Becky Says...

May 2009

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Unwelcome Feeds - May 26

Please note this is not about freedom of speech. It's about a tactic I find annoying.

Oy. There's apparently a new fad of sorts going around on Twitter, which has people pulling in feeds from any source they find into their own streams via a third-party application. For example, you could pull in a feed from your favorite news agency, or your favorite craft site, or your cousin's favorite actor's fansite. Or all of the above.

The only reason I can see for people using such a thing is to keep themselves showing up in the public Twitter stream often, perhaps in the hope of gaining followers. I can see that it would catch the attention of people who have things set to follow anyone who uses a certain word, but I think it's annoying.

It causes a lot of stuff to show up with no comment at all from the person under whose name it was posted. For instance, if I did it and was using a craft site feed, you might see announcements of craft shows (which I don't do, since I do custom work). You might not know I wasn't going to any of those shows, nor endorsing any of them, unless I came back into the feed in person at some point and said so.

Now, you might not care about the above, but I do. I don't want my name associated with something that isn't either mine or something I do want you to see, for some reason. And I'll say why I want you to read it if it isn't mine.

Don't misunderstand: I'm not complaining about people who post quotes they find inspiring or amusing or noteworthy, or people who post links to their own things. I think that's fine and usually gives me some insight into the person that I might not have otherwise. And Twitter is an excellent way to get your name and products or services out in front of the people.

No, I'm griping about actions like those of a person who stopped mentioning her own work at all, and started using a feed to post links to any even remotely art-related thing that caught a feed's set keywords. I dropped her yesterday, and posted a comment that I would do so anytime it became apparent someone was using autoposting just to post.

And I will.

Text © copyright 2000-2009 Becky