So Long, and Thanks for All the @Mentions...

Dear Readers:

Yes it's true. The @MonkeyButler Bots are no longer an endangered species, they are officially extinct! They've all been SUSPENDED, thanks to all of you who have blocked them. While we've been triumphant in our efforts, I am also aware that this campaign has disappointed the tens of thousands^* hundreds of followers who sought the services of @FollowerMonitor
^*Twitter's recent follower purges of spam accounts have reduced the followers of @FollowerMonitor by tens of thousands of followers to only 1,291 as of 23 JULY 2009 at 10:55 AM PDT.

As such, I thought it appropriate to post an update and a postscript. First of all, I will begin with two comments posted by @FollowerMonitor himself. Following are his two comments:

@FollowerMonitor said on July 23, 2009 at 02:59 PM...

@Noetical, I apologise for the your @mentions getting filled but I only serve the people. What started as something I did for just my friends and me became an overnight sensation as I picked up 10,000 followers in three weeks when I was only ever expecting a dozen of friends to enjoy my unique talents.

I do encourage people not to get angry or upset when people unfollow them as one of the strengths of twitter is asynchronous connections.

In addition, while I understand why people get upset, I encourage people to have the courage of their convictions when they unfollow someone. There is no shame is unfollowing.

Again I apologise for adding noise to your @mentions.

Kind Regards,
@followermonitor

P.S. I have one point of contention and that is being called the Overlord of our little menagerie in the bunker. My pigeons and monkeys are indispensable but they are here of their own free will.

@followermonitor said on July 23, 2009 at 04:10 PM...

I would like to declare my monkey butlers an endangered species (there were only 19 of them). As unsporting as it was and as sad a day as it is, I can only extend my hand and say well played madam, well played.

Rather than continue the comment thread, I've decided to post my response here:

Dear @FollowerMonitor:

First of all, let me thank you for being so wonderfully civil in your response to my efforts to exterminate your poor little bots. In response to your civility, I have changed your title from "OVERLORD" and removed the direct link to block your account.

I have to admit that I think your concept is an excellent one. My initial response was to consider following you myself, so that I might get your alerts as well. But then, as you know, I began to feel plagued by the clutter of your tweets in my @mentions. I want to assure you that I have no actual animosity toward you. Just as you used your talents to provide your friends and others with a service, I too used mine to help others, who were annoyed by your service.

The unquestionable popularity of your service is even more evidence that your idea was and is an excellent one. On the other hand, the fact that enough tweeters chose to use this tool as a means to get your @MonkeyButler Bots suspended, proves that your implementation needs rethinking.

As I mentioned to you in a tweet, I believe the best solution is for you to DM your alerts to your followers. That would eliminate the problem of others being notified that they've unfollowed someone...which presumably they already know. I know that makes it difficult for you to use your bots to spread the load. On the other hand, I have confidence that you are creative enough to figure out a clever workaround for that. I look forward to the next iteration of your service. As soon as it is one that both serves your subscribers and doesn't annoy everyone else, I will be happy to Tweet about its virtues at the top of my lungs (or wings, as the case may be.)

In the meantime, I am still getting complaint comments about your account continuing to clutter the @mentions of other tweeters. While I've removed the direct "block-link" to your account for the time being, I suggest you regroup and figure out a better implementation before your account is suspended too. @FollowerMonitor is the perfect name for the service I hope you will create, which alerts without annoying. Whether you take my suggestion of using DMs, or find an even more clever way of acheiveing your goal, I wish you luck.

P.S.: My point of contention with you is being called "unsporting." The "tool" I have offered here is merely a way for others to block you and your @MonkeyButler Bots easily. I could have devised an auto-block anti-spam bot that didn't rely on the preferences and actions of other tweeters. That would have been unsporting. Your bots were suspended because enough tweeps were annoyed to the point that they were willing to go through the process of blocking each one. As a test, I used my own tool to block each @MonkeyButler myself. While it made it easier, it took 15-20 minutes to go through the entire process of blocking each one. Anyone who went through that entire process must have been committed to eliminating them from their twitterverse. In addition, I'm sure there were plenty who blocked your @MonkeyButlers manually, without my help. The market has spoken: Excellent product, poor implementation. The ball is in your court. ;^D

Best regards, Noetical

UPDATE:

In order to facilitate more input regarding the @FollowerMonitor Service, I've created a TwtPoll with a few of the modifications suggested by both me and @FollowerMonitor. Please vote on the solution you believe would make you most likely to use the service yourself. For those who would never use this service, there are options for you too!