Now that Twitter has rolled out their Lists feature to everybody, one question remains: when will we see the dark side of Twitter lists?
So far most lists have been positive, based on topics covered, status, groups, etc. However, it is only a matter of time before negative lists begin popping up.
By negative lists I mean things like “overrated,” “douchebags,” “corrupt,” “evil,” or even more sinister lists like “babykillers,” anti-homosexual, etc.
These negative lists could be especially harmful because the link to the lists a user is on is right on their profile.
Once this happens Twitter will have to make a decision about whether or not a user can remove themselves from a list, and/or whether lists can be flagged for abuse.
What are your thoughts on the potential for negative Twitter lists? Do you think a user should be able to remove themselves from lists? What steps should Twitter take?
UPDATE: I ran a quick test and I can confirm that by blocking a Twitter user you remove yourself from any of their lists and prevent them from listing you again. While this solves the isolated incident, I still wonder about the possibility of a large group of people engaging in a sort of negative list flash mob on an account, something like the Twitter version of a negative Google bomb, which would require that person to manually block all those people to finally remove themselves from all the lists.
3 Responses
Angus Johnston
October 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
1I haven’t had a chance to confirm it myself yet, but I’ve heard that if you block someone’s account on Twitter, you disappear from any lists they may have added you to.
If this feature doesn’t exist yet, I assume it will soon — like you say, there’s too much potential for abuse otherwise.
Kevin Bondelli
October 30th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
2I just confirmed that and added an update to the post.
allen
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 am
3It is really a problem, but twitter didn’t discover that and solve the problem?
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