Want to know why @pistachio no longer follows you? Me too! Nobody knows what happened. I just know that YOU were not “unfollowed,” there was a bug of some sort.
Something caused the account’s following and followers to fluctuate wildly for a few hours last night, shortly after I received an (erroneous) notice that the acct was going to be suspended for mass following and unfollowing. By the numbers:
Before: 40k following and 45k followers.During: all over the map: many as 17,000 cut from follower AND following listsAfter: 24.7k following and 40k followers.
UPDATE: During some troubleshooting of the account the following number dropped even further to ~17,000. We’re rebuilding the follow reciprocations but there is a cap of just 1,000 per day on that. It will take pretty much until my birthday, 1/21, to return follow everyone affected. Sorry!
Never have made sense of what happened. Even a rogue script (follow-back or clean those who have unfollowed) does not explain the 17k variation on the # of accts FOLLOWING @Pistachio. Luckily the acct settled within 2500 of the original followers number. But I did hear from a lot of people confused why THEY suddenly weren’t following me, and it took a few days to climb from 40k back up around 43k.
Which means that about 16,000 accounts were involuntarily unfollowed, and 5,000 had their follow of @pistachio removed. Hoping to get as much restored as possible. The good news is that while it may take a few weeks, there are tools so that eventually I can restore everyone who still follows me. At 1k/day limit on following, that’ll take a while.
Meanwhile, PLEASE @ reply me anytime you want to say hello. The only reason I reciprocate in the first place is to offer a private channel (DM) to get in touch. I TRULY value, welcome and appreciate your voice.
BACKGROUND: Earlier in the day yesterday, I cleaned out ~3,000 accounts @pistachio was “following back” that did not follow @pistachio anymore. Most were “churners” who follow, wait for follow-back, then unfollow to increase their numbers. After the cleanout was done @pistachio still followed about 41,000 accounts. A couple hours later I started “following-back” accounts that follow @pistachio.
And that’s when the chaos broke loose. Still no word from anyone on what happened, how or why.
If you were unfollowed it was NOT intentional and I hope it WILL be resolved soon.
Believe me, mass re-following and mass-auto-DMs are not fun for me either. 🙂 For a couple of years now, @pistachio has tried to reciprocate every follow. This is because I believe in extending the ability to privately DM unless someone abuses that privilege. It’s actually been years since @pistachio followed anyone first. If we connect or I like your stuff I have other ways I keep an eye on your stream. 🙂
What I actually SEE of Twitter on the @pistachio acct is only DMs and what is @-addressed to @pistachio. I use a separate account to keep tabs on colleagues, family, etc. I frequently drop by your page whether we follow each other or not. I also watch search terms.
Happy New Year all of you, and if you see anyone frustrated or offended over me “unfollowing” them, please let me know so that I can reach out? Thanks kindly!
Warmly,
Laura
formerly posterous... 
How aggravating. No explanation offered at all? There WILL be consequences if your account is suspended…not saying what, how or when, just giving Twitter advance notice.