Request: More Helpful 'X is now following you' Emails

[Andrew Price]

A friend of mine recently blogged* about a few user-efficiency
improvements she'd like to see to the emails that we receive when
someone new is following us. I thought they were good requests so I'm
reproducing them here.

The relevant highlights are:

a) "When Twitter sends you an email saying you've got a new follower,
how about including that person's location, web address and bio (which
most people fill out unless they're trying to be terribly mysterious)
and their last three tweets to give a flavour of what they're like --
essentially an overview that will save me from having to click through
to decide whether or not to follow them back."

b) "Following on from that - how about a link from within the email
that allows one to follow or block that user straight from within the
email? This might be overkill for some, but seriously, the less
clicking through I need to do to manage my online life, the better."

c) "If Twitter's web-based tools were smoother and more shortcut-
friendly, with a more thoughtful approach to the interface design, I
would probably prefer managing it all online."

* http://www.basheerakhan.com/blog/2008/12/if-youve-got-a-problem-yo-ill-solve-it.html

Some good usability feedback from an obviously busy person, I think
you'll agree :-)

I'll let her know I'm posting here and perhaps she'll keep an eye on
this thread and answer any questions you might have.

Cheers,

-- Andy

[fastest963]

Good idea! The block link could just be a link to
http://twitter.com/blocks/confirm/{user id?} then twitter would, as I
assume require that you login.
Good information to show would be user followers to following ratio
(as for bots).

[Alex Payne]

Great suggestions, all, but as none of them are API-related this isn't
the best forum for them. Please check out http://help.twitter.com or
email our User Experience Lead, Britt Selvitelle, at
br...@twitter.com.

--
Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.
http://twitter.com/al3x