Qwitter is an unusual service in that it fills a need that probably doesn’t exist. It simply tells you that someone has stopped following you on Twitter, and what your last tweet was before they did the deed, in case it might offer a clue why they did it.
This is such a tiny, niche service that I can’t believe anyone is actually going to make use out of it. I’ve signed up, just because I am interested. Am I likely to take any action as a result of someone not following me? Probably not.
Mike Butcher at Techcrunch says this of the Ireland based service:
Now, you can’t secretly unfollow friends or associates anymore. If someone unfollows you, you’ll know and you’ll be able to ask them why. That means it may break up a few twitter friendships. Then again, it may even improve a few. At least you’ll be able to ask someone why they unfollowed you. Maybe people will will learn to use Twitter in a smarter way?
Seeing Qwitter did make me want to take a bit more of a look at the people I follow and those that follow me, though. As of writing, I follow 274 people and am followed by 520. The main reason why there are so many followers is down to spammers, in the main. I keep my updates public and don’t bother blocking obvious spam followers – I just can’t be bothered.
I did think about how I could check which of the people I follow actually follow me in return. A quick question to Twitter resulted in a couple of responses:
Of which the best is Karma. It lists everyone connected to your account, along with whether you follow that person, if they follow you, or both. It’s a really easy way of spotting people you really ought to follow, or of figuring out why that person never replies to you.
Oh, and I just have to finish a post about Twitter with this:
Yeah!
I could see Qwitter being a useful tool for non-profits using Twitter to build community. That way they could see if, say, fundraising requests were making people drop them.
On a personal level, I signed up but I fear it will make me crazy.
I’m very interested in knowing who unfollows, it’s always seemed odd to me that you get an email notification when someone follows you but nothing when they unfollow. It’s really hard to easily spot on someones page whether they follow you or not and, likewise, whether someone is a mutual friend or if it’s a one way follow. I know it’s not hugely important but it’s nice to know these things. I’ve had people follow me then unsubscribe later, but I stay following them despite the fact I only did it to be polite, if I’d known they unfollowed so quickly I’d have been able to do the same.
I think the fact you say you don’t think anyone would make use of it, then admit that you’ve signed up out of interest shows exactly why I imagine loads of people will be signing up!
I would really like to see a feature where you can secretly unfollow at the Twitter site itself. This would require the ability to make groups, and one could choose to have a “default view”. The spammers who are pretending not to be spammers can be put in group(s) you’d never have to see. When 90+% of your tweets link to your website, you are just a spammer and not real tweeple.
Qwitter has been dead (at least in Europe) for months now, and it was time the tweeple took matters in their own hands 🙂
Follow @goodbyebuddy on Twitter – it’s an easy and funny way to receive a status update per DM every time someone unfollows you.