So to the Techradar website, on which there is a list of ten crimes that will get you unfollowed on Twitter. Many of them make sense. Some of them, though, are damned silly. The first few are fine - not Tweeting too often (we all do it at first), but it’s at no. 3 that the thing starts to come unstuck. Don’t, it says, Retweet yourself. Why of course I won’t. I’ll just assume that everyone saw what I said the first time around and ignore the fact that some of the people with whom I’m trying to communicate might be around at a different time from the rest.

It’s no. 6 with which I really take issue, though. Don’t, it says, reply to celebrity Tweeters. In other words please take away from them every reason they had for being on Twitter in the first place. Certainly there will be one or two who’ll be there for their own glory but equally there are some who want to chat. Twitter and other social media is about bringing down the boundaries, but doing so in an environment the recipient of these messages can still control. The tone of this ‘rule’ would offend me if I were a celeb; it implies that they’re not real people and won’t respond if they’re approached in a reasonable, polite manner in a forum on which you expect to be approached. I’ve certainly had friendly words with a few of them and even more with non-celebs - the one thing they all share in common is that they’re people.

In fact the more I think about it the more I think this is silly snobbery.

Moving on. another one that gets to me is not asking people to retweet what you’ve said. OK, a lot of the time this can be self-serving and silly - but what if you really need help with something? Or what if you’re doing something for charity and would like to raise thousands rather than hundreds? It’s a crazy rule, simple as that. End of rant.

But what really gets to me is that someone feels they can tell ever

Tags: twitter, facebook, social network, nuisance, good practice, best practice