Dear Twitter, I have some ideas!

Hi Twitter!

This is weird, but I had an idea (well, two, actually) for improving user experience on Twitter that I wanted to share.

Part One:

The first, and arguably more complicated one, would be grandfathering in functionality that would require users to reach a certain number of followers before they can @ message someone they don’t know. This would be akin to how new users are treated on Stack Overflow.

So, for example, a new user could still tweet up a storm — they just can’t @ anyone in their tweets who isn’t following them. This means that users who share good content, or are funny or interesting, can still broadcast their messages on hashtag, or to the followers they do have — but someone with no followers can’t start @ messaging strangers.

Here’s my hypothetical example:

Barry joins Twitter. Upon login, he’s presented with a message:

“Thanks for joining Twitter! Starting today, you can:

-Tweet

-Tweet on hashtags

-Gather followers

-@ message your followers

Your next milestone will be 25 followers — we’ll let you know when you reach it!”

Barry starts using Twitter. When he hits 25 followers, he receives a celebratory message upon logging in, and maybe even an easter egg like the balloon animation mobile users get on their birthday.

Further, I would consider tying things like custom avatars to a minimum follower count — this could provide a visual cue for users scrolling a hashtag. When they see something with a certain type of avatar, say the iconic Twitter egg, that could flag the content as potentially being from a troll or bot.

I feel like this could help move towards solving the problem of trolls or bots who get banned, but sign up for another account just to continue their harassment. Further, culturally, it sets the standard that you either need to be able drum up real-world friends to follow you, or you need to provide compelling content that will lead strangers to want to follow you.

Part Two:

This intersects with my second idea, which is to allow users to limit notifications by follower count.

So, even if Barry is a troll who makes it to 25 or 100 followers, I can set a limit of only hearing from people who I am following, or who have at least 1000 followers. This is a weird one to articulate verbally, so I’m here’s a mockup to explain:

The general idea here is to shift two things:

1) Instead of requiring quality users to prove harassment, this flow requires new users to prove their quality. It’s kind of like a doorman at a party — right now, anyone can walk in and start screaming at anyone. But in the flow I’m suggesting, Twitter is more able to act as a doorman, saying “Hey new user, you can scream all you want out here on the street — but the people inside don’t want to hear from you unless you’re more respectful.”

2) For Twitter users who have been blocked or banned for harassment, this adds enough of an inconvenience to make them reconsider starting more accounts to continue trolling. It’s kind of like a driver’s license — you can do some things, but until you prove you’re responsible, you can’t have full access.

ANYWAY. I love Twitter to bits, and I genuinely think we can make the good stuff even better if the platform starts to behave a bit more like a parent — setting a standard for what is acceptable behaviour, allowing new users to earn the right to use it, and then reprimanding them in a meaningful way if they don’t.

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