Twitter Limits Following to 2,000
Twitter has always been looking for better ways to combat spammers and it appears they have recently added a new measure to combat one aspect of gaming.
User can now only follow up to 2,000 friends before being limited and receiving this error message.
I noticed this over the weekend when working on one of my accounts. I have had the account a long time and it has a high natural follower count, but found myself limited when I hit the 2,000 number of people I was following.
I went and read the following section on their supposed “following limits”:
“Follow limits are based on several things, one of which is our belief in a person’s good standing and intention. The behind-the-scenes portion of follow limiting varies by account, relationship, and changes over time. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, we’ve concluded that this is both fair and reasonable. While we figure out what works best for everyone, the limits may change occasionally, but this is the nucleus and future limits will be based upon the success of these.”
it also indicated that the limit was based on a 24 hour period so I decided to quit working on the account for the weekend and pick up again on Monday.
This morning I went to test and see if I could follow more than 2,000 and found that I was still given the error message.
I talked to a buddy, who did the same test over the weekend, and as of today he also has the same message and result.
A quick search on the web found a blog post from last month mentioning the change as of July 11, 2008, so this must have been in effect for about a month now. Another member was found posting in Twitter about it on August 2.
I am still unsure if maybe it is only certain people effected by the apparent following cap or if it is every Twitter user that is effected.
EDIT: Twitter user “jpostman” sent me a link to an update from one of Twitter’s technical support staff verifying that there are limits that change for each person.
Also Twitter user “NicoleSimon” took her following count from below 2,000 to 2,056 proving that it is possible if you have the right ratio or account trust.
EDIT - Aug. 12, 2008: The co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, commented on GigaOm’s post saying:
“Om, I’m afraid this has gotten confused. There is no limit to the number of followers you can have.
There is a limit to the number of people you can *follow*. This is mostly to reduce spam and depends on a number of factors. More details here: (link)”
If you have anything to add or an account that has been able to cross the 2,000 follower mark in the last month, please comment below.
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I hit the 2K limit shortly after I started testing our twitter GM script last week. Yesterday (Sunday), with 675 followes, I hit a new limit: 900. It appears that if you follow too many, they drop your following limit even further. Luckily, I can easily drop the non-mutuals.
I know there are plent of people that are following many more feeds than that.. Jason Calacanis & Guy Kawasaki come to mind. Perhaps they are not limiting accounts that are already at that level? Or more likely, they are just special cases.
That’s not a very creative solution. It should be based on following/follower ratios. If it’s unbalanced I should not be allowed to add more.
Perhaps a “This is spam” link that goes with the follower notification you get. If 10 people report a member as spam they get flagged and are investigated.
Many organizations use Twitter as a communication device or web service. This will definitely impact them.
@Rick
It may also be that they had that many before the limit was implemented. I tried to contact Twitter for comment but did not have a good contact to reach out to.
Wow this is big news in twitter world. This should certainly stop some of the mass auto following going on.
It blows that I heard this from you instead of from them.
Wow..this is definitely news. We bet they leave those who are following over 2K alone - it would be pretty evil to erase a ton of contacts in accounts - there definitely would be an uprise.
I’m “stuck” at following 2,000 as well. I hit that barrier last week, and can’t get over it. I put in a ticket to support, but it looks like that won’t get anywhere if it’s indeed true.
I think the 2k limit is very low, I have more than 2k friends on Digg, they must understand that if they have 15 million users, following only 2000 people is very easy…. If they want to stop spam they should check scripts that add friends every 10 seconds or search for other patters…
Now spammers will create tons of accounts with 2k each one, so is this the solution =?
There are more than 2000 interesting people in the world to follow. Unfair.
I hit this barrier around July 28th or so. I’d give you the exact tweet, but Twitter won’t let me page back that far, either.
Maybe they’ll start charging for extra followings..
- I am currently following ca 1500 and CANNOT keep up, so 2000 seems an ok limitif you have less that 1000 followers ,)
- Balancing it on rations makes little sense. When you start out you weasily follow 100 perlple or 50 and are only followed by 0-2.
- It’s very nice now, I see I have a follower with 2000 ppl he/she follows and 590 who fllow back -> SPAM -> BLOCK finished. ) (Yes, 20 followermails by idiotic spammers per day get on my NERVES.)
Poor Scoble
If you believe in the magic number:
http://tinyurl.com/2oq9to
Then even the 2,000 number starts to look too big. I know people are going to complain about this limitation (as the do about any limitation, heck people even complain about features), but ultimately it will improve everyone’s experience.
@Don, @Louis, @Manny, @Arnold, surely you don’t expect any of your 2,000 to believe you’re actually paying any substantive attention to them, do you?
Maybe you do not understand the English language, and if that’s the case I’m sorry.
But, “User can now only add up to 2,000 followers before being limited and receiving this error message.”
One does not “add followers”, one follows other people. Now, one can only follow 2,000 people or less. Users “add” themselves, you follow others. Get it?
Whats up with all this Twitter news the last couple days? I dont get it.
JT
This seems like growing pains. Twitter may be trying to deal with a couple of problems at once. Their own struggles to manage their growing user base as well as the spam issue.
Twitter is one of the easiest platforms on which to amass friends — just the single click. You don’t need a script or any other technological know how to follow thousands in a single afternoon. I’m not sure there’s another site where it’s so very easy. This makes the potential for spamming massive.
I suspect that a strong reaction from the community will send Twitter looking for a different way to solve their problems.
“That’s not a very creative solution. It should be based on following/follower ratios.”
…..Agreed…
Maybe this is a good way to maintain an effective signal to noise ratio.
Still sad for the people who want to follow more than 2000 individuals though
How does anyone keep up with more than 2K people you are following? Sure Kevin Rose has +55K followers but he only follows 90 some people.
I just started using Twitter so I haven’t run into any problems like that yet, but that’s weird.
Jim: I noticed that too! I loved Wallstrip’s episode from yesterday: http://www.wallstrip.com/2008/08/11/twitter/
I think that limit is very stupid. I think it should be based on reputation. If a user follows many others, spams them and they complain, then that user should be limited or booted. To do this to everyone is heavy-handed and draconian.
@Muhamed - Actually, my limit is now 666. Really strange. And I have > 690 followers (30 people have followed me since yesterday, with no outbound activity on my part).
And yes, it’s perfectly reasonable to follow thousands of people. I focus on people interested in the same things I am, and I scan for things I’m interested in. I’m only interested in following people who will follow me back — otherwise, it’s not a conversation. You can look at my page and tell that it’s not a spam account.
I guess this move by Twitter is a good one…I don’t know how someone can follow more than 2,000 persons..in my case..I’m only following around 280 but still I’m having trouble catching up with them…^^
what happens to those tweppl who already have more than 2000+ followers??
The vast, vast majority of Twitter spammers I’ve seen have less than 20 followers, over 10,000 followings, and, on average, one update, which links to their spam site of choice.
Twitter could apply these numbers to make the system a lot better. Like if someone is following 2,000 people, but also has 2,000+ people following them, it’s pretty obvious they’re not spamming anyone.
Likewise, if someone is following 2,000+ people, and has 2,000+ people following them, and they update several times a day and/or have a few hundred Tweets marked as favourites, they’re most probably not spammers.
How could you realistically follow 2000 people that you actually know?
@ everyone who has complained about only following 2000 people on twitter.
I’m completely taken by this conversation… I just finally set up my twitter account a week ago after refusing to participate since the beginning…
I know a handful of people on twitter right of the bat. (10-20) I know of probably 10-20 more technologies that have their own pages I’d like to follow… I know those 10-20 technologies have 30-50 more people that are in charge that have their own personal tweet feeds that relate back to the technology I want to stay on top of…
I’m already getting so many updates that if I look away for more than an hour, I have to surf back a page or two…
My point to the people who are complaining about not being able to follow 2000 people on twitter: You are retarded, and A.) You don’t know, have never known, nor will you ever know personally 2000 people. B.) If you actually have time to follow 2000 “friends” on twitter or ANY website for that matter, you should introduce yourself to the outdoors, or at least to a more productive day of work, and talk to someone about the twitter problem you have, that has turned you into a twit.
I follow only about 420 users and I have the 2000 cap on my account. I probably have unfollowed 1600 users in my Twitter life though as I am always pruning and maintaining my account.
So this ceiling may be the number of people you have followed all time. Not just the number you are following currently.
I find it hard to justify following more than 2,000 people unless you’re a twitter bot (providing a service), and in those cases people are going to be following you first so the site will pay attention to ratios. Also, there’s a big discussion on this on the Twitter support site: http://gsfn.us/t/j5e
This is extremely annoying. No response from support, no indication of what I can do to play within the boundaries. Nothing. Zip, zilch, nix, nill, nada, niente, nothing, f*ck all!! Just secretive, “Oh we have a process that we’re refining.” At least respond to the support queries!!!!