If you follow me on Twitter, or heck, if you use Twitter at all, you know that they’ve been experiencing things that are “technically wrong”. Now, perhaps this was intentional on their part to show off the new error message, but they’re really starting to push the limit on what’s acceptable for down time.
Customer Service Went First
I keep my profile on Twitter protected. Not so much because I don’t want people following what I say (I do) or because I have things to hide (I don’t) but simply because if I don’t protect my profile, my Twitter page jumps to the top of Google and out-ranks my own web site. That, for some reason, bothers me. I’d like to see Twitter implement a “no index” option, so I can keep my profile public but not have it show up in Google, but alas, that’s likely a dream.
Nearly 3 weeks ago (Jan 14th, to be exact) I noticed that when I clicked on the friend request link on the side I received an error. I emailed support about it. I received an answer on the 16th stating that it was a bug, they were aware of it, and were working on a fix. I replied on the 20th looking for a workaround as I saw the number of requests grow from 1 to 5 to 8 to 11. Nothing. I emailed again on the 28th, now at 14 people. Nothing. I’m over 20 requests now. No word from support. No workaround. Still broken.
Ready To Move On
After the issues I’ve had with support, and now with the large amount of downtime – I’m ready to pack it in. Permanently. I won’t, yet, because Twitter currently provides much too much value to me to abandon it. It sounds though, to me, like the sentiments throughout the Twitter community are starting to sway the same way. If they pass that all-too-famous tipping point, I think Twitter will be looking at a mass exodus.
And hey – maybe that’ll help with the stability issues.
Tommy Vallier helps groups, individuals and businesses understand how social media tools can be used to their fullest. He is also a community builder and web developer living in Kingston, Ontario.
Tommy, are you sure you want to be going out on a limb and criticizing other web services’ downtime? :-)
(I know there’s a difference between what Twitter provides and what TalkShoe does, but still.)
Obviously you missed this…
http://twitter.com/biz/statuses/664932142
:P
I have to concur with Tommy. I also didn’t want my Twitter page outranking my website and other various things on Google.
Out of curiosity, if you were to leave twitter, would you continue the whole social status update thing? And, if so, where would your destination of choice be?
I’m hopeful that twitter will iron out these issues soon.
I agree with you, Tommy, but Twitter is free. In my opinion, mass exodus will only occur when something better than Twitter comes along. Same thing for any social media site. MySpace is still up alive and kicking.
These technical upsets happened on Twitter from day 1. They annoy me too but I haven’t found greener pastures. While in this day and age, social media sites are expected to be free and run flawlessly, people aren’t exactly running from Twitter and other sites.
You could consider adding your name to the content of your website on a few pages — that might be enough to bump it above Twitter or any other site in search engines.
At the moment, it looks like the only places your name appears on your site are in the domain name and page titles. Obviously those elements count a lot on search engines, but the text is important too.
You name’s not even on your bio page anywhere, and it’s only kind on your contact page. It’s almost like you’re shy — which we all know isn’t the case. :)
Beyond solving the Twitter-on-top problem, this would also fend off any future problem with other sites — especially sites that you don’t have a specific relationship with.
Hi Tommy!
It was nice to meet you few days ago on oovoo during Laura’s session, it’s a pity we didn’t have much time to talk.
I added you on Twitter (you find me @vascellari) and right now I’m watching you live @podcamptoronto. Actually it would be could to send you live questions via twitter during your presentation!
Have a nice day!
Andrea