Twitter C/D

I can get it on my phone but not my laptop. Weird.

Big us routing issues this evening

Http://www.internettrafficreport.com

Ok so I'm new to this. Signed up recently. Can someone explain how twitter can list people I know in their "who to follow" suggestions? How does that work? There's three people there I know, acquaintances, not friends. But how does twitter know I know them?

Curious about this because an ex-friend of mine keeps popping up as a "who to follow" suggestion, but I'm not sure why. I'm not friends with this person on Facebook or any other social media site. In fact, the only online contact I've had with her was via gmail about four years ago. Is linking Twitter to that account enough to dredge up emails that old?

That's exactly what I like to know! I don't have any contact with these people, have not been watching their twitter before etc, yet still they are there! Scary.

Maybe from your gmail contacts or facebook contacts? Don't know if they have access that information but who knows.

they send someone to your house to peer through the window while you use the computer

I don't use gmail, nor facebook.

lol markers

;-)

i have a feeling that if your email used to reg for twitter is cross-regged at any of the following sites:

https://twitter.com/#!/who_to_follow/import

then you will get follow recs based on that.

Good point Steve, but I don't use any of those! So I'm still mystified by this.

I think mine can be explained by tying it to gmail but, still, seems weird to keep prodding me with a person that I literally emailed 3 times more than four years ago!

I've got an old gf, a girl I once hired for freelance work for a year and an old classmate. It seems awfully random but I know them all, obviously. Very strange.

i would imagine that a certain significant proportion of the ppl you follow/follow you are also linked to this other person

though if you're really brand new i have no good explanation

Brand spankin' new!

It's creeping me out. If I refresh a new batch of people I know but don't have specific contact with pop up as suggestions. I want to know how Twitter pulls this off damnit.

http://www.quora.com/How-does-Twitters-follow-suggestion-algorithm-work

or if u like the technical side

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triadic_closure

I think that algorithim talk is 100% bullshit. One of my recommendations was a twitter user with zero followers and was only following one acct... his employer.

This is a person who emailed me a couple years ago, and I remembered he worked at that obscure biotech company.

ladies and gentlemen,

Thanks Hoos, but I signed up on twitter, not knowing or reading anyone on there, let alone following someone. I entered my details opening an account and *boom* three people I know are suggested. That can't be through a simple cookie, it's fishy.

their algorithm freaked me out when it was suggesting i follow some coworkers.. then i realized it probably takes your subnet into consideration

That can't be through a simple cookie, it's fishy.

― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, September 28, 2011 9:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

that's just the point though, it isn't!

I understand the triadic closure, but twitter would still need to identify who I am first, which node I am. Didn't even give them my real name. But even if I did, I enter twitter completely blank, people obv have not been able to follow me before I was on there, I don't use any of the 3rd party applications they are linked to, so... Or am I not understanding you?

that is hella mysterious

it might be suggesting people who've emailed you in the past and subsequently put their email contacts in who-to-follow?

i.e. it doesn't have to be you who's used the friend-finder application?

I suppose I could see that, yes.

Does that work the other way around too then? Because I signed on with my e-mail address, even though I don't have my name in my display name and don't have my full name up there, it will link my account to them suggesting to follow me? Wouldn't like that tbh.

there's a 'let others find me by my email address' tickybox on yr account settings iirc

Yes, but I haven't ticked that.

There's a good chance these people used the friend finder some time before you signed up and your address was in their contact lists - meaning they'd already searched for you. Twitter remembers that then tries to re-establish the link once you sign up.

I understand the triadic closure, but twitter would still need to identify who I am first, which node I am. Didn't even give them my real name. But even if I did, I enter twitter completely blank, people obv have not been able to follow me before I was on there, I don't use any of the 3rd party applications they are linked to, so... Or am I not understanding you?

― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, September 29, 2011 5:37 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i misunderstood you there, sorry--yeah, it is remarkably weird given all your caveats.

onimo otm tho

makes sense but it wouldn't have occurred to me at all

That was my guess too - those other people looked for YOU before you joined twitter!

or like one of them did

Onimo's example would make sense if it was an active account with tweets and loads of followers/followees. The suggestion in my example was a long-abandoned account (I'm new to twitter) with no tweets, no followers, and only seemed like it was created to follow a company (which has been defunct for some time).

That was my guess too - those other people looked for YOU before you joined twitter!

― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:37 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

Fastest neutrino's :)

I see what you mean, but still find it highly odd. How will people have looked for me on twitter before I was on there? I don't use my real name, nor my 'normal' e-mail address. Adn all of the above I mentioned. And yet and yet and yet...

That said, this person emailed me several years ago from what I imagined would be the address connected to their twitter account. An email that I would believe is no longer be in service as that company has been defunct for at least 2 years. My twitter account is <1 year old.

This is why I am not subscribing to the Twitter's talk of algorithms, it seems to be that it is tied to email databases (ie, requiring no algorithm). I've never "searched for friends on twitter" using any email or SNS account.

maybe they subscribe to jump databases and mix that into their algorithms

Maybe twitter is my neighbour

Like say this person in my example 2 years ago "searched for friends on twitter" several years before I opened a twitter account, my address was stored in the twitter databases. After a couple years, I open a twitter account and now that person is showing up as "someone I should know" despite us having zero connections (they are following one acct: a defunct business, and they have no followers).

Again this requires zero algorithm (it's all 1-1 db relationship) nor any triadic closure, lol.

I don't think we'll figure this one out anymore

That is my best case scenario, and somewhat unlikely.

Worst and more realistic case is they've accessed the contacts db tied to my account without my permission and are farming data while the slaves are all working.

The email address I used to sign up to twitter is a new one, created just for this purpose. It is not linked to my name, to my identity, and yada yada yada all-of-the-above, I still get these recommendations.

it seems to be that it is tied to email databases (ie, requiring no algorithm)

has it occurred to you that there might be >1 thing happening here

xp lmao wait

Worst and more realistic case is they've accessed the contacts db tied to my account without my permission

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Thursday, September 29, 2011 9:35 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark

do u srsly believe they would risk what amounts to third party authorization of access to any contact database

that would make sense:

A) if this account had relationships. it has one, a defunct company from 2 years ago.

B) if the email used to access this person's acct was active at my time of joining twitter. the email address that I imagine used to open the account is also defunct (as the acct mentions he is a scientist at the aforementioned defunct company).

seeing how A & B are both false, I think both my scenarios upthread present the best and worst.

Suffice it to say I would be surprised to see you proven correct.