Thanks for this. It's a lovely change to read an article that focuses on the network management aspect of Twitter rather than the tedious, and in my view, often wrong headed network growth aspects.

There is, however, one element you've missed from the choices available - we can also choose who follows us.

Most twitterers see the Block function as something done only in anger, but actually, it's also a way to decide whether you want someone to have access to what you're tweeting about.

I know this may seem to go against the ethos of Twitter, but I think there is a lot to be said for taking an active view of who follows you, as well as who you are following.

I made a decision early on to keep my followers at about the 1000 mark - even with a small following like that, there are people with whom my interaction is non-existent. My personal goal is to have a tweet stream where I have a valid connection with my entire network... an idea that may turn out to be idiotic, but it's no more idiotic than collecting thousands of people to whom I'm just another unknown scrolling down the left hand colomn of my Tweetdeck.