Hi Tack n’ Talk Blog Readers!

I am very happy to report my @ridingcoach twitter account is back up and running!

Yesterday, I logged into my account, and I got a notice that my account had been suspended due to suspicious activity. When I emailed Twitter about it, I got an automated response that said the following:

“…we suspend the account for investigation and hide the contents from the public view in order to remove the cause of complaint. Unless we’ve advised you otherwise, your account may be suspended for a minimum of 30 days while we investigate. Accounts in violation of the Twitter Rules or Terms will be permanently suspended…”

I was extremely startled and confused at first, then extremely angry, then sad. Then I decided I should take some offensive action to make twittering and communication as seamless as possible, considering I might be suspended for a month or more…even the possibility of an indefinite suspension.

So, I created @larissacox on twitter! In just one day, I was able to get approximately 100 followers from those who were followers of @ridingcoach. I was so thrilled at the support I had for my twitastrophe! I feel so humbled at all the people that rallied around me to fight the suspension.

Later that day, I heard from other blogs, friendfeed, and twitter gurus that this suspension was extremely widespread. Apparently, hundreds if not thousands of tweeple experienced wrongful suspensions.

Twitter reacted by saying:

“Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts. We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.”

I was skeptical, but I am extremely pleased to say that when I woke up this morning and checked my twitter, my account was back!

This experience however has made me realize how fragile social networks are.  These new communication mediums are still in their infancy, and are still very fragile and relatively unreliable.   That being said, I have met some incredible people on Twitter that I would not want to lose contact with.  Furthermore, the equestrian discussions on twitter are extremely valuable for learning.

Therefore, I have decided to protect my twitter account using http://tweetbackup.com/

This is still only in Beta form, but I believe it is a start.

I hope to find more security in Twitter and other social networks that protect my contacts and communications.  I would like to see a Twitter Address Book, and formal backup for tweets.

Once again, thank you for all your support and understanding!!!

- Larissa