I'm of a split mind. I like the idea of giving people kudos with some #followfriday love, but at the same time I agree that a reason WHY that person should be followed is necessary.

There's only so much that can be done in 140 characters though :/

Ben
I like your post - I've wondered the same thing about the value of follow friday and such. I think it depends how you think about this. My view is its all about community, relationships, and trust. I like being able to use the advanced search to filter down to interest areas, like location, as I pointed out here: http://twitter.com/hollingsworth/status/1600412999

The beauty of Twitter is its brevity - you dont need to spend too much time posting (as opposed to this reply!) So getting some quick recommendations out is easiest, then people can make their own minds up about following them. My point is, if you're following someone, get value from their tweets, then you would probably be interested in who they are getting value from as well. This is how I use follow friday - finding interesting people being recommended by people you find interesting. There isn't always the time to explain why each person deserves a follow. You can click through, see their bio , site and tweets, then decide.
Cheers
Tony

I've taken to only tweeting my most recent replies (last week and today). Makes it all easier.

I did find three new people to follow today because of recommendations from some people who are the most interesting to me. I went through and checked their profiles first though, because if they're not interesting to me then I don't want to be bothered.

I really hate it when people follow me without bothering to check my profile, don't have anything in common with me, then want to crab because they don't like my tweets. Bleh. But that's whole different issue.

The thing I really don't like about Follow Friday is the penchant for certain people to do that for everyone on their follower list. Twenty tweets later they're finally finished. That's annoying. But not nearly annoying as the person who was retweeting every ff recommendation she was getting.

Sorry. I was rambling. Good topic.

I'd rather see something like this extend into the blogosphere. I'm more likely to check out some random person's blog and subscribe to it than to follow some random person on Twitter. Just about everyone I follow on Twitter falls into 1 of 3 categories: bloggers I like, personal friends, and the select few celebrities I like and want to follow.

Thanks for the comments guys - glad I'm not alone in this.

While throwing out the bathwater, I'm trying to hang on to the baby.

I like the concept of #followfriday in that I trust the recommendations of folks with whom I've developed relationship.

HOWEVER, you're right about the randomness of listing a bunch @followthem's, without giving any specifics. I did that one Friday and immediately realized the folly of it. I much prefer something like, "For great blog tips #followfriday @benbarden." (That's a good one right there, eh?) I think the reason people do it is to bait reciprocity. Just a hunch.

I'll check out the profiles of those approaching a milestone number to see whether I even want to be that milestone or not. I also check out the profiles of every person who follows me to determine whether I want to reciprocate.

I wish I'd drawn this conclusion before I had any followers at all, but I've decided that where Twitter's concerned, quality beats quantity. Now I'm having to cull through to reduce the noise.

Yea Ben I'm with you! last week i just sent 1 tweet for followfriday.. It has become more of a popularity contest these days!

I think FF has some merit. Actually, it's the only way I follow anyone as I don't go out fishing for people to follow. But rather than the spam-like lists in my Twitter posts, I started a page on my blog that lists 5 people every week that I recommend others follow. I also give short descriptors so that people know what they're getting into. So far, it's been a pretty big success - both in terms of expanding my internal network (where my friends get to know each other), and drawing views to the blog. I take the page down on Thursday afternoons while I put the new people on, but the link is: http://tinyurl.com/five4friday

For the past two-three weeks I have been recommended on other peoples followfriday lists. Which I appreciate, BUT several of those were re-tweets by people that didn't follow me in the first place!

For this reason today I am boycotting twitter today, Friday.

Jim - sounds like a good idea!

Alex - boycotting Twitter seems extreme. Why not promote the "one name with a reason" version of FollowFriday instead? I do agree with your point about retweets though - I've seen a few of those - why retweet if you don't follow the people in the recommendation? I reckon it's just to get the poster's name in the search results for FollowFriday. Just the other day I saw someone writing something with the tag and it had nothing to do with FollowFriday whatsoever. Sneaky.

I'd rather just say,

I recommend you follow @benbarden because he's intelligent, original, and kinda cute.

and never on Friday because I'd be competing with all the other follow fridays.

heh, thanks Colleen :)