For Us, It's All About Team Awesome...and Twitter

**Please note, since the publishing of this #TeamAwesome (since September 2011) has been disbanded in order to be more efficient ** 

Some people think that there are those the Tweet-o-Sphere that take Twitter too seriously. We have reasons for that. Good reasons. Our reasons.

If you haven't read: Birds of a Feather, on Twitter, CAN Flock Together: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/03/birds-of-feather-on-twitter-can-flock.html - we suggest you read it. We're all about context over here at JCMF.

In short, we live on Twitter, a lot, for our own personal reasons. Well, not so personal since those reasons are spread all over this blog.

Anyway, it's all sorts of Twitter silliness, nonsense and fun most days; which is the way we save ourself, and the shreds of sanity that lay hanging, and tattered, in the recess of our mind, where most of us exist some days. We don't all get to come out and play as much as we'd like.

This post is going to cover some explanation on why and how we list people, because we’ve had questions about that. It’s also going to cover, briefly, some Twitter basics that some people should, but don’t always understand until they get to a certain level of followers, that’s when the Twitter Matrix kicks in.

We will also tell you about some of the applications we use, because in order to maintain lists and followers, and still be able to follow others, you need to be able to locate those pesky unfollowers, which are often times simply “bots”, and others are real people or advertisers trying to get followers, but not committing to following back. Bad Twitter business practices. Sometimes, though, Twitter has a glitch and bumps followers off.

Why are we doing a blog entry on this?

Well, other than it's part of our life, we also understand that to find this information on the internet requires a certain amount of sifting through websites whose only purpose it to advertise at you. We don’t like advertising. We think most people would like to find information without having to be bombarded by pop-ups and flash animation. We know it annoys the piss out of us.

We also want to explain #TeamAwesome...

We want to start off by staying that our Twitter followers tend to be some of the most amazing people we have run into on Twitter, they keep popping up too, and we keep putting them into lists so we can chat with them and ReTweet the awesome things that they Tweet. They are all amazing personalities, there is somebody for each of us to play with, and they don’t seem upset if we haven’t talked to them in a couple days; they’re always there when the one of us that likes them the best wants to play, or be smart, or be dumb...or do all the weird things we end up doing on Twitter.

When we first started Twitter it was tough going, people we’re resistant to Us and the way in which we chose to represent ourself. We couldn't really blame them, so when we would get a minor attack, one of us would step in and calm us, reminding us that this is a long road, and it's going to be tough, so let’s use this as a training exercise; because there are those of us who want to retaliate or say mean things back when we are verbally attacked, in writing and in real life. Some of the people we battled became #TeamAwesome members.

#TeamAwesome, to us, are the followers who we can count on for a variety of reasons, some just to tickle our funny bone when we are sad, some to support Stabby days, and laugh with us to let us know it's okay to Tweet the things we Tweets. Some days they are the people we are inappropriate with, some days they are the people, who, if standing in front of us would hold us while we cry.

They are, in short are Twitter friends. Some we talk to more than others, some we haven't talked to more than once, but we can count on their Timeline to make us laugh out loud, not just lol in print.

We support them by having the #TeamAwesome widget, to the right of this entry, where you can read the #TeamAwesome tweet feed.

We also support them by linking to their various ventures on the web: #TeamAwesome Support: so far we help @nicksilly with his Amazon affiliation - if you buy from Amazon, help Us, support him, by following this link: http://www.amazon.com/?linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393193&tag=nicksicmo-20

Nicky is special because he helps us with videos our blog content, filling in on days we have a bad day.

We also link blogs and other online content for our TeamAwesome. In the future we hope to be able to write entries about their writing, art and music.

Now, onto the TWITTER!!!!!

Lingo – you can easily find this information, but you’re here already, so if you don’t know these words and what they mean; now you can be in the know.

• · Tweet: Some might say it is 140 characters of bullshit, indeed at times it is. Mostly it is 140 characters of streaming consciousness…it’s your opinion on the level of bullshit. We've been known to say that Twitter is the “collective streaming consciousness of the world”. Sometimes it’s advertising, sometimes it is random thoughts, sometimes it's conversation; whatever it is you have to try to jam it into 140 characters.
• · TweetBlocked/TwitterJail: for high volume Tweeters, such as us, and some of our Followers, Twitter will put a squeeze on your account, and block you from being able to Tweet for minutes, sometimes longer. Our record is 1 hour and 15 minutes being blocked from Tweeting. Well discuss it in the Twitter Matrix section.
• · Timeline: The list of all your Tweets. Need to find out what you said? Go to your Timeline. People want to see what you said today? There is also the general Timeline, a constantly updating list of all your followers’ Tweets. The more followers you have the faster that timeline pours out Tweets. It’s where you find the funny stuff.
• · Tweeple: People who use Twitter (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tweeple)
• · Tweeps: People who you are following, that you are following you back (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tweep)
• · Twitter Handle/@username: we refer to it as a handle, just because. We don’t know if anyone else does. It’s what people follow you by. You can change your Name, but if you change your handle, people won’t know who you are.
• · Avi: That’s the little picture you use to represent you…if you change it too often people might not recognize you.
• · ReTweeting: A Tweet by another user, forwarded to your feed by someone you follow – when you RT (ReTweet) on Twitter that Tweet goes into, or is forwarded, to the Feed of everyone who follows you. It’s a great way for people to get new followers, if you think it’s really funny – always RT. It’s the best way to form a connection between your Followers. In addition, you can put RT before a username -> RT @username, that way you can attach a comment to the RT:

• · Favourite/Star Fucking: It’s a great way to bookmark things you’d like to share with people later, or things you want the person to know you liked, but don’t feel like feeding it to your followers.

What are #hashtags?

How does one explain #hashtags…First, this is a hashtag ->#

Basically if you think something #sucks, or you’re #reading or #writing or you have a #mentaldisability, like we do, something like #DID (Disassociated Identity Disorder), and you want to find like minded people, you follow a #hashtag. Or maybe your looking for #swingers…or #spiritual people…you get the idea. They’re also used to play #hashtag games…which we love - particularly #sixwords, which we play every night when we try to sleep.

Follow days and #hashtags

Fridays are the biggest day on Twitter for finding new followers, using the #FF hashtag. You’ve seen it on other days, but Friday is its day to shine. This is the day we promote our #TeamAwesome list.

Other days have:

#MM – could me MehMonday, or MoronMonday…doesn’t matter, it’s the hash used on MondaysJ

#TT – don’t know what it’s called off hand, but @NickSilly likes to call it #TittyTuesdays

#WW – call it what you want, we call it WarriorWednesday (as per a Follower suggestion) – this is the day we promote a list we call #TheExecutive…the protected souls group (yeah, we have an obsession with souls)

#SS – Could be ShoutoutSunday/ShoutoutSaturday…make it what you want.

The point of these is to show your appreciation to some of the people who you find funny, or that you have a connection with, or that you just feel like sharing. (#SharingSaturday?)

> More info on Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/04/24/daily-twitter-memes/

Lists

We f’ing love lists. We have "crazy" lists: http://twitter.com/#!/JstCallMeFrank/lists

Lists are great things to follow, they help you get more followers, they help you find more followers. Want to find the funniest people? Check out the lists of other Tweeple. Follow them. We call it “feeding our timeline”. Being in lists is also one of the few ways to get found on Twitter by unknown Tweeple. That’s why we list everyone that follows us.

Our top list is #TeamAwesome, they represent less than 7% of are Tweeps, and we will never allow it to be more than that.

We have lists leading up to #TeamAwesome, to date they are titled Tasty Souls, Potential Team Awesome and Almost Team Awesome.

We’ve gotten flack for our lists, but when you are Us…you have to file things, keep track of things. And we can’t promote everyone. We’d like to, but we get TweetBlocked

Our Unfollower List probably pisses people off, the thing to remember is that it's a list. We've been in lists that we've complained about (like 'People We Hope Will Join Us' - curated by Friends of Hitler...are you fucking kidding us?!?) - we're in a spam list...with other people who are not spam...sometimes Twitter "hiccups" and removes followers, some have come back to say they don't know why it happened, and they'd like to follow us again - all because they were alerted by a list we put them in.

Lists are a great way to filter what you want to look at.

Want to see what your Writers and Bloggers are up to? We have a list for ours. Want to see what the Artist followers are talking about? We have a list for ours….The funniest people around? We have four lists for them. We list to keep track of our entertainment, and to help Tweeple find our Tweeple.

Twitter Matrix/Twitter Jail/TweetBlocking

Okay, the Twitter Matrix. Did you know that you can only follow 2000 people before Twitter says you have to wait until you have an undetermined amount of people following you back? It’s true. And it doesn’t get better after the 2000 follow mark. Don’t believe us?

Read more...

http://support.twitter.com/articles/15364-about-twitter-limits-update-api-dm-and-following

That's why we have two lists of people we want to follow, because we don't know the cap for our account, so each week we add some from the list...but the list keeps growing...so far there are nearly 1000 people we can't follow...but we want to .... so we're "stalking" them.

More info on following practices:

http://support.twitter.com/articles/68916-following-rules-and-best-practices

Our Twitter Practices:

• As of a week ago, everyone who follows us gets an initial #shoutout of appreciation the following day, except Fridays, Fridays belong to #TeamAwesome. Because we appreciate you, as long as your a human.
• Everyone, as of about a month and a half ago, get’s listed. We have methods of listing, initial listing is determined by their bio.
• We check for unfollowers regularly, because we want to be able to maintain that stupid ratio that Twitter makes for everyone.

Twitter Applications We Use:

• http://favstar.fm – helps you find the funniest Tweets in Twitter…try it out…what is the worst that could happen? You get addicted to it, that’s what. It’s like mainlining the hilarity of your Timeline, and your Followers’ timelimes.
• http://who.unfollowed.me/ “who.unfollowed.me is a web based twitter app built by @cjgraphix, that helps you track your unfollowers, in real time”
• http://refollow.com/refollow/index.html “Refollow helps you discover, manage, and protect your Twitter social circle”

Resources Sans Annoying Advertising:

http://twictionary.pbworks.com/w/page/22547584/FrontPage

http://support.twitter.com/entries/166337-the-twitter-glossary

http://kikolani.com/twitter-lingo-tips-twitter-facebook-users.html

http://justtweetit.com/

TEAM AWESOME!

Team Awesome Members - our goal is to maintain a less than 5% total followers.

TEAMAWESOMEFUN ---This is just some random stuff that we play around with using #hashtags, our own #hashtag games. They are Twitter games, distractions and fun, so we can play with out #TeamAwesome. Some weeks we use them more than others. Depends on who is around.
(We will be linking our members later tonight)

• #SuperstarSunday @cheekie #StarofInspiration for that one
• #TeamAwsome Stars – they get you in a list #TeamAwesomeStarWinners
• #GoldStar - Participation Star - The most popular star given, we don't recall the first recipient -and the recipient list is long:)
• #PlatiunumStar - first awarded to @Streetlights94 for "Bacon is always cooler than whores"
• #BrightStar - the first star was created for and received by @cheekie, for saying something surprising.
• #MagicStar – awarded to @OutaContext for using a magic word : gin (bacon, also magic)…there are others, but telling you would just make you want to win stars;)
• #StarStudent - a regular TwitterGamePlayer recognition star, first awarded to @singlemomdate a.k.a. our #TwitterGirlfriend/#TwitterBitch
• #StarofAppreciation – was created for and awarded to @FleshnChrome for saying something nice to Frank one of her bad days.
• #StarofInspiration - winner of this first star @peterwesleypt2, likely for saying something…inspiring…duh.
• #StarofEntertainment - winner of the first star was @TheBlessMess
• #StarofTruth - winner of the first star @jayblom, for saying something honest, that was likely disgusting;)
• #StarofEducation – was awarded to @designertalks for saying something educational or smart. Huh. We don’t remember what….
• #StarofMarginallyOkay for @Surly_Poet_4, who said he’d rather be “marginally okay” rather than “awesome” – he IS awesome thoughJ
• #StarofHonestyather - first to @dingenious responding she’d rather "be on Team Marginally Okay as it allows me room to grow.”
• #StarofCreativity – first awarded for a dirty lymric by @Bluebird3838 "Impatient was @JstCallMeFrank / Cause the Twitter energy just stank / I’ll respond to her pout / And whip my dick out ... / And she can give it a good wank”
• #StarofParticipation – if you play a game you win one.
• #StarofLaughter – awarded to @SuperSyphillis (who has disappeared from twitter) for making us laugh on a bad day, when we didn’t want to leave the apartment but wanted food: “@JstCallMeFrank phone for pizza, when he gets there, take the pizza and punch him square in the nose. you hardly have to move”

TWITTERGAMES --------- we make them up sometimes.

Games we have played, by ourself, in the past…just because.

TwitterGames: Word game replacing a word with "Twitter"

· #TwitterInTheMovies : "Natural Born Killers” turns “Natural Born Twitters”

· #TwiterInMusic : (“All We Need Is Love” turns “All We Need Is Twitter”)

· #TwitterInBooks : ("Catcher in the Rye" turns "Twitter In the Rye"/"To Kill a Mockingbird turns "To Kill a TwitterBird" or "Harry Potter and the sorcerer's Stone" turns "Harry Potter and the Sorcers Twitter"

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NOTE: Due to high amounts of followers and interaction with many of then we don't play many of the hashtag related games with Tweeple anymore. It's sad, but the listing for the winners and such had to be removed to make room for a different list.
One of our favourite Tweets:

@JstCallMeFrank Good morning to you too darling and to the rest of #TeamAwesome! Go team go! May the awesome be with you!

Thanks to our #TeamAwesome member: @mylastlaugh

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How one #TeamAwesome earned a #BrightStar award! Nicky Rocks!




Don't forget, if you buy from Amazon, support Nicky! http://www.amazon.com/?linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393193&tag=nicksicmo-20

Hope you liked our Dedication blog post to Twitter and our #TeamAwesome!

It was nice to have something to write about that makes us happy.