Twitter, Role-playing, and Twitter Jail

This post is being used (with permission) from  http://voyagercaptainslog.wordpress.com/twitter-role-playing-and-twitter-jail/ :

This post is written from the point of view of the leader of a role playing group on Twitter, but it can easily apply to anyone is using Twitter and who has experienced Twitter Jail.

Before I start, let me say that I fully understand that Twitter is a free service and that they have every right to set whatever limits they feel are necessary.

With that being said, I – and others, from what I have seen and read – feel that the hourly limits that have been placed on members are doing nothing but irritating the very members that make up the majority of faithful Twitter users.

Why?

1. The limit seems to be arbitrary. People have been placed in Twitter Jail for as little as 8 tweets.  Time outs last anywhere from an hour to a day.
2. There is no warning. You do not get any type of countdown saying that you have X number of tweets left. You simply try to send an update and you are locked out.
3. There is no response from Twitter Support or Corporate. I have seen numerous postings saying that they have requested help and the only answer they are getting – if any – is a link to the TOS (which doesn’t help). This does not do anything to ease the frustration or to help prevent it from happening in the future – there is no clarification.

If Twitter wants to have a profitable business, that begins with keeping the users happy.

What I am asking you to do:

1. Please ReTweet this tweet: “Help get issues with Twitter Jail fixed!  http://tinyurl.com/twitterjail #plzfixtwitterjail”.  Let other people know about the problem and that they are not alone in their frustration.
2. Please respectfully pass along this petition to @ev and @biz as an @reply using copy and paste:  “Please fix the issues with Twitter Jail. http://tinyurl.com/twitterjail #plzfixtwitterjail”

And, if you are one of our followers and a player disappears in mid-scene, please be patient – they’ll be back in an hour….or two….or three….

EDITED TO ADD:

This has now interrupted several important scenes with our RP group (and others).  With no warning, one player simply drops out, then must notify the others of his/her incarceration.  Those, in turn, must send out tweets that the player is in Twitter Jail and will now be absent.

At the very least, can we have some sort of warning?  (i.e. “You have 5 tweets left”)  This would, at least, let us prepare our followers and plan accordingly.