What Is Twitter Jail?

September 19, 2011 20 comments Buffer

Recently, a few people approached me on Twitter, asking, what the mysterious Twitter Jail is.

So yes, you have heard correctly, Twitter can actually put you into jail and you have to take a break before you can take up your Tweeting habits again.

The best explanation I found was from the Urban Dictionary, putting it this way:

 

Twitter Jail Means No Tweeting If You’ve Reached The Limit Of 100 Tweets Per Hour Or 1000 per day. Buffer this

This explains it most succinctly and I hope it helps you to stay out of this dangerous situation. The explanation from the site goes on to further explain: “You can access your page, you may not post publicly for a specific period of time. Anything from half an hour to a few hours.”

So if you ever find yourself in Twitter Jail, don’t worry, it will only last a few hours before you can Tweet normally again.

 

Why Is It Possible That You End Up In Twitter Jail? Buffer this

When I first heard about the term I and most likely many others have asked themselves, how is it ever going to be possible to end up in Twitter Jail. No one can Tweet 100 messages in an hour or post 1000 Tweets per day.


Get 200% more clicks on Tweets

By Buffering Tweets, they are posted at optimal times giving you 2x more exposure.

Sign up for free

 

Here are a few situation where it is usually very easy to end up being shut down by Twitter for a limited timespan:

  • There is a breaking news event, like recently an earthquake, Bin Laden’s death or the Emmy awards that triggers people to Tweet in a mad and furious manner.
  • Twitter Chats are another occasion, where it is very easy to Tweet more frequently than usual. In these 1 hour online events I even got close to the 100 Tweet limit myself once.
  • Offline conferences or events that you attend are naturally another source where it can happen very easily that you cross the Twitter API limit for your account.

In general the exact timeframe you have to spend in Twitter Jail isn’t quite clear actually, yet the half hour to a few hours seems to be an accurate measure so far.

Why Has Twitter Introduced Twitter Jail? Buffer this

Of course, the key reason that Twitter introduces this API limit is to firstly not put too much load on their servers. Additionally, it is a great way to fight spammers and eventually suspend them, as they are more prone to cross the limits.

What is your experience with Twitter Jail? Have you ever ended up there or are you naturally a good Twitter citizen?

PS: As a rather odd end note, I believe that Twitter Jail is actually a really funny word, that reminds me of Monopoly Jail more than anything else.

Hi, I'm Leo, Co-Founder of Buffer, a new way to Tweet and share Facebook posts smarter and with more impact. Here, I share tips about getting more out of Facebook and Twitter. You can subscribe to my Facebook updates or follow me. I would love to connect.

@LeoWid

Be awesome on Twitter

Buffer helps you share the great content you find on a schedule your followers will love.

Sign up for free

  • http://lighthouseinsights.in/ Prasant Naidu

    That term jail is so funny and thankfully i haven’t touched but #toolschat is so addictive that i might end up sometime ;) by the way thanks for informing me i was not aware of this. 

  • http://twitter.com/DerMoosealini Hine

    I am in and out of twitter prison constantly …rarely do I tweet directly but I RT like madwoman because in my opinion a RT is a compliment. Twitter Jail is excellent as a bot deterrent, limits spam and also reminds us that every now and then we need to take our brains off the internet and put them back in our head…if only to relax and reboot and check out the 3D graphics engine outside the house.

  • ashutosh nigam

    interesting post…….thanks for sharing

  • http://twitter.com/jkcallas Jure KLEPIC

    Leo, but #TwitterJail is fun as well, i visited few times, well in my transparency in one day I ended up 4 times. But i never had better party before. @TwitChiefJudge & @TwitJailWarden both personel of Federal Twitter Jail are fun as well. Very nice crowd of people you might meet! IF you are regular cellmate you might get privileges as well, is to my knowledge that some cells are very customized for @DabneyPorte cell is Pink, for @PegFitzpatrick everything is in sparkles @PamMktgNut got a personal assistant so she can check in Places while she is busy trying to get source code of cell lock and so on…. But here is the small secret if you are nice and bring to @TwitChiefJudge a bottle of whisky and to @TwitJailWarden so chocolate or diet coke you might be out before you know :) 

  • http://twitter.com/jkcallas Jure KLEPIC

    Leo, but #TwitterJail is fun as well, i visited few times, well in my transparency in one day I ended up 4 times. But i never had better party before. @TwitChiefJudge & @TwitJailWarden both personel of Federal Twitter Jail are fun as well. Very nice crowd of people you might meet! IF you are regular cellmate you might get privileges as well, is to my knowledge that some cells are very customized for @DabneyPorte cell is Pink, for @PegFitzpatrick everything is in sparkles @PamMktgNut got a personal assistant so she can check in Places while she is busy trying to get source code of cell lock and so on…. But here is the small secret if you are nice and bring to @TwitChiefJudge a bottle of whisky and to @TwitJailWarden some chocolate or diet coke you might be out before you know :) 

  • http://twitter.com/susan_silver Susan Silver

    I love how we all adopt the same weird to describe the same concept. The first time I used Twitter jail to describe being locked out after a chat was spontaneous, and then it popped up everywhere. The collective unconscious at work.

  • http://www.windowsobserver.com/ WinObs

    This happened to me during the #NASATweetup for the Juno Launch at Kennedy Space Center back in August.  I called it Twitter Timeout!

  • http://www.twittarrpirate.com Gretchen Vaughn

    Jure, you are too funny. You have a trick for getting around TwitterJail, though, don’t you?

  • http://www.twittarrpirate.com Gretchen Vaughn

    I have never ended up in Twitter Jail but I did have my account suspended for five days.  It happened very quickly with little notification after using the Storify feature that notified everyone in the story that had been quoted.  I never did find out if it was because there was an excessive amount of the same link tweeted to multiple people that was picked up a Twitter monitoring automated tool or if I was reported as spam by users.  I’ll stop babbling here.  If you’re interested in the rest of the story and my main takeaways you can read it on my blog here: http://j.mp/ptfEbd

  • http://ClinicalPosters.com ClinicalPosters

    I like how the article says someone who Tweets 100 per hour / 1000 per day can “Tweet normally again” after brief time-out in twitter jail. That level of tweeting is abnormal. :0

  • http://twitter.com/PurpleMontart Sam Benzie

    I end up in Twitter Jail all the time, but I tend to livetweet whatever I’m watching

  • http://www.khaledscorner.com خالد

    I think I’m fine I don’t get close to the tweeting limits

  • Michelle Burke

    I think I came really close to ending up in there once with my @djshellymishaps during a social media week conference. It was Nancy Loo, Robert Feder, Steve Dahl and Richard Roeper speaking and there was a lot to say!

  • http://twitter.com/LeTaq Rick Young

    Many friends of mine hit #TwitterJail when #LostGirl is on, and they fae-natically tweet/retweet fae-vourite moments to other Fae Fans :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joey-Richardson/100003310060273 Joey Richardson

    I think it’s an awesome idea when it works. When I opened my account I was suspended for following too many people at a fast pace. Weird I was trying to move on to get to posting.

  • Eaf123

    thats what you think? :) try following @norWEIRDgian

  • Jimmyeffnsmooth

    Does anyone have a good strategy to make more impacting posts without spamming? I’m a musician and I want to get heard without ending up in #TwitterJail

  • http://pegfitzpatrick.com/ Peg Fitzpatrick

    How did I miss this post? This is hilarious and I have to say that it has been awhile since I have hit the sparkle cell in Twitter Jail. Clearly I am not tweeting enough. You are the best Jure! xoxo

  • http://twitter.com/ROBSCHERRYBOMB ROBSCHERRYBOMB

    When you are in “twitter jail” does it say your account is suspended?

  • http://technocharm.com/ Zulie34

    Twitter going crazy