Microblogging site Twitter has started sending out warnings to inactive account holders - they better get a move on their shout out, or they'll be getting the boot real soon. The plan is to commence on the spring-cleaning in December, meaning the purge could happen as early as next week.
The Twitter accounts that will be identified for zapping out are those deemed idle in the past six months leading to December 11. The day after that, the duly pinpointed usernames that have not been in used in the period mentioned will be deleted.
Be assured, though, that the mass deletion will happen with Twitter making sure that due process will be observed before the doom button is pressed. According to Engadget, while the closures will proceed as planned next month the actual implementation is seen to stretch in the months to come.
Twitter has already sent out advance notices to account holders that they best start moving and get active. For the social media site, active is basically defined as logging in and staying online. It would help as well to follow other accounts, which presumably the site will interpret as active enough.
That would mean Twitter users not too inclined on posting don't need to force themselves on saying something or commenting out of the blue. It appears they'd be safe so long as they stay logged in and do some activities a few times a week.
What will constitute ejection with likely no hope of getting restored is account inactivity for a long period of time, The Verge said in a separate report.
"Accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity," the tech site quoted a representative by the company as saying.
The company indicated too that the cleanup effort is in line with the policy of encouraging users to engage in the platform from Day One of account creation.
"As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we're working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter. Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account," Twitter said.
The move will also free up usernames that active Twitter users would certainly be willing to grab once they become available. However, the social media site has yet to issue an advisory on when and how these hot usernames will be made available.
Most importantly, Twitter said the purging of dormant accounts would be carried out so the platform can be best used "to present more accurate and credible information." This should minimize spams that originate from propaganda and porn operators.
