thank u, next
February 9, 2019 6:35 PM Subscribe
Everyone was joking about Konmari-ing their Twitter, but Julius Tarng went ahead and made a tool to do just that.
I actually sat down and did this manually last night and unfollowed 35 accounts. Not great (I hesitated to unfollow mutuals, especially since they're fellow writers and I'm supposedly on Twitter to Work On My Brand), but it felt refreshing, and my feed feels better already.
posted by gc at 7:10 PM on February 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by gc at 7:10 PM on February 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
The other best thing you can do for Twitter is turn off retweets. For everyone. You have to do it one person at a time, but this tool automates it.
posted by Nelson at 7:12 PM on February 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 7:12 PM on February 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
I misparsed that as Konami-ing their Twitter and wondered what the code would do.
(I really need to put https://github.com/snaptortoise/konami-js on the next site I build.)
posted by isauteikisa at 7:26 PM on February 9, 2019
(I really need to put https://github.com/snaptortoise/konami-js on the next site I build.)
posted by isauteikisa at 7:26 PM on February 9, 2019
I misparsed that as Konami-ing their Twitter and wondered what the code would do.
posted by isauteikisa at 7:26 PM on February 9 [+] [!]
It gives you extra guys and all the cool guns at the beginning, but if you die you lose your powers.
posted by gc at 7:37 PM on February 9, 2019
posted by isauteikisa at 7:26 PM on February 9 [+] [!]
It gives you extra guys and all the cool guns at the beginning, but if you die you lose your powers.
posted by gc at 7:37 PM on February 9, 2019
This is brilliant. Thanks.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:43 PM on February 9, 2019
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:43 PM on February 9, 2019
I was saddened to discover how many dead people I was following, but it was also nice to remember them and thank them and let them go.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 7:46 PM on February 9, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 7:46 PM on February 9, 2019 [15 favorites]
Much joy can be sparked by contributing to my Soundcloud. Much. Joy.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:52 PM on February 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:52 PM on February 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
Also try realtwitter.com, which redirects to a search for just posts from the people you follow, with no replies or retweets, and especially no algorithmic timeline cruft.
posted by enf at 8:16 PM on February 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by enf at 8:16 PM on February 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
MY TWITTER IS SO SEXY RIGHT NOW
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:23 PM on February 9, 2019
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:23 PM on February 9, 2019
Very cool. I've been thinking of making a thing to delete my old tweets that aren't liked and don't have replies, stuff like that. I don't need to just delete everything older than X, but I have a lot of tweets out there that are basically trash.
It's weird to think of how "managing your online crap" is a software category now.
posted by rhizome at 8:38 PM on February 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
It's weird to think of how "managing your online crap" is a software category now.
posted by rhizome at 8:38 PM on February 9, 2019 [3 favorites]
I misread this as "Katamari-ing their twitter." I think I've discovered the opposite of "Konmari" and a name for my decorating style.
posted by mmoncur at 8:39 PM on February 9, 2019 [21 favorites]
posted by mmoncur at 8:39 PM on February 9, 2019 [21 favorites]
Katamari is like the scariest video game in the Konmari world.
posted by rhizome at 8:42 PM on February 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 8:42 PM on February 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
I was saddened to discover how many dead people I was following, but it was also nice to remember them and thank them and let them go.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter
Eponysterical.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:50 PM on February 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter
Eponysterical.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:50 PM on February 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is taking too long. I just use Twitter lists to manage who I follow, and almost never use the main feed or whatever. While I certainly don't like having clutter around, I also do not understand why Marie Kondo is so popular, and what is so intrinsically good about getting rid of stuff (or people in this case). It's a weirdly materialistic philosophy.
posted by JamesBay at 10:04 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by JamesBay at 10:04 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
I got rid of anyone who hasn't posted in 2019 and instantly shed 30 accounts.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 12:40 AM on February 10, 2019
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 12:40 AM on February 10, 2019
And... I think I was suspended for it? I now can't post or open my profile. That's horrible.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 12:55 AM on February 10, 2019
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 12:55 AM on February 10, 2019
And it's back. Nevermind then.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 1:12 AM on February 10, 2019
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 1:12 AM on February 10, 2019
Hmm. Some of this language that is endearingly twee when paring down one's wardrobe or library takes on quite a different connotation when considering outdated social ties. These remnants of friendships that didn't survive the years of respective personal growth (or lack thereof), I think are best to sever so, quite: thank you, next.
But then there are the many people no longer with us, and those I think I will keep. I don't want to let any of you go, even in this tiny ultimately meaningless way.
posted by seraphine at 3:12 AM on February 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
But then there are the many people no longer with us, and those I think I will keep. I don't want to let any of you go, even in this tiny ultimately meaningless way.
posted by seraphine at 3:12 AM on February 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
But then there are the many people no longer with us, and those I think I will keep. I don't want to let any of you go, even in this tiny ultimately meaningless way.
I was thinking about how I still had a friend's number in my phone for years after he died and then realised that smartphones have gotten rid of the ritual of copying numbers over into a new phone (and before that a new address book or calendar, I suppose). There's no "Am I really ever going to call this person? How likely is it they still have this number? Wait... who even is that person?"*
*I had a number for my friend Matt in my phone as "Matt England" and every so often would see it and think "Who the heck is Matt England" and then remember that it was his phone number in England. In 2007 or so, so maybe I should delete it. This happened more than once before I actually deleted it or got a new phone.
posted by hoyland at 3:52 AM on February 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
I was thinking about how I still had a friend's number in my phone for years after he died and then realised that smartphones have gotten rid of the ritual of copying numbers over into a new phone (and before that a new address book or calendar, I suppose). There's no "Am I really ever going to call this person? How likely is it they still have this number? Wait... who even is that person?"*
*I had a number for my friend Matt in my phone as "Matt England" and every so often would see it and think "Who the heck is Matt England" and then remember that it was his phone number in England. In 2007 or so, so maybe I should delete it. This happened more than once before I actually deleted it or got a new phone.
posted by hoyland at 3:52 AM on February 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
Years ago I unfollowed all but 100 people and cut out almost everyone I don’t know personally and that made me like twitter better. A few months ago I turned off retweets and that made me like it MUCH better. A few weeks ago I deleted my account and now I like it best of all.
posted by Smearcase at 5:37 AM on February 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by Smearcase at 5:37 AM on February 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
For me the sweet spot on Twitter is following about 20 people.
posted by Lanark at 6:28 AM on February 10, 2019
posted by Lanark at 6:28 AM on February 10, 2019
I unfollow people on Instagram all the time. I'll see a photo I don't care about, check their profile, notice that their last twelve photos have all been of their car or their face or whatever instead of mountains and forests, and just unfollow them. I don't do it systematically, but I do do it regularly.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:01 AM on February 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:01 AM on February 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
> smartphones have gotten rid of the ritual of copying numbers over into a new phone (and before that a new address book or calendar, I suppose)
Years ago a friend showed me an address book he had "with the phone number of every person he'd ever met," which I found interesting -- at the time, I updated my address book every few years and got rid of people I hadn't contacted in a while. And now that friend is dead, but he's still in my computer's address book and I'm still Facebook friends with him.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2019
Years ago a friend showed me an address book he had "with the phone number of every person he'd ever met," which I found interesting -- at the time, I updated my address book every few years and got rid of people I hadn't contacted in a while. And now that friend is dead, but he's still in my computer's address book and I'm still Facebook friends with him.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2019
#10: K., a.k.a. @rtha! Show bio
Do the tweets still spark joy or feel important to you?
Well, fuck.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:12 AM on February 10, 2019
Do the tweets still spark joy or feel important to you?
Well, fuck.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:12 AM on February 10, 2019
> I was saddened to discover how many dead people I was following, but it was also nice to remember them and thank them and let them go.
I was tempted to keep them all -- and I'm also surprised by how many there are -- but then I realized that hacking is inevitable and at some point those accounts will be used to post spam. So I'm unfollowing them now, to avoid that future sadness.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:23 AM on February 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I was tempted to keep them all -- and I'm also surprised by how many there are -- but then I realized that hacking is inevitable and at some point those accounts will be used to post spam. So I'm unfollowing them now, to avoid that future sadness.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:23 AM on February 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Samizdata deleted his main Twitter account, but not the alt he used to report racists. I'm keeping that one.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:10 PM on February 10, 2019
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:10 PM on February 10, 2019
I misread this as "Katamari-ing their twitter."
Meanwhile "Konmari" keeps getting mixed up with "Kobayashi Maru" in my head, leading to some very confused musings.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:16 PM on February 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
Meanwhile "Konmari" keeps getting mixed up with "Kobayashi Maru" in my head, leading to some very confused musings.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:16 PM on February 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
This was super useful. I was following 160 people and it was hard to remember why I followed them all and managed to weed out 70. Opening each account in a new tab to investigate their merit would have taken just as long. Really liked this approach! I want this exact tool for Instagram.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:48 PM on February 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:48 PM on February 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am rather surprised that people actually read their main timeline on the regular. I manage twitter through lists and keyword searches, and do everything in tweetdeck on the desktop and twidere on the phone. I have columns on each for various groups, and consider "following" to be more of a social formality than a core function of the platform (outside of DMs, which I stopped using when they broke third-party client access to them).
Sure I occasionally dip into the firehose and find some great stuff. I've got an IRC/bitlbee channel where it all kind of spews past in text-only and I can bring up the url for any one post to find a thread. But that's not what I go to catch up on in the mornings.
By and large the only people I actively weed are the accounts that suddenly start spouting TERF balderdash. Those people are kind of sneaky, sometimes.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:27 AM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Sure I occasionally dip into the firehose and find some great stuff. I've got an IRC/bitlbee channel where it all kind of spews past in text-only and I can bring up the url for any one post to find a thread. But that's not what I go to catch up on in the mornings.
By and large the only people I actively weed are the accounts that suddenly start spouting TERF balderdash. Those people are kind of sneaky, sometimes.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:27 AM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Very grateful for this, thanks for sharing! I'm a writer, and I tried for a long while to follow other writers, but that resulted in a feed that was basically all promotions, retweets, mundane complaints about not having time to write, word counts, cat pictures, and links to redundant blog entries I don't have time to read if I want to have time to write. I used lists on Twitter extensively so that I don't have to read the whole sprawling collection, but this week I'm in a purging-systems mood already.
I use the "unfollow" iOS app, which has the advantage of showing you people who haven't posted in a long while, people you follow who don't follow you, people you follow who do follow you, and works a lot faster, but this is good for everyone still left.
posted by Peach at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2019
I use the "unfollow" iOS app, which has the advantage of showing you people who haven't posted in a long while, people you follow who don't follow you, people you follow who do follow you, and works a lot faster, but this is good for everyone still left.
posted by Peach at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2019
Can someone help me do this with my email? I've been working on that recently and it's a fucking slog, let me tell you.
posted by asnider at 9:33 AM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by asnider at 9:33 AM on February 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
asnider, I drag emails into folders as I get them and then, a year later, delete most of the folders without looking at them.
posted by Peach at 9:39 AM on February 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Peach at 9:39 AM on February 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
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