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Anonymous Following…or Twitter Stalking
By Mark Evans | November 22, 2008
Here’s something from the interesting but not sure it’s completely useful category: TweetStalk, which lets you follow someone on Twitter without letting you know that you’re following them.
I’m of two schools of thought about anonymous following: on one hand, it’s a way to watch from the sidelines without being actively involved in the conversation. It’s not quite eavesdropping but a way to politely listen but not have to be engaged or participate.
For some people, this approach involves less effort and you don’t to put digital yourself into every conversation.
On the other hand, it seems strange to listen to conversations without letting people know that you’re listening. Isn’t that the whole idea about Twitter is it’s, in theory, a two-way conversation even if one of the parties doesn’t talk as much as the other?
That said, lots of people read blogs without subscribing to its RSS feed or leaving comments, which means they’re maintaining their anonymity.
I guess all in all TweetStalk could be a useful tool but it’s not something I would personally use.
For more thoughts, check out TechCrunch, which suggests Twitter may want to implement a private follow feature to do what TweetStalk is doing.
Technorati Tags: twitter, tweetstalk
Topics: Twitter |