Twitter Issues...
I'm still working on the site so please excuse the mess. I created this page because I had a problem with my Twitter Followers and Followees so I wanted to mention a few things here that might help others in the same situation.
Update (Tuesday July 28, 2009 7:41 PM EST)
There is a new post by Twitter Support:" Following list vanished, timeline stopped updating. We're looking into a handful of reports that came in this evening regarding the sudden emptiness of following lists. People who clicked on the list of people they follow see no one listed, and a count of zero." Besides the use of the term "handful" if that matches your issues, please READ THE POST first.
Otherwise...
When I first had the problem (of my counts not updating and me not being able to follow or un-follow from twitter.com), I went to Twitter support and found the topic, "Can't follow- hit a limit when I'm within my limits?". I posted my difficulty (I could not follow or unfollow from Twitter.com and my following, follower numbers appeared messed up) and within hours it was working well and I have not had any trouble since.
I don't know if Twitter fixed it or if it just needed some time to "rest". I know there are many of you that have logged many more hours than I have on Twitter. I have noticed from following this topic that there seem to be several issues that people are reporting and they don't all appear to be related:
Some appear to have legitimately hit their 10% limit when they are following over 2,000.
Some say they are getting messages indicating they are over the limit when they are under 2,000 followers. I wonder if they added over 1,000 people (or attempted to) within a 24 hour period.
Still others say that they can't follow or unfollow people and that their numbers are off on the screen. (That was my situation.)
Maybe Twitter is Overwhelmed
As I already mentioned, once I posted my problem, it seemed to cure itself shortly afterwords. The thing is though that I appeared to have the problem several times after that. Each time, I was able to use Twhirl or Seesmic to follow or unfollow. Sometimes it would show up in my numbers, sometimes not for awhile. I think this is just a case of Twitter being slammed. I think they are always running at the edge of their capacity and more power to them. You know, we seem to expect a lot for free these days and Twitter is still a work very much in progress.
Maybe I'm Really Over My Limit
For those of you who have legitimately (or illigitimately) hit your limits or are close, there are several ways to go about fixing it. One is FriendOrFollow.com. If you are just a few peole over the limit, this is a pretty good way to go. It shows you who you are following but are not following you back. You can even sort the list. The only thing you can't sort by is how long you have been following someone. Seems that would be real handy if I want to get rid of the oldest "unfollowers" first.
The tool I am absolutely falling in love with though is Tweetlater! This one does it all. It comes with a Free and a Pro version both of which have been recently upgraded. It does too many things to mention here but the one thing it does relating to this article is FOLLOWER CHECKING! It will also let you save drafts of your tweets to use again. Schedule tweets to release when the time is right. I love the fact I can tell everyone Good Morning at 8:00 sharp even if I'm on the way to work and don't want to get pulled over for DWT (Driving while Texting).
It has many other features but the best one is you can try Tweetlater Pro for 7 days without paying a dime, without making a commitment, without giving a credit card or anything. Post like the big boys (and girls) for free!
OK, I said the tryout was the best feature but each feature is better than the last. They have an AFFILIATE PROGRAM. At first I thought "If I could just get enough people to try it out, I can get my copy free". But this product is so great, I think it will be much much better than free. Try it free AND sign up for the affiliate program FREE and see if you don't earn more than enough to pay for it in just seven days.
Dennis Weaver,
WebSelling4U.com