Twitter Plagued by Problems

As seasoned Twitter users, we’re used to the familiar sight of the “Fail Whale”. Appearing whenever Twitter’s servers can’t keep up with demand, the big guy’s beatific smile and laid back demeanour has inspired Twitterers across the globe to scream at the screen, tear their hair out, and consider Yahoo Meme*.

But recently, it’s not just been the cetacean of server doom that’s been irritating Twitter users. A series of problems have set the community abuzz.

Firstly, Tweet counts went haywire, leading to widespread speculation that a crash had deleted huge swathes of Tweets from the database. Luckily, this turned out to be false, but it didn’t put users in a great frame of mind for the API failure that followed it. Twitter clients across all platforms just packed up and stopped working. Then, to compound matters, it looks like Twitter developed a stutter this morning, as thousands of Tweets were posted multiple times from a single click.

Everything seems to be back to normal, but we advise users to keep a close eye on Twitter’s status blog.

When Twitter works, it’s a great tool for any business. Find out how you can use it to its full potential with our Free Social Media Guide.

*only joking. Yahoo Meme wasn’t very good.