CORRECTION: Twitter Didn't Bite Back, Didn't Pull @TechCrunch From The Suggested User List

You know – I had a feeling about this one right before I hit the publish button, and should have perhaps sat on things for a little while. But there you go – lessons learned.

Twitter didn’t pull @TechCrunch from the SUL. Valleywag have just revised their story. They were kind enough to tip me off (thanks @ryantate) but there’s still egg on my face. Apologies to all concerned. I really should know better.

Knowing my luck, Twitter will go ahead and do this anyway. Still, I’ve left my original piece below so I can bear the full impact of the shame. Threats of litigation to the usual address. Thanks.

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No real surprise after yesterday’s Twittergate shenanigans, but Twitter has pulled the TechCrunch account from the controversial suggested user list (reports Valleywag).

Regular readers will be fully aware of my feelings about the SUL – while I support the concept of recommending people to follow in principle, the way Twitter goes about it is both cock-eyed and decidedly unfair. Those lucky enough to be given a spot on the list benefit from tens of thousands of new followers on a near-daily basis. The rest of us have to earn our crust the old-fashioned way – by being interesting and useful.

So, hardly the biggest shock that TechCrunch isn’t an account that Twitter wants to recommend to newcomers, but this decision doesn’t reflect well on the social network, either. Indeed, it rather underlines the superficiality of the SUL and further supports the notion that the only reason anybody makes that list is because they’re almost exclusively pro-Twitter or work at Twitter. Or both.

No doubt the attention TechCrunch has been receiving the past few days will ensure that their Twitter network numbers don’t dip too much – and one assumes this will free them up to run riot – but typically when somebody is removed from the SUL their account completely flatlines. (See iJustine, although the gains she has seen in the past couple of days suggests she might be back on there.) This, of course, perfectly illustrates just how much of a gift the list is for anybody on Twitter. Even a blog as well-renowned as TechCrunch.

And they’re only about 65,000 users short of a cool million, too.

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