Q. What does Twit Cleaner do?
A.
It analyses the profiles & tweets of every single person that you follow, looking for certain patterns of behaviour (people not talking, being over repetitive, common spam tactics, posting the same links repeatedly, etc).It's then up to you to decide who to save & who to unfollow.
Q. Why is my friend on the report?
A.
Firstly, to find out exactly why they're on the report, just move your mouse over their picture - it'll bring up a tooltip with an explanation.Secondly, if you have a handpicked list, then (to you) nobody on it is dodgy, of course not.
Thirdly, it's important to understand, The Twit Cleaner doesn't say someone is or isn't a spammer. It analyses a whole lot more than that. What it does is identify certain types of behaviours. Your friend (or favourite celebrity, bot, etc) is on the report because they behave in ways that are deemed potentially dodgy. Look at the category headings for more information. Of course, this doesn't mean you should unfollow them if you don't want to.
One example would be someone who gets excited & posts the same tweet 10 times in a row. Ok, so it's your old school buddy being funny. That's fine, but MOST of the time when this happens, it's spammy (or boring), which is why it was flagged.
It's ok, simply click on their icon to save them & they won't be unfollowed. It's that simple.
Q. How is the Twit Cleaner secure (is my password safe)?
A.
Absolutely. We scan your Twitter list only with your permission & if Twitter says it's ok. Twitter uses a thing called OAuth (that link will open in a new window), which is really just a fancy way of saying a) we never get your password, & b) you can shut the Twit Cleaner out completely at any time by going to your Twitter page, clicking Settings, then Connections, then Revoke Access.Additionally, we keep full records of everything that happens here, so if you make a mistake, don't sweat it, we'll happily revert for you (ie, zero harm can come to your account).
Q. How are the (potential) bad guys broken down?
A.
The possible categories are:Dodgy - spam phrases, @ spamming, duplicate links etc
Absent - No updates in a month, or fewer than 10 tweets.
Repetitive - High numbers of duplicate tweets or links
Flooding - So high volume you can't see anyone else
Non-Responsive - No interaction & those that follow back < 10%
Little New Content - Retweeting lots or just posting quotes
Q. But I like following celebrities (news bots/whatever)! Are you going to remove them?
A.
Of course not! You get final say on everything. The categories are just a guideline (ie, the report is descriptive, not prescriptive). There will always be people that appear that you want to keep following. Twit Cleaner allows you to easily select these people & not unfollow them.Q. I unfollowed a ton of people, now my followers have dropped. Why?
A.
Because a typical thing spammers do is set up scripts that auto-unfollow anyone that unfollows them. They don't care who you are, they just want a high follower count. You've lost nothing by getting rid of them. Now you have time & space to focus on real people.Q. Why does the report url you sent me take me to the front page?
A.
Two possibilities. First, you've blocked or deleted cookies (unlikely, since you wouldn't have got far without them). Second, most likely, you've revoked access to the Twit Cleaner (to fix, go here)Why do we need access? For security - this proves via Twitter that you are who you say you are. It stops any old person from looking at your report.
Q. Why isn't my report ready immediately?
A.
Several reasons. Firstly, it's a huge amount of data to wade through. Secondly, Twitter's servers only operate at a certain pace. We can't move faster than them (much as we'd like to). That said, we're finding sneaky ways of speeding the process up every day.Q. What does a report look like?
A.
I'm glad you asked. There's an example report, along with instructions on how best to use it, right here (will open in a new window).Q. I don't have time to wade through all these people right now. Can I come back & finish my report later?
A.
Of course! Twit Cleaner stores a cookie on your computer that keeps track of where you're up to - all the people you've selected. Come back any time & you can continue right where you left off.Q. Do you have a report that analyses my followers? (I want to block all the spammers there)
A.
That's a popular request. Unless there's a compelling reason, I'd recommend simply using TwitBlock which is designed specifically to analyse your followers so you can block them.Q. Can I see people that don't follow me back?
A.
There's a couple of reasons we won't be providing that service. Firstly, people that don't follow you back aren't necessarily dodgy or otherwise low quality. In other words, they don't fit into the basic premise of the Twit Cleaner - that of increasing the quality of your Twitter experience.On a more practical note, following a ton of people then unfollowing those that don't follow back (& repeating ad nauseum) is something called churning. It's a key spammer trick, & why would we want to make life easier for spammers?
Churning is something Twitter really frowns on. As such, they have systematically stopped every application out there that used to provide this service (eg Twitter Karma, Manage Twitter, etc). So, adding it to the Twit Cleaner would be a good way to guarantee we were shut down immediately.
Q. What do I do if my cookies are messed up - I can't use the Twit Cleaner & can't see my report?
A.
Click here. That'll wipe your TwitCleaner related OAuth cookies so you can sign om through Twitter again. Sometimes things get a bit confused, a clean start won't hurt anything (we'll still remember your report selections) but will sort out most problems. If you're still having issues, just drop me line.Q. I don't want to give you money!
A.
Well, that's a statement, not a question, but that's ok too. If you don't want to pay, you don't have to. You can take the report & do anything you like with it. What would be nice as thanks is a simple little tweet out to your followers telling them about the Twit Cleaner. We've even made it super easy for you - all you have to do is click a button on the report... & thank you!A.
Ahh! One of my all time favourite questions! It's people like you that keep this happy little engine ticking along. The easiest way is via paypal (which takes either a paypal a/c or any major credit card)May I also take this moment to say how fantastic you're looking today? Yes, yes you really are! And thank you very much.