Dear @Twitter,
Am I required to keep following people who are not interested in connecting with me?
After being temporarily suspended the other day, I am now paralyzed with fear.
I was aggressively churning, and that was wrong. I apologize. My intention was not to create a negative experience for anyone else.
I copied about 75 followers from @JAltucher and followed them. (He’s one of my favorite writers.) Later I un-followed a bunch of them. I did these for 2 or 3 days.
I am not a spammer, or a robot. I am a writer and a human, looking to connect with other humans. This is your rule:
“Following on Twitter is different because following is not mutual.”
I respect this rule. Nobody has to follow me back. If they don’t think I’m interesting, they shouldn’t.
The rule does not state, however, that I have to keep following everyone I follow.
For me, it is not about numbers. I have 75 followers. I am the least famous author in the world ever to be suspended by Twitter.
I would kill for 1,000 true fans rather than 100,000 followers. (I’m not a killer!)
It’s about discovering people who want to have a conversation with me, and who like to talk about the things I like to write about.
There must be an actual number (known as the ‘churn ratio’) which triggers suspension. I am content to follow & un-follow a meager 5 to 10 people per day. I don’t ask much. Am I going to get suspended again that?
If so, please tell me now, and I’ll go somewhere else, like @Wattpad or @Tumblr.
I thank you for providing this amazing service. I hope to contribute something to it.
Sincerely Not Spam,
Matt Fried <– (That’s me, on Twitter. Hopefully for a long time …)
PS: If I post this on @Medium, will that help?
Matt Fried 
Oh my goodness, this happened to me!
I used to write a handbag website, and when it started, I basically set about following all those that are on my private twitter account, basically duplicating my followers. I then went through and followed fashion types as that was what my website was about. Realising that some of these were not the type of people I wanted on my list (people who constantly tweeting links, ten or so at a time) I de-followed them.
And bam – Twitter suspended me. Felt quite sick about it, really. Like I was in trouble with the headmaster – did you have the same feeling? In the end I think I wrote to Twitter, pleaded my case, and in a few days all was well. But given I had just launched a new website and was busy communicating with readers and designers (who I only had contact with via Twitter) it did put quite the spanner in the works.
I hope it all works out for you – I know how frustrating it is.
Giorge
And look at that – you got a new follower out of it!
Thank you, and, in my case my account was re-opened within minutes. I just had to read the terms and promise to follow their best practices going forward. The frustrating part is that I have read those terms, twice, and although they are seemingly clear, there is no specifically defined limit drawn between ‘churning’ and ‘acceptable’.
The buggers!
I’m going to go follow you also!
[ Smiles ] I had no idea that Twitter actually banned people; well, I definitely know now!