apr 29
2009
Twitter Quitter
Your 57th Twitter link today: Most Twitterers are Quitters. Nielsen study reveals that 60% of users who sign up for Twitter don't return to the site the following month, which I hereby declare The Oprah Effect.
8 comments
i've got 160 characters for you, and only one place to put them. and it ain't in your "feed."
posted by fek at 2:20 PM on April 29, 2009 
160? Good, it won't fit.
posted by Rex at 2:29 PM on April 29, 2009
So when this happens with every other online self-publishing platform in existence, from Blogger to Tumblr, is that also the Oprah effect?
posted by M. Matos at 4:50 PM on April 29, 2009
Yeah. Meanwhile, a couple of months ago I thought it would be cool to start a Rimbaud twitter and, well, just look.
Yeah, I'll say it: Twittersquatting (and yes, i AM looking at you, mr. warhol).
Doesn't twitter need some sort of mechanism where your account gets deleted if you haven't posted in the number of months equal to your total number of posts X 10 (or something)?
posted by alesh at 12:09 AM on April 30, 2009
I've found that people sign up because of the hype and because of that hype people are expecting a complicated experience when the truth is Twitter is that simple that it is hard to grasp. I however will continue to tweet away, just the other day I had a thai dish suggestion and it is now a favorite dish of mine!
posted by BenBehrouzi at 12:39 PM on April 30, 2009
I was one of those who signed up because of the hype, but then realized after a week, "I don't really care what people are doing" and "I don't have time to post status updates--I am doing that on Facebook anyways." I think there is a small "Oprah effect" on sites like Blogger, but because of the investment involved, I don't think there is as much attrition as with Twitter. I just started my blog on Blogger and would rather do that than be an uber "Twit."
posted by Belgirl at 5:45 PM on April 30, 2009
Yup, Twitter squatters or those that have absolutely no use for it but just signed up to "see what it was about" and have an account. I do not think it will ever catch to the same amount of usage as something like facebook, but they will get bought out. for them that = success.
posted by Chris W at 4:00 PM on May 1, 2009
so what do you call people who sign up, and then never once log back in, but feel really bad because every day or two you get an email that another (actual) friend is "following" you?
posted by kittyholmes at 8:14 PM on May 2, 2009
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