly apply all the following to my other Twitter account. Many of you real people can relate, but here’s my dirty dozen:

[1.] The profile picture is very clearly female – but they have a man’s name. Similarly with all the other reasons the account, name and/or image don’t add up. For example the username is MaryLou and they call themselves Ann Marie, or their image shows a golf cart and the profile says they are a dating agency.

Sad spammer using a girls photo to get followers

[2.] The home page is an affiliate link.

[3.] The posts make idiotic claims like “I made $11,678 in a week”

… and they give an affiliate link to some naff, barely literate, website made by a drunk let loose with Microsoft Word. You can add to this all the self proclaimed ‘experts’ – for instance SEO experts with unranked websites full of awful source code.

[4.] Their account ends in a number, or in abc – these are nearly always spammers*

Spammer randomly generating account names

@Jayman888 @milliontwits agree with it all apart from point 4 , I have the 888 because it’s the lucky chinese number and I’m a lucky chinaman.

[5.] They don’t state when obscured links are affiliate ones.
Unless there is an advisory note like ‘ad‘ or ‘aff‘ they are a spammers (or worse) taking advantage of the shrunken url’s.

[6.] ALL their posts go to an affiliate site or to their own blog / website!

WHY are so many follower this spammer!?

[7.] They are following hundreds, even thousands yet have few if any posts. (It is highly likely that those they do follow are completely random, scraped up en mass). Take a look at the one below. About 20,000 followers – yet they have no bio, no posts, nothing. Mental!

WHY are these sheep following!?

[8.] They take other people Tweets and pass them off as their own.

[9.] They are pushing pyramid sales and MLM scams.

[10.] They can’t be bothered with a profile picture – applies especially to those following 1,000’s but only a score following them back. I particularly apply this one because a) it’s ugly and b) if the (spammer) won’t even make the effort to add an photo, they aren’t worth the time of day.
.
For me, you can however add to the list those that show a stack of dollars for a profile. That’s just crass!

[11.] They are a bot! (Thought a few bot can be funny!).

[12.] Filth should, of course, be blocked and reported.

Damn, it’s gone quiet, any Twitterers left here? Hello? Hello?

If you can think I’ve left any out, tell me in the comments and I’ll add them.

Ta!

…

For me it’s actually a duopoly. For this one of my (two) Twitter accounts I want to get get literally a million ‘followers’ As much to prove how vacuous, banal and spam infested Twitter is as anything else. I am working on the very real probability that 99% of Twitter is now bots, mlm/pyramid scams to get followers and snake oil affiliates.

In manually adding (and removing) several thousand on this account and flipping through countless pages based on keywords I found barely a dozen people worth knowing, and that was a fluke as half a dozen of us landed on the same thread.

As these things go, I’d say Twitter is already dieing, it just doesn’t know it! It still has life in it and potential, but the phishers and spammers wallowing in the trough of obfuscated links own it now. Darren (of of ProBlogger) and others are doing OK and I’m having fun in my own way, but you have to ask yourself, how many of the decent followers are those who already know ‘you’.

For instance, of the hundred or so I follow on my proper twitter id several I’ve know for a great many years, frequent their websites and blogs, meet at trade venues, get the mailings and so forth. Following me on that account with either get you ignored or blocked.

Ultimately, as ever, it comes to what you use Twitter for. For me I’m retired, I have no targets, no conversions, nothing to sell, and if you do, I ain’t interested. That said, as a result of several threads on Twitter I eventually bought the Thesis Wordpress theme – even then, it was only because I’ve followed and subscribed to Copyblogger for several years.

In the end it comes to this – the ineptitude and oversights of Twitter’s owners have currently beggered it. Whether they can repair things is another matter. As it stands to get quality followers purely from Twitter you’ll need to sift though an unthinkable quantity of pond scum first.

The solution, as Problogger and others experts will attest, is to use your websites, newsletters, adverts etc to direct your existing customers to your Twitter and rely on their Retweets to expand your base. Any and all methods based on randomly pulling followers will, I guarantee, have a negative affect on any branding you have!

1. Built-in system to reduce URLS and – much more so – to expand the address on mouseover – as some apps already do. Too many nasty surprises can be hidden in obfuscated links!
2. Renaming the assignments from “following” and “followers” to something easier and more sensible, like “Friends” and “Followers”, as Tweetcounter and others do.
   The best option is to allow people to edit the default to something more personal. For instance ‘celebrities’ might rename to ‘contacts and fans’, a gamer might go with something like ‘cohorts and minions’ while politicians could be honest and go with ‘cronies and plebians’!
3. An easy block and report spam button. Affiliate types can be annoying, yes, but some of the spammers are plain sick and need to be stomped on as fast as they slither from under their rocks.
4. A handy ReTweet button
5. An edit option for posted tags. Faster and far less spammy than copy, paste, edit, post, remove erroneous post.
6. Emotes! That’s what else Twitter needs! Online gamers will know what I’m on about!

   /cackle You cackle maniacally.

    /cackle @target You cackle maniacally at @target.

7. A lock option for individual followers, and following so you don’t accidentally remove someone
8. Party call mode. Trying to follow conversations between half a dozen friends when you are only seeing parts of the threads and torrents of other messages flooding past, not easy. Would, of course, need agreement between all parties, effectively creating a new channel.
9. A user definable tick box / #hash based sorting system. For instance, one day I might only want to concentrate on SEO news and comments, another I might want to chill out with friend and family. In the same way blogs work, there really needs to be a way to assign followers and following to categories. Could also apply the channels idea from party calls above.
10. Similarly, a better way of sorting and searching followers / followers. Alpha-numberic and also by date stamp / added order. 
11. An option to purge followers to get rid of the undesireables. Would need to have the locking in place and ideally be sortable. Several apps already offer this, cannot see why Twitter won’t.
12. A way to flag Direct Message for keeping – and equally a way to purge the rest of the junk from it.
13. A billing system, based on usage, not only as a monetising thing for themselves but as a way to deter spam. Seriously, does an normal person need to twitter to and with 2,000, 20,000, 2 million people? No way! Should be a scaling system similar to webhosting, but maybe not akin to the incumbent mobile phone tariffs O.o.
    If you are a small user, free; if you are a ‘celebrity’ or corporation with a huge following you or your agent should easily be able to finance it; most of the stuff inbetween is either spam and/or affiliate marketing, or directing people to legitimate sites to make money – and should be charged accordingly
14. A mute button, perhaps with a one hour countdown on it. There’s plenty of times when you may not want to removed someone, but at the time feel like screaming “Enough already!” at them.

At present Twitter is fast-tracking to turning from golden boy to epic fail and I’d say it’s only hype and high profile support from national and international celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Fry, and Jason Bradbury keeping it alive. It’s only the momentum carrying it forward but already you can read signs of it plateauing off. What Twitter does next decides whether it leads to another peak – or plummits off the edge of the cliff, just one more loss making dotcom.

All very melodramatic sounding of course – until you realise that some of the trends are terms from affiliate spammers using dozens, even hundreds of account scraping up names by the thousand, possible up to 200,000 a day and spewing out automated timed messages to any who’ll listen. If you look at the tools and methods being used, you’ll soon realise the mind-boggling scale of it.

Take this article on CNET : Scammers using search optimization on Twitter

This is just one of many you’ll find. Spammers and scammers are raking in money due to all the flaws in Twitter, many of which could and should easily be nailed shut.

With the exception of the hardcore fraternity who, frankly, should be lined up against a wall and shot, I’ve nothing actually against most of them – but still, come on Twitter, at least give the regular users the tools and information to make informed choices!

Of course, it’s majorly hypocritical for me to say I want a million followers and then moan, but the point is I am a regular user, just one planning on a historic scale. It just emphasises the faults and flaws. To get to a million following me, I am going to need to recipricate. Strange as it seems I’d also like to try and follow what many of them say, to interract. And even where I am now it’s a struggle, and can only get 1,000 times harder. There are many clever, funny and genuine people out there, and for every one there’s a 100 bots drowning them out in the hope of making – usually scamming – a fast buck.

Needs sorting!

Eric Jackson echoes this in an article on Business Week: Twitter’s Innovation Drought”>

Appearing on this list in a privilege. I WILL be keeping an eye on it! Clowns that @message me with affiliate links are automatically excluded! (Note: new page, Currently editing!)

Caveat: Please note some of these people may be nutters and I have no control over their language, links, insights or diatribe!

The Gadgetshows @jasonbradbury is not only real but a role model for how twitterers – especially celebrity ones should act!

JasonBradbury: @milliontwits Thatz the best suggestion I’ve heard. Although, I’m still going for 1. sell, 2. destroy

@Satans_Thong @milliontwits Firstly – You are an evil B.! I am starving here. Can’t even have my morning coffee!!

xxlucyappxx: @milliontwits :O the culprit!!! Should of known you can’t trust come one called @Satans_Thong I mean.. Satan. and thong! in one name.. tut!

JenMilan720: Heyyyyyyyyyyy newbs!!!! @milliontwits @krisempire

elbeard: @milliontwits Stalking is nothing to be ashamed of. The media’s given us a bad name.

buffyc: @milliontwits ah yeah I see the laptop can handle 64bit if I ever feel the need lol Cheers for help Paul

@shtfck i dont even think @milliontwits is listening to me… maybe HE is the bot…

Exactly. RT @Mom101: Man, a zillion posts out there on how to get your blog noticed by marketers and no one ever suggests just writing well.

JohnChow: @milliontwits You can read my review of Hummingbird here: http://bit.ly/scOCt
JohnChow: @milliontwits The best feature is it remembers who you unfollow so you don’t follow them again. Try doing that manually.

@chriswinchester @milliontwits Hey Paul – I’m real.I think, Good luck with the global domination thing

thegadgetgirl @milliontwits Thank you Hope you have a good day!

bhinn: Good for you! We’ll find a way to beat the bots @milliontwits … I’ll toss on buttons for a couple of charities …Bots already own Twitter

@rhcerff @milliontwits Well I’m certainly a bot on a Monday morning…

@helemaalbij @milliontwits watch out who you call a bugger

RandyTheHermit: @milliontwits Hey, I am nobodies Bot and I told you not to call me that

jacobseethaler: @milliontwits yeah that’s my company – i guess you can call it an isp – mostly just web design

BenStokell: @milliontwits i’m following you and i’m pretty sure i’m a real person. i do agree with you though – twitter’s being used too much for ads.

Trevorjensen: @milliontwits treadmill masters?

Bazzadoyle: @milliontwits Real as far as I am aware

geekgirldiva: @milliontwits Considering you followed me first, I figured you knew I wasn’t a bot ;P

zuppaholic: @milliontwits heyy..I’m a real person… ;P
zuppaholic: @milliontwits lol…yup..I’ve been tweeting with my real friends in the real world tho.. Haha..

nschmier: @milliontwits i used to be a real person but the gov’t bailed me out and replaced my brain with a more efficient micro-chip.

CrazyCatLadie: I didn’t scare @milliontwits away with my upchuck story! Yeah!

glitzyorbit: @milliontwits i am real .. are you?

justmk: RT @frankannie: RT @milliontwits Oh FFS, how pathetic is this – using a #quote to link to affiliate site for a chance of making a fast buck.

BoogieTheMags: @milliontwits ~~~ I like the term ‘twit’ for those who twitter! I also like the word ‘twittionaire’ ~~~

ackadia: @milliontwits Yep! Obscured links is a recipe for trouble and an open market feeding frenzy for affiliate spammers!

sumal: RT @milliontwits O.o interesting avatar image for @sumal – Terminator Smiley. Not seen one of those – before. – THANKS

bonnieackerley: @milliontwits Good luck with your quest Mate! there can’t be many of us “Ack’s” out there tho is there???

You hereby grant us, our affiliates, and our partners a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transfer, transmit, distribute, and publish Your Content and subsequent versions of Your Content for the purposes of (i) displaying Your Content on our sites, (ii) distributing Your Content, either electronically or via other media, to users seeking to download or otherwise acquire it, and/or (iii) storing Your Content in a remote database accessible by end users, for a charge. This license shall apply to the distribution and the storage of Your Content in any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed.

The following I found too frustrating to use / their website annoyingly slow and / or unsuitable for other reasons:

• Twitter Traffic Machine because. I am bloody sick of death of no-life affiliate spammers linking and DM’ing these clowns. Enough already. I automatically remove anyone promoting these. Plus, of course, I reckon it’s an overpriced scam!
• Looked at mytweetfollowers.com, but it seems complete BS to me. Fake claims and riddled with typo’s. Very amateurish. Don’t waste your time!
  (Few days later – Really getting sick of people spamming that link now. Like the one above, I remove anyone linking to this pathetic pyramid scheme.)
• Geofollow.com Seemed flaky to me, but looks popular with others.
• Justtweetit.com was just too slow
• Tweetfeed.com Really not impressed. To slow, crashed, nothing interesting either.
• Twittblasterpro for sure because:
  @Twittblasterpro laughingly claims is the “# 1 twitter friend adder marketing software tool.” and yet only has 1,849 followers itself.” Purveyers of other similar software have over 60,000 followers and don’t make such daft claims. Also the button link on twitter.pro site claims “free download” – but sends you to a page asking for $39.95 or more via Paypal. Amateurs!
• Also, I’ve decided, tweetlater.com because:
  Well, on the face of it, the tick list of very tempting, BUT… always a but, eh…
  Clearly popular acording to their website claims “We are the trusted and preferred productivity solution for more than 77,520 Twitter accounts“.
  
  Sooo, just so we are clear on this, over 75,000 people signed up pay them $29.97 a MONTH to subscribe (so $2,250,000 a month income?) – yet they only have 10,142 followers (27th May ‘09). *sniff* sniff* Smell that cow manure? Yep, it’s bull! More like as not 750 affiliate spammers with 100 Twitter accounts, if that!

Also going to pass on:

• Hootsuite – because they are asking for Paypal donates to develop the app.  – while, from the terms, planning to start charging for it’s use and possibly also for bandwidth. No thanks! From the Terms:
  

  Payment, Refunds, Upgrading and Terms
  A valid credit card is required for paying accounts.
  If you initially sign up for an account, and you don’t cancel that account within 30 days, you will be billed monthly starting on the 30th day after your account was initially created. If you cancel prior to the processing of your first invoice on the 30th day, you will not be charged.
  The Service is billed in advance on a monthly basis and is non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial months of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds, or refunds for months unused with an open account. In order to treat everyone equally, no exceptions will be made.

  Also, as a point for consideration, I find the Hootsuite bar intrusion and will unfollow most if not all people that use it!
  

• Easytweets – because no way would I pay $24 to $99 a MONTH for a front end to Twitter.

However, as I am clearly biased and more that a little paranoid, I will offer this mashable link for a more informed and objective view on : managing multiple Twitter accounts

Not got time to read it all now, but this looks very comprehensive:
Doshdosh: 50 Social News Websites: A List of General and Niche Social Media Communities

I’m sure a great many of you will wholly disagree with the next opinion, but – for the moment (May ‘09) – in this list I’m NOT including:

1. @tweetdeck
2. @Twhirl
3. @Seesmic

Nothing against them, per se, but I have issues with the fact that the Adobe Air installation warnings that the publishers are unknown and yet they want complete unrestricted access to your computer. Of the three, Seesmic does at least get the publisher identity verified. That said, they are all largely betas too, so I’m happy to wait a while. I am following them and we’ll see – after all, millions of users can’t be wrong…

After all, what can go wrong using a free – beta – internet application that needs unconditional system access. Riiiight.

Twittionaire

This to be built on good will and trust and will reflect that.  There will be prominent links awarded to:

• 1,000th follower
• 10,000th follower
• 25,000th follower
• 50,000th follower
• 100,000th follower
• 250,000th follower
• 500,000th follower
• 1 millionth follower

The only condition is the link is acceptable!.

* Too many people follow for a day to try and get a follow back. Not playing that game.

** So, a real site, preferably your own, not an affliate link and not ‘inappropriate’