Things on Twitter might get nasty because of Karma tool

Written on 5th February 2008                                                                                                              3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

On December 26 @StephAgresta said: “Twitter desperately needs page navigation on followers / following list. Also sort functionality by type (reciprocated or not) is a must.” One of her followers, Dossy, immediately started working on a tool. He writes on his blog:

I suggested a simple mashup that implements this and started hacking on it. Three days later, it has enough functionality that Stephanie said she thinks I should release it publically. (December 29, 2007)

“You talking to me???”
Twitter founder Biz Stone

The flash-based tool checks who you’re following and who follows you back. It’s called Twitter Karma, and it might have an huge impact on the way people use Twitter. Ignorance is bliss, they say. Well, I think you can say that about Twitter followers as well. What will people do if they find out that their so-called Twitter friends aren’t actually following them?

Of course the explanation not always has to be a negative one. I for one stopped following some people because they only posted personal stuff like: ‘drinking my first coffee of the day’. If it comes to those people, I’d rather follow their blog. Since they DO talk about their professional experiences there.

But such explanations and subtleties aren’t visible in Twitter Karma, thus it could actually cause some hard feelings. So this is just a warning, be prepared for some questions, and maybe a drop in your Twitter followers. Maybe you’ve already noticed it, since the tool is up and running for a month now.

But if you haven’t yet, check out Twitter Karma yourself. It might just give you an interesting view on who your real fans are…

[WebTipr: David Petherick, United Kingdom]