unfollow

Awhile back I showed you how to unfollow a comment thread or post on Facebook. The process wasn't all that straightforward and required you know where to click, and what to look for once you did.

Recently, Facebook gave its notification box a revamped look, as well as a new feature. You can now unfollow a post directly from the notification box.

As you can see above, in the top-right corner of each notification you'll see a small X. When the X is clicked on, you'll be asked to confirm that you do want to unfollow that … Read more

Have you ever followed someone on Twitter only to find that the person no longer appears in your follow status? Well, it's not you, it's Twitter.

The site has finally acknowledged a glitch that's causing people you follow to appear as if they've been unfollowed. Twitter is working on a fix but insists the bug only makes it seem like you're no longer following someone. Clicking on the user's actual profile page can confirm that you're still a follower:

Your cousin just announced the birth of his child, and you're the very first to leave a congratulatory comment. The excitement for your beloved family member is quickly replaced with a steady flow of beeps and dings, alerting you to each and every comment left on the same post.

Luckily, there's a way for you to leave your comment and then politely excuse yourself from the conversation, without anyone even knowing.

Update: Facebook has since rolled out a new notification box, complete with a shortcut to unfollow posts. The method explained below still works, but you can save … Read more

With all the coverage last week regarding Facebook and the changes that will be rolling out, it was discovered that Facebook users can now see who unfriended them in the new Timeline view. But, for some users, Facebook isn't a preferred social network. What about people who care to know who has stopped following them on Twitter?

By default, Twitter sends you an e-mail when you gain a new follower, but not when you lose a follower. Luckily, there are some pretty good services out there to fill the void.… Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Beware the Unfollowed Me virus on Twitter

The new Skype for Android lets you IM and make voice calls over Wi-Fi or 3G, though there are no video calls yet

Google launches its Groupon-mimicking Offers in Portland

Verizon says its next-generation iPhone will be a world phone

A public radio station in San Francisco lets listeners donate and then listen to pledge-drive-free programming

The royal wedding is mentioned about every 10 seconds online and will be streamed live on YouTube next week

Whether it's the dude showing off his abs or a co-worker inviting you to happy hour drinks at Dave and Busters, we all have friends on Facebook we wouldn't mind disappearing. Wave bye to these faux friends, because November 17 is National UnFriend Day, where everyone is invited to trim the friend fat...on Facebook, that is.

The creator of the new holiday is late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who recently declared war on all Facebook friends you don't actually care about in "real life." Genuine friendships are sacred, according to Kimmel, and he thinks social networks like Facebook that let you "friend" anyone are cheapening the sentiment.

On the other hand, if you're curious to know who's unfriended YOU on Facebook, well...there's an app for that. It's called UnFriend Finder, and it's a new extension for the Firefox Web browser that tells you which of your friends are being unfaithful and exactly when the online break-up occurred. Just be sure to install it prior to November 17, because it won't retroactively show you ex-friends from the past.

Hopefully Natali Del Conte won't unfriend The 404, or else we wouldn't have opportunities like today to invite her on the show to tell us more technical details than we ever thought existed about diapers, including her 30-day cloth diaper challenge...don't feel left out if you don't have a kid, we're planning a similar diaper competition among ourselves.

After the break and a video voice mail from Kentucky From Neil, we want to warn all of our male listeners using laptops about scrotal hyperthermia. According to an experimental study on 29 healthy male volunteers, varying the position of a laptop won't help the issue, although the conclusion does recommend a laptop pad and/or adjusting your seating stance to prevent long-term damage. Safety first on The 404!

I've finally come to the conclusion that Twitter can be annoying. In a big way.

See, the problem is, I decided not too long ago that following everyone who followed me on the microblogging service was in my best interest. I reasoned that doing so was good for the entire community.

In recent weeks, however, I've realized that there are some reasons why, even with my decree in place, I just can't justify following some folks.

I'll unfollow you if:

You follow me merely because I'll follow you. I've found that as soon as I wrote the column saying that I'll follow everyone who follows me, I was followed by a bunch of people who have schemes to increase their follower count. I was directed to a site by one of these people, proving it.

The person wrote on his blog that if you follow all the people on his follower list, you would be able to increase your follower count substantially. I did a little digging and found that many (almost 25 people) were using this technique to weasel their way into this list from Twitterholic of the top 1,000 most followed people.

Regardless of whether this technique of gaining Twitter notoriety is acceptable, I believe that we should all add followers the right way, through compelling content and similar interests. Using an automated process games the system, and I don't appreciate it.

You're a company that doesn't contribute to the community. I follow some companies on Twitter, but recently I've noticed that some firms (I'm looking at you, Starbucks) use their Twitter profile only to market their products.

I understand that Twitter can be a fine marketing tool, but as a user who is constantly looking for something worth a look, seeing that your company was selected as one of the Top 10 coffee shop chains in Seattle doesn't appeal to me. In fact, it wastes my time. More importantly, it prevents better content from getting through. Why not tweet about something more behind-the-scenes?

You're a music lover (to a fault). I can't tell you how many times my Twitter stream has been filled with tweets from users filling me in on the songs they're listening to. Not only is it annoying, but it pushes real content off the first page of my stream. I can understand if it happens every once in a while, but once I'm inundated with tracks multiple times in a couple hours, I will unfollow you.

You're an adult film star. Sorry, but I don't need to know what's happening when you're "on set" in your latest flick. I also don't need to hear about all the things you've done in your latest films. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that some things need to be kept off Twitter. That kind of content is one of those "things."… Read more