I have not altered my behavior on Twitter. However, I've had my account suspended. Twitter unsuspended my account. However, the multiple reasons for why they suspended it to begin with are at best confusing. They also don't give me much to go on to prevent this from occurring in the future.
The most generic reasoning Twitter provided was it could be one of the following:
1. Inappropriate language: I don't curse. My language isn't inappropriate. My profile is public. Even if it was private, the fact remains the profile is still online. Anything you say online becomes associated with you. I want others to see me. I don't want others to see some inaccurate representation of me. Think of it this way: Anything you say, tweet, post, or upload online is like broadcasting on the side of a blimp at half time during Super Bowl Sunday.
2. Impersonation: Ana is my name. Yes really. It's on my business card. My friends call me Ana. I use @blastkat because I use blastkat for all my social media. Blastkat is a childhood nickname. The avatars I use on my profile are both custom designed by me. Not that it matters but I tweeted a photograph of myself with my children. I choose not to use my own photograph as a profile pic or a cover photo. That is my decision to make.
3. Posting other people's content as your own: I'm not even certain why someone would attempt this but I would suppose it would go along with impersonating someone because straight out plagiarism would be too obvious.
4. It says something about multiple accounts and the intent of the accounts. I can save them the trouble as I only have one. I don't use it to harass people. Not only do I believe in "do unto others..." but also my profile is public. That isn't how I'd want people to see me.
5. Spam: I really don't use direct messages unless I'm having a side conversation with a friend like Bob, Andrew, or Helmut. Yes, I could go to e-Mail or grab my phone but I'm already on Twitter. Otherwise I don't send DM's anymore. It's pointless and inefficient. I don't even like to reply to those things. You would see spam on my feed. I report people for inappropriate spam and unfollow them for excessive spam.
The second reason Twitter gave me was "aggressive following".
I had no clue what that meant and their explanation was even less helpful. I asked. My first and most detailed response came from a friend. I was able to verify this with others who were also suspended for "aggressive following". "Aggressive following" is following or unfollowing too many people (over a hundred for someone like me) in a specified period of time (twenty four hours). Twitter assumes it's to call attention to your brand. I never said anything to Twitter. I thought they'd verify it but they didn't, they instead sent me a third reason. If you are curious, in my honest opinion this was it. I use Twitter Counter. On August 1st, I gained 178 followers. I follow people back. I do so not only out of courtesy but also because I assume you follow me for a reason. I want to hear what you have to say. Your tweets will only show up in my feed if I follow you as well. I've been advised by friends to keep my follow and unfollow count under 70 per/day to avoid this problem. I suppose I'll just have to be more vigilant.
The third reason Twitter gave me was "excessive mentions".
Yes they also have a page to explain "excessive mentions". It's as clear as swamp water on a hot summer day. Originally I came to Twitter to read the news, keep up with Franklin Covey, MMORPG's and gaming. I have my own content. You're reading it. I have other avenues to promote it. If you want to know where I am and my preferences, check Foursquare. If you are interested in images of my life, check instagram or flickr. My daily life is on Facebook, Google+, or Tumblr. I also have two blogs and a website. I never intended to promote myself on Twitter. I'd rather engage, interact with and promote other people. My tweets are RT's, conversations, digests, books, and politely thanking others for retweeting. It's very difficult to avoid mentions. I've removed them from everything possible. However, if I talk to anyone, retweet, or thank anyone it's unavoidable. If this is really the issue, I wish they were more clear about what is and is not acceptable. I find myself widely spacing tweets and sparingly using mentions. I'm actually counting the number of mentions I use each time I tweet. Perhaps this sounds paranoid but it's just a lot of trouble to reset my digests that are curated off lists made up of my followers and those I follow.
I suppose I'm back to my original question which is "how do I avoid this in the future?" I'm not even one hundred percent certain I know what "this" is exactly. I suppose all I can do is take precautions and hope for the best. I guess I find it odd that a social network discourages socializing.
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