Friday, March 09, 2018

Let's Play 'Who to Follow' Bingo

I've previously commented on the way that Twitter thinks it knows better than you what should be displayed when you visit the site. On that occasion it was the utterly pointless "While you were away" feature that put older tweets in your face whilst hiding the current ones (the ones you actually want to see) further down the screen. Today we focus on a similar useless enhancement - the little side panel that has a selection of tweeters that, in Twitter's opinion and based on an algorithm they don't share with you, and which is titled "Who to Follow".

Why is this subject to my derision? It has never once suggested to me anyone that I wish to follow, not even fleetingly. Furthermore, there seems to be no easy way to remove it (although using the adblock addon has been suggested but having this app screws up other sites). Today it presented to me the names of three football clubs. Now, I do follow a certain football club. I am well aware of the other clubs in the league in which they play and if I want to follow them I can jolly well make that choice. Twitter obviously have a cunning plan. They presented to me today three clubs from a different league. Why on earth they think I would look at these mysterious names and wish to follow them, I have not the slightest idea.  You can delete one from the list but it then gets replaced by another. And each time it was another club from a different league.  After a lot of clicks it finally suggested to me something different - the Central Line of the London Tube. Yes, I can see the logic here. I follow the Metropolitan, on which I travel regularly. So naturally, even though as a Londoner I am thoroughly familiar with the entire structure of the transport system, Twitter assumes that I haven't a clue and randomly pulls out another tube line.

Anyway, the rules of Who to Follow Bingo are very simple. Select one of the useless suggestions and click on the little x to remove it. If what replaces it is just as useless score 1 point. If actually relevant and helpful deduct 2 points. First to 10 wins.

And there's a bonus game. See how many clicks it takes before you get a celebrity who someone you follow has chosen to follow as well. This morning I got Stephen Fry in about 20.

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