Following / Unfollowing

Thou shalt not churn

1: When unfollowing those who have not followed back always do your unfollows first then your new adds. If you add new people first and then unfollow those who didn't follow back last time, X will take it that you're churning and will suspend you. Too many of these and you lose your account. So, always Unfollow non-followers and then Follow new.

2: Give people a chance. Not everyone spends every minute of every day on X. Some people may only come on occasionally. Give them a chance to follow you back. If they don't follow after a couple of days then unfollow them. I unfollow every Saturday morning, or Sunday if I'm busy on Saturday. I think it's fair to say if they only come on once a month they aren't going to interact much.
2a: If you unfollow and then re-follow later, sometimes if they don't see you on the first follow they catch you on the second because you're back at the top of the list. Or the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. 

3: 99% of people on X will not follow for a follow. It's like 99% of X users don't seem to know what the point of the platform is. Be the 1%. If someone is good enough to give you a follow, follow them back. 

4: You can follow 400 people a day as long as you don't follow more than 120 in one go. If you do, X will rate limit you.

5: Big Accounts. Just how likely is a big account to follow you back? Depends on 3 factors. 1: If they're part of the gain movement (like me) 2: If they target only certain subjects (like literature) and 3: If they're famous.  An account with a ratio of 35,000 following to 41,000 followers is likely to follow back. An account with 350 following to 41,000 followers is not.

Lists

Thy name shalt be listed

1: Lists - There's a reason for them. If someone lists someone else it's because that person has followed or interacted. You want people on your buddies list to do one or both of these things. If you see a list, go through it and (vet) add the people on it. These are the people most likely to follow back and interact. Ergo you want to get to know them.

Vetting

If your name's not down, you're not coming in

1: Vetting. There's a lot of hate on X. And I mean a LOT. People hate on each other because of race, religion, politics, gender, hat colour. If you're going to vet, then be sensible about it and don't get drawn into any arguments. Vet because it might be a bot, (more about these below). If you're not a hater you will see that most people are just the same as you. Deep down everyone just wants a quiet life. Then there's politics and religion and suddenly they're fit to kill each other. 

The dreaded 5000

The sabbath, rinse and repeat

1: You followed 5000 people. Only 2000 followed you back. (If you got this many you did well my friend, 99% of people don't follow back, they all think their followers are their fan base.) But now you're stuck! You can't follow any more, and if you don't follow more you can't get the other 3000 to get you past the 5000 mark.

2: Unfollow the 3000 who did not follow you back. You're probably going to have to unfollow 500 a day for 6 days. 

3: Then! Follow upto 200 a day. Do this for 7 days, and on the sabbath day, unfollow the people who didn't follow you back that week. Rinse and repeat until you have the right ratio to get you past 5000. 

Thou shalt not suffer a bot to live

1: "Why are bots so bad?" I hear you ask. Three main reasons,
1a: They follow but don't interact.
2a: They take up handle possibilities. Bot creators make them to cause problems.
2a: Musk has a purge and suddenly your buddy list is down by 1300.

2: IMO X should give us a bot reporting button.

3: A bot is usually pretty easy to spot. Here's ways to avoid adding a bot by mistake:
3a: Only follow users who have 400+ followers and have made 150+ posts.
Of course, this hampers new users who are trying to get followers so you can always post on their timeline the question:
3b: Bot check, please confirm you're human?
Bots can't answer questions so chances are if they don't answer in 24 hours they're a bot. Always check the [likes] because that's how some people answer and bots can't do that either.
3c: Bots usually make between 3 and 50 posts. 99% of them are corny quotes like "A walk through the rain will bring you to the sun." Or some random paragraph from a book.
Bots profile pics are generally (but not always) A person who is hiding their face or in more recent months an AI generated image. If in doubt use 3b.

4: If you're followed by a bot (usually it's a whole stream of them in one go), first click on their handle, then click the [...] "Remove this follower", yes you will lose 1 from your follower count but is better now than later, and then block the b@stard.

Do's and Don'ts

DMs - Don't DM without an invite. 

Porn - Do not DM someone a dick or kitty-kat pic or offer sexual services. It's a big frkn NO! For all you know it could be a minor you just inboxed and apart from scarring them for life you could find yourself in jail on a charge that the other inmates will kill you for. You will get reported. Your account will get blocked. You're wasting your time and aggravating decent people. You want to sell your sex then fk off to OnlyFans.

Do not tell someone what to say, list or do on their own threads. You can tell them not to do something on your threads, but not on theirs. You can be Mussolini, Hitler or Kim Jong-un on your own threads and dictate till you are blue in the face, but don't dictate your POV on other people's threads. You will get reported. You will get blocked. You will lose your account. If you don't like what someone has tagged you in, click the [...] and then click [Leave this conversation].

Airing your personal opinions on other people's threads. Do not air your hate-filled partisanship, religionism, racism or any other horrid content on other people's threads. That's THEIR thread not yours. You are entitiled to air your opinion on your threads but not on other people's. You will get reported. You will get blocked. You will lose your account.

Adult content - Do not approve adult content as safe! If you must be an adult entertainer and you're not getting any sales on OF then FFS hide it from plain sight! NO ONE wants to be scrolling through their content and see a couple having sex. Choose [Adult content] so the reel is not visible to sensitive users. If you don't you will get reported. You will get blocked. You will lose your account.

Do, keep on topic on threads. If someone is doing a follower drive don't reply with how much you love Donny Osmond. If someone is talking politics, leave them to it, but if you must respond, don't start talking about the weather. If they are talking religion don't tell them your God is the one true God and you're right and they're wrong.
Everyone has a right to their opinion and they have a right to air it on their own threads without the threat of violence or some hate-filled insult.

And last but not least - Make X a nice place to be. Everyone has their own problems, you might disagree with their politics / religion, that does not give you the right to hate on them, just don't do it. Treat others as you would like to be treated and be kind always, and if you can't be kind maybe X isn't the place for you.

The Zero Follower Count

Have you ever come across someone who shows as following you but has a zero following count? It means they're in Twitter sh1t for some reason. X has suspended their account. Sometimes even after a temporary suspension is lifted it can still take a little while for their follower count to reappear. Don't unfollow them! If they remove the content on their timeline, or wait it  out until they've served their sentence in the case of followed too many people in one go, they'll be back to normal.

Keep an eye on your emails! (Added 29/03/24)

If you're in X doo-doo they will give you fair warning to correct your behaviour. They will send an email, (or several emails) to the email account you signed up with. If you do not respond or retract the offensive content they will suspend your account. This isn't like being in a time-out, once it's gone, it's gone. 

 Getting noticed. (Added 29/03/24)

1: Have a gimmick. Something that makes you stand out. Something that people will remember. Mine is scrolling red writing. So, when people see these gifs they associate it with me. (See below).

2: Add an image/gif/video to your post. Without something that stands out your post will get lost in the masses.

3: Tag large accounts in follower drives. Their followers will see it and are likely to follow you. (Go ahead and tag me in your follower drive.)

4: Give thanks! Thank people for following. Thank people for sharing. People like it when others mention their name. Always tag the handle @M_Cobbett71 not their name M Cobbett 71. People can click a handle they can't click text.

If you have any questions ask me in the public forum. Don't DM me first. If I don't reply, then give me a nudge.