Why My Twitter Account Was Suspended Indefinitely. No More Tweets From Happy.

My Twitter account was suspended last week.  I figured it was a mistake because of all the WikiLeaks stuff going on.  It wasn't that at all.  My Twitter account, like so many blogs, had been used as another form of social media for receiving my blog posts.  The Twitter people must think they are better than that. 

That is apparently why my Twitter account was abruptly suspended without warning.   As Stephen Colbert says, I have been control self delete (d) from the Twitter Universe.  Why you ask?  Well, if you run a website of any kind and have been using Twitter as a way of disseminating your information without including your own typed conversation, you are breaking the rules and risk being banned.  Artie, the random Twitter support tech,  helps explain where I became the master of Twitter rule breaking.   The following is the email conversation I had with the folks at Twitter.  I suppose if Google is willing to buy you for over 4 billion dollars, you can do what ever you want.

My first Email to Twitter:

happyhospitalis, Dec-12 06:29 am (PST):

I logged into my twitter account at twitter.com/happyhospitalis to find that my account has been suspended. I'm not sure why. I don't do anything but repost posts of mine from my The Happy Hospitalist Blog at http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com, a medical related blog with other random content about travel, gardening, and dogs. I think my suspension is a mistake.

I received an email shortly after I sent that conversation that said I had to respond to a couple of their questions. So I did.

happyhospitalis, Dec-12 06:36 am (PST):

I have read your Best Practices page and understand. None of it would explain my suspension, but I agree to follow those rules.  I have read your rules page as well. I have no reason to believe I have broken any of these rules. Again, I use Twitter as a platform to help send out my blog posts at The Happy Hospitalist ( http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com), a medical related site. Thanks for helping out! I can't think of any reason other than mistake for the suspension. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya!

A few days went by without a word and I finally got a response

artie, Dec-16 01:06 pm (PST):

Hello,

Your account was suspended for violations of the Twitter Rules, such as:

• Posting multiple and/or unrelated updates to a trending topic
• Updates consisting mainly of links, and not personal updates

As such, your account will not be re-enabled.

Here are the Twitter Rules: http://twitter.com/rules

Thanks,

artie

I responded in short order

happyhospitalis, Dec-16 01:15 pm (PST):

Thanks for responding Artie. I'm confused. What I offer isn't spam. I have a healthy following of folks that use my site to keep updated on my informative posts that have a very personal touch embeded within my titles It's a medical site because I'm a physician that informs and entertains about medical stuff and about my life in general. My Tweets aren't spam My titles of my posts are my personal updates. It's what I do on a daily basis and it's a way for folks to keep up to date on my thoughts and life, including a strong following of other physicians and family and friends. I have been listed on Twitter by many Twitterers.

I would hope you would reconsider suspending my site Artie.

No luck.  Artie's sticking to his or her guns.  I'm banned.

artie, Dec-16 02:10 pm (PST):


Hello,
Your account was permanently suspended for multiple violations of the Twitter Rules: http://twitter.com/rules

I'm sorry, but this account will not be restored.
Thanks,
artie 

The Twitter folks have decided they don't want their platform to be used as a way of disseminating information.  If you have a blog and all you do is post links to other content, Twitter doesn't want you.    I don't even know what they mean as far as "posting multiple or unrelated updates to a trending topic.  I've never done that, but Artie has the sense that I did.  So I can only assume they're lying or making it up. 

Regardles, I've never really found Twitter all that helpful for my site. In the last 365 days, less than 2% of my visits have come from the Twitter platform.   That's OK though.  I feel bad for the 1,300 of  you that followed my blog from the Twitter platform and the multiple lists that were following me as well.  For those nearly 1,300 of you following my site from Twitter, you can still find all my updates on my Facebook page.  Become a fan of The Happy Hospitalist today.

For the rest of you.  Tweet till your hearts desire.