I follow 260 people. They are all almost entirely software developers or system administrators and that is the reason I follow them. While I am sure at least 90% of those 260 people are fantastic, fun, and great people in person, I don’t use Twitter for socializing. To that end, here is a minimal effective list of keywords to mute if, like me, you really don’t want to hear about gobs of other stuff. It is assumed you use a Twitter client that has the capability to filter tweets.
Your alternative is to mute everything by simply watching only your curated lists of inclusive hashtags and keywords, but this will absolutely miss a lot of worthwhile information.
You might be amazed at the amount of streamlining just the following will bring. This post is for those who have put off making a topic mute list and want a quick place to start.
# Possibly amusing "OverHeard" but not worth the space OH: # I really don't care what you ate or are drinking. Probably # 2 people in all of your followers do care. Think about it. tea coffee food burger taco burrito bbq ale scotch whiskey beer pale # I don't care where you are going or staying. Why would I? airport hotel flight # Self-explanatory weather # I get this news elsewhere. america marriage parliament london guns abortion gay lbgt sex turkey syria korea # I don't care what you are listening to music rdio lastfm last.fm spotify vine # This "clever" "joke" is 5 years old now and was amusing for # the first month "99 problems" # I don't care how you slept sleeping sleep slept # Misc gaming ps3 ps4 xbox ufc mma father mother sister brother cousin daughter inbox meetup drinkup wife husband recruiter spam
If you’re childless, you probably very much want to add “child” and “children” to that list. As I have a child, I let these through as they’ve proven useful to me a few times.
And if someone just so happens to have great information titled “UFC Marriage Pale Beer Hotel Weather PS3″, I guess I lose.
It goes without saying, I think, that I make the same mistake now and then that others do and tweet completely banal crap. I expect those tweets to be muted by others, and I’m sorry if some get through your filters.
