I guess I knew it had to end eventually. @gapingvoid was following, and being followed by, too many people for it to be sustainable for long. Well, tonight he pulled the plug and wiped out his Twitter account.

I think limits are a good thing. Twitter is working so well (for now) because it placed a limit on what you could do (send updates) and imposed a challenging limit on length (140 characters). These limits make you boil down your thoughts until only their most valuable core remains.

Unfortunately, like all the other social networks out there right now, Twitter has not placed a limit on connections with other users. And because there is no limit, these connections have less value than they could be, with people trying to scoop up friends by the thousands.

Maybe in the future someone will develop a mechanism that makes people sit down and spend a couple of minutes figuring out which connections are the really valuable ones to have. Until then, we probably need to try and place that limit on ourselves. Consider it an interpersonal diet.

Personally, I've found that following 30 people has been working well, so maybe I will try and stick with that. I guess after tonight I am left with one spot to fill, and boy it sure does it come with some big shoes.