I'm bummed I missed out on this experiment and simultaneously impressed that you put this much effort into unlocking the Favrd code. I have just been hitting refresh and thinking magic made it happen. Magic monkeys perhaps? Now I know the truths!
Tony
· 1 year ago
What a fantastic piece of engineering you've done. Whereby "engineering" I mean "desperate attempt at seeking validation, disguised as science". Seriously though, this is good stuff. Though now it's probably only a matter of time before Dean Allen changes everything around, now that you've peeked behind the curtain.
And @melissa - "unlocking the Favrd code" sounds like something from the jacket copy of a bad Dan Brown novel.
texburgher
· 1 year ago
Hopefully I'm insignificant enough to escape being labeled a webcock and banned from the fun for my curiosity.
badkitty_
· 1 year ago
I found your experiment very interesting. I remember it at the time, although I didn't participate in it. I read your findings and enjoyed them, as I have issues with favrd from time to time and would like to understand the mechanics behind it. Your post has offered me a window into understanding favrd better.
I still have tons of questions about favrd, so I thought I would post some of them here.
Please note I don't expect you to have the answers, nor to even want to experiment to find the answers. They are just questions rattling around in my brain when certain things happen with regard to favrd.
Some of those questions are (again, no answers required; all questions should be considered rhetorical):
(A) Are there certain times one should withhold starring while favrd updates? (Such as on the hour, or from 0:00 to 0:05 or five minutes after the hour, as an example; then from 0:15 to 0:20, etc.)
(B) Are there a certain number of tweets one should star every minute without exceeding said number? (Such as two, three, five, ten?) (i.e., Is there a limit to the number of tweets one can star per minute?) I have starred many before at a time and then wondered, as you have mentioned here, why favrd skips certain tweets and they never get the recognized stars.
(C) This one ties in with (B) above. Is there a limit to number of tweets one should star, such as 20 at a time? if you go over X amount, will favrd miss some of the tweets?
By the way, (B) and (C) above has caused me as of late to double- and triple-check to make sure people are getting their stars. Because too often they do not, and I have to go back and restar a few hours later. I see stars appear for me on favotter that never appear on favrd, and tweets that I would have gotten favrd for don't because the stars didn't register. Although, realistically, I don't know how long I'll continue to make the time to recheck every tweet I've starred, as it's time-consuming.
(D) After 24 hrs, if you star a tweet will it not appear on favrd? (Or after X number of hours)
(E) While the leaderboard goes blank at 8:00 PM EDT (7:00 PM EST), should we 1. not post tweets on twitter, as in, if someone stars it during that time, it may not get starred? 2. Likewise, should we not star other people's tweets during the leaderboard update, lest favrd miss them?
Again, all those questions were rhetorical, just things I've wondered aloud.
Favrd is a huge fascination with me. It is addictive and I really enjoy it. And since there is no FAQ that I know of about favrd, your post is the first one I've come across that actually explains some of the detailed inner workings of favrd. I thank you for it. I have tried to reach the dev to ask some of my questions, but I'm sure he is very busy, and let's face it, favrd is a gift to twitter, not something that is required or expected.
Favrd makes twitter infinitely more fun. I cannot imagine twitter without favrd. What would be the point, really?
So, if you want to try any more "weird science" favrd experiments, count me in (if the timing is right for me on that given day and if I feel I can participate). And thanks again for the favrd insights you posted here!
badkitty_
· 1 year ago
Today I woke up, checked my timeline, and starred 26 tweets.
I believe the maximum number of tweets that favrd can accept at one time is 20. Once you reach 20, you have to wait for favrd to "acknowledge" your stars and for your avatar/icon to appear on favrd. Once it has, you can star more tweets.
If you star more than 20 tweets without waiting for your favrd avatar to appear on favrd under the tweets you have favrd, it will miss tweets. At least, that is my unofficial experience and data to report. People will not get their stars and if you are that critical third star, they won't show up on favrd. This has been my experience. I believe I confirmed it today, but if anyone else wants to try, it would be interesting.
In addition, if you star more than 20 tweets, then if you identify the ones favrd didn't "accept," unstar those tweets and re-star so people will get their favrd, although it can be done, sometimes even waiting an hour or more after a re-star won't do the trick. I have had to re-star multiple times (as in, more than two or three times of unstarring and re-starring) to get people's favrd to appear. Note: I *do* allow favrd at minimum one hour to 1 1/2 hours to "recognize" my stars before unstarring and re-starring. This unrecognition of stars I have attempted to favr seems to happen most often when (a) I star more than 20 tweets at a time (the ones it misses during this pass seem especially hard to get favrd after this); (b) I star too many tweets in a row too quickly (although I don't have a definition of "too many" as favrd doesn't have a FAQ that details this); (c) favrd is acting up without readily apparent cause. Most puzzling is that while this is happening to me, I can still observe new tweets showing up on favrd.
I have waited in some cases for hours (over an hour, so plenty of time for favrd to recognize my star) for a tweet to appear after I have starred it, only to have it not appear. When I have given favrd ample time to recognize that I have starred it, I will unstar it, then re-star it, in an effort to get it to appear on favrd. Many times I have to re-star the re-stars to get favrd to accept it.
I realize I could just star tweets and not concern myself with whether they show up on favrd. But sometimes my star is that critical third star, and I would like to make sure it shows up. That's another question; whether the critical third star is harder to get to appear on favrd. Not sure.
Favrd seems to be missing more stars than usual lately. Or maybe that's just something I've noticed; others may not have noticed.
Jim
· 10 months ago
Hay! That's Stephanie!
Yayaa
· 10 months ago
I was just put on to this article....great info. I'm learning little by little....
FAVRD is awesome because it keeps me from having to @reply every funny person on Twitter
by the way that 60mph Tweet - hilarious.
Alain Edouard
· 9 months ago
Great post, Geoff.
I also had the same questions when I first discovered Favrd. It's a fantastic service, and I hope it'll last.
Thanks for the amazing blog post. And that was a hilarious tweet for your first Favrd appearance.
Take care!
niko
· 6 months ago
One question (certainly stupid): @favrd is only showing "who" was updated to the FAVRD page... @favrdbot is useless... Is there any @"something" to follow in order to have the FAVRD updates on the twitter timeline??... Mocking is allowed as long as it comes w/ an answer... LOL & thx!
texburgher
· 6 months ago
The short answer is "no." Favrd doesn't do any retweeting that I'm aware of.
All Comments
And @melissa - "unlocking the Favrd code" sounds like something from the jacket copy of a bad Dan Brown novel.
I still have tons of questions about favrd, so I thought I would post some of them here.
Please note I don't expect you to have the answers, nor to even want to experiment to find the answers. They are just questions rattling around in my brain when certain things happen with regard to favrd.
Some of those questions are (again, no answers required; all questions should be considered rhetorical):
(A) Are there certain times one should withhold starring while favrd updates? (Such as on the hour, or from 0:00 to 0:05 or five minutes after the hour, as an example; then from 0:15 to 0:20, etc.)
(B) Are there a certain number of tweets one should star every minute without exceeding said number? (Such as two, three, five, ten?) (i.e., Is there a limit to the number of tweets one can star per minute?) I have starred many before at a time and then wondered, as you have mentioned here, why favrd skips certain tweets and they never get the recognized stars.
(C) This one ties in with (B) above. Is there a limit to number of tweets one should star, such as 20 at a time? if you go over X amount, will favrd miss some of the tweets?
By the way, (B) and (C) above has caused me as of late to double- and triple-check to make sure people are getting their stars. Because too often they do not, and I have to go back and restar a few hours later. I see stars appear for me on favotter that never appear on favrd, and tweets that I would have gotten favrd for don't because the stars didn't register. Although, realistically, I don't know how long I'll continue to make the time to recheck every tweet I've starred, as it's time-consuming.
(D) After 24 hrs, if you star a tweet will it not appear on favrd? (Or after X number of hours)
(E) While the leaderboard goes blank at 8:00 PM EDT (7:00 PM EST), should we 1. not post tweets on twitter, as in, if someone stars it during that time, it may not get starred? 2. Likewise, should we not star other people's tweets during the leaderboard update, lest favrd miss them?
Again, all those questions were rhetorical, just things I've wondered aloud.
Favrd is a huge fascination with me. It is addictive and I really enjoy it. And since there is no FAQ that I know of about favrd, your post is the first one I've come across that actually explains some of the detailed inner workings of favrd. I thank you for it. I have tried to reach the dev to ask some of my questions, but I'm sure he is very busy, and let's face it, favrd is a gift to twitter, not something that is required or expected.
Favrd makes twitter infinitely more fun. I cannot imagine twitter without favrd. What would be the point, really?
So, if you want to try any more "weird science" favrd experiments, count me in (if the timing is right for me on that given day and if I feel I can participate). And thanks again for the favrd insights you posted here!
I believe the maximum number of tweets that favrd can accept at one time is 20. Once you reach 20, you have to wait for favrd to "acknowledge" your stars and for your avatar/icon to appear on favrd. Once it has, you can star more tweets.
If you star more than 20 tweets without waiting for your favrd avatar to appear on favrd under the tweets you have favrd, it will miss tweets. At least, that is my unofficial experience and data to report. People will not get their stars and if you are that critical third star, they won't show up on favrd. This has been my experience. I believe I confirmed it today, but if anyone else wants to try, it would be interesting.
In addition, if you star more than 20 tweets, then if you identify the ones favrd didn't "accept," unstar those tweets and re-star so people will get their favrd, although it can be done, sometimes even waiting an hour or more after a re-star won't do the trick. I have had to re-star multiple times (as in, more than two or three times of unstarring and re-starring) to get people's favrd to appear. Note: I *do* allow favrd at minimum one hour to 1 1/2 hours to "recognize" my stars before unstarring and re-starring. This unrecognition of stars I have attempted to favr seems to happen most often when (a) I star more than 20 tweets at a time (the ones it misses during this pass seem especially hard to get favrd after this); (b) I star too many tweets in a row too quickly (although I don't have a definition of "too many" as favrd doesn't have a FAQ that details this); (c) favrd is acting up without readily apparent cause. Most puzzling is that while this is happening to me, I can still observe new tweets showing up on favrd.
I have waited in some cases for hours (over an hour, so plenty of time for favrd to recognize my star) for a tweet to appear after I have starred it, only to have it not appear. When I have given favrd ample time to recognize that I have starred it, I will unstar it, then re-star it, in an effort to get it to appear on favrd. Many times I have to re-star the re-stars to get favrd to accept it.
I realize I could just star tweets and not concern myself with whether they show up on favrd. But sometimes my star is that critical third star, and I would like to make sure it shows up. That's another question; whether the critical third star is harder to get to appear on favrd. Not sure.
Favrd seems to be missing more stars than usual lately. Or maybe that's just something I've noticed; others may not have noticed.
I'm learning little by little....
FAVRD is awesome because it keeps me from having to @reply every funny person on Twitter
by the way that 60mph Tweet - hilarious.
I also had the same questions when I first discovered Favrd. It's a fantastic service, and I hope it'll last.
Thanks for the amazing blog post.
And that was a hilarious tweet for your first Favrd appearance.
Take care!