Are you frustrated that your Twitter profile is getting overrun with spam accounts instead of real (and interesting) followers? Do you want to make connections with actual people instead of getting the same teeth-whitening spam tweets in your Twitter stream? If so, you're going to need the right combination of Twitter tools to get rid of spammers and find followers with similar interests.

Even though Twitter has between 75-85 million accounts, only about 20% of them are considered active Twitter users, which means there are 12-15 million active people using Twitter. Further more, close to 80% of all Twitter accounts have less than 10 tweets and less than 10 followers under their belts. No wonder it's so difficult to find an actual person on Twitter!

The good news is that those of us who are active on Twitter (you can follow me at @halfbrown) are not only friendly and helpful (for the most part), but we want to meet more people like you! In this blog post I'm going to show you some of the Twitter tools I've used to find not only real people who tweet, but who also share the same interests as me. I'm also going to show you how to use these Twitter tools.

Each of the sites below have helped me get over 800 followers, the majority of which are real people who actually tweet, share links, and engage in conversations with each other. Any fool can get 20,000 followers that are mostly spam or inactive accounts, but growing a list of real followers is another story. The Twitter tools I point out below will help you get there.

1. monitter.com:

   One of the hardest part about starting out on Twitter is finding people you share common interests with. One of the best Twitter tools I've found to search for kindred spirits is monitter.com. Monitter allows you to search for up to 3 keywords (or phrases) at a time and with geo-location matching, to boot. A lot of the great Seattle-area people I've followed or met online came from searching on monitter.com. FYI: I get the best results by using a variety of keywords and hashtags and sticking within 30 miles of the closest major city near me, Seattle.

   To do your own search, go to monitter.com, go to the upper-left area of the site and choose a distance. Then go to the 3 columns in the center of the page, and in the dark gray box replace the default search term with your own and click the "Enter" key on your keyboard. Repeat for the last 2 columns if you want to search more. Word of caution: the search is essentially in real-time, so if you use a really common search term, expect that you'll see a lot of scrolling!

2. tweetcloud.com:

   A big part of deciding whether or not I want to follow a person comes from what they tweet about. Their bio can say anything they want it to, but the real litmus test for what a person is all about comes from their tweet cloud. A tweet cloud is a representation of words or phrases that they use most often when tweeting, and tweetcloud.com is one of the easiest and simplest Twitter tools that shows this info to you. If they have a lot of user names in their tweet cloud then I know they're an active conversationalist. If all their tweet cloud contains are spammy references or non-interesting keywords then I know I'm not going to want to follow them.

   To see someone's tweet cloud, just go to tweetcloud.com, click on the "user" tab near the top left-hand section of the page, enter their Twitter user name, and click the "search" button.

3. friendorfollow.com:

   Friendorfollow.com is one of the better Twitter tools you can use to sort through your list of followers and separate the wheat from the chaff. I've found that if I follow someone and engage in conversations with them online, the majority of the time they will follow you back, especially if they actively participate in the conversations. Some people, however, just aren't very social (strange, considering the very nature of social networking), and if I follow them and we never connect then I don't usually keep following them. I figure if I make an effort to try to get to know them and they aren't interested then why should I bother?

   To start things off go to friendorfollow.com, enter your user name, and press the "submit" button. Once the page comes up with your information you'll have 3 tabs to choose from: "following" (people you follow but don't follow you back), "fans" (people who follow you but you don't follow back), and "friends" (people who follow you and you follow them back). If you're looking for someone specific keep in mind that the people listed on the page are in alpha-numeric order.

4. mrtweet.com:

   For a simple way of finding people to follow you can use mrtweet.com to do some of the leg work for you. Like other Twitter tools it recommends users to you, but it also lists tweeps that it thinks are your influential followers and suggests some of their users to you as well. Added bonus: You can even have friends and followers recommend your profile to others.

   Open up mrtweet.com in your browser and click on the "Sign in with Twitter" button. Like a lot of other Twitter tools, MrTweet uses the OAuth method of connecting to you account, so if you're already logged in you won't have to enter your user name or password, which is always a plus from a security standpoint. You will have to authorize MrTweet to have access, but I've never had any problems so you'll be safe. Once you're signed in you'll want to follow the numbered steps to make use of this Twitter tool. Keep in mind that if you're a new user or need an update that it could take some time before MrTweet will be able to show you any useful information.

5. @Twitter_Tips:

   If you only follow one Twitter-related account, this is the one. @Twitter_Tips tweets all kinds of great information about Twitter. Topics include things like hash tags, retweeting, recommendations on Twitter tools, apps for tweeting, and anything else relating to the Twitterverse. Do yourself a favor... go to @Twitter_Tips and follow them today.

6. twitip.com:

   As a blog on all things Twitter-related, TwiTip.com is a great resource outside of the Twitter.com domain itself. TwiTip not only has posts about using Twitter for yourself, but also has articles on using Twitter as a tool for businesses, reviews of Twitter apps, and more. It also has advanced Twitter topics like how to follow Twitter lists in an RSS reader and how to schedule your tweets.

7. twitter.grader.com:

   As far as basic statistics go, the Twitter Grader is one of the better tools you can use to rank yourself against other tweeps. Based on the Twitter Grader algorithm. With it's simple interface and narrow focus on a few pieces of information, it's a great place for beginners to start tracking their ranking.

   Head over to http://twitter.grader.com/, enter your user name and click on "Grade". You'll see a grade between 0 and 100 in a box on the right-hand side. Anything less than a 90 usually indicates a new or not very active user.

8. twittercounter.com:

   With a nice graph showing a few different stats so you can see where the peaks and valleys are as well as the ability to compare yourself against 2 others at the same time, Twitter Counter is a great next-step up from basic stats. This tool has 3 different tabs: "Followers", "Following", and "Tweets". Clicking on each of these tabs will bring up a new graph that'll let you gauge how each of those stats is changing over time.

   Point your browser to twittercounter.com and click on the "Add yourself" button. Like other Twitter tools it uses OAuth to connect. Once it does you can set up a profile so you can start looking at your stats whenever you like.

9. twitalyzer.com:

   In my opinion TwitAlyzer is one of the better advanced Twitter statistics websites out there today. With a clean interface using infographics, numeric indicators, and even up/down arrows to quickly see how your numbers are changing for the many data points they calculate for your profile, TwitAlyzer makes sorting through data a breeeze. To me, this Twitter tool is an indispensable resource for anyone who really wants to get into the nuts and bolts of tweaking your profile for peak performance. One thing to remember, however, is that if it's your first time using TwitAlyzer or if it's been a while since you've updated it could take a little time for them to gather all of the necessary information to show you your stats. Believe me... it's well worth the wait.

   Using TwitAlyzer is a breeze. Go to twitalyzer.com, enter your user name, and click on the "Twitalyze!" button. You'll be able to see some basic data, but if you sign in using their OAuth connection you'll get 9 more reports to sift through.

10. twittervalue.com:

    Finishing out the list is one of those Twitter tools that's just for fun. It evaluates your account and puts a dollar value on it. Don't expect anyone to actually pay you this money for your account, but do have fun with it by checking out your value and then your friends, followers, and celebrities who are on Twitter.

That's it, 10 Twitter tools to help you manage your tweets and tweeps. These are just the tip of the iceberg, too, but they should help you find great followers, get rid of the inactive or non-participating ones, and get you up-and-running quickly and easily.

The Urban Dictionary defines the Twitterati as:

Maybe it's not the most glowing definition going, but the point is clear: There are people out there whose tweets hold more interest (and probably influence) than others. I'm not just talking about celebrities or the otherwise famous -- it's obvious why those folks have so many followers -- and I’m also not talking about friend whores or spammers who just add people indiscriminately. I'm talking about the people with actual, real followers. Lots of them. The people I'm talking about are the ones who have a true connection with their followers and make a real impact on them.

It's called social media for a reason, isn't it?

Even though the members of the Twitterati are different people, the same things are being done, more or less, by all of the them. Everyone's voice is different, most have different areas of expertise or special knowledge, and they usually have a unique viewpoint. Still, you can find 3 common elements in all of their tweets if you take a step back and look at the big picture.

1. Engage:

   Possibly the most important of the 3 E’s, engaging with their followers is what sets the Twitterati apart, and really puts the social in "social networking". To build a list of Twitter followers isn't enough; anyone can get 20,000 followers if you only care about quantity and not quality. The power Twitter users get real people to follow them and learn who they are, find out their interests, talk directly with them, and find ways to get (and stay) connected with their followers as much as possible.

2. Expose:

   In order to have any appreciable effect on anyone, you have to let them in, even if just a little bit. Show them the real you. Being yourself, opening up, and exposing your strengths as well as your weaknesses helps build a bond between you and your followers. Exposing yourself to your Twitter followers builds trust. And without trust you're no better than a super-tweeting robot.

3. Enlighten:

   Last but certainly not least is what the most Twitterati do to keep their followers once they get them. The Twitter elite retain their followers by consistently tweeting relevant links, new tips and tricks, inside information on a particular topic, and any other reliable data their followers will find interesting through a tweet. This is the part where they teach a man to fish instead of giving him one.

Honestly, these aren't even secrets. They're common sense and common knowledge. Unfortunately we all seem to lose our way sometimes and forget these things. If you make a point to talk to people, be yourself, and teach them things, you'll build a strong base of friends and supporters.

A lot of people don't "get" Twitter. I know I didn't when I first signed up, which is why I tweeted a handful of times and then forgot about the account for over a year. It felt so pointless to me at first, and 140 characters to get a thought out there seemed like nothing when compared to the open-endedness of of a blog post (which, when I first signed up, I had been doing with some regularity for about 5 years). That's probably why a large percentage of people who try out Twitter end up quitting within the first month of signing up. Oh sure, there's not official number on that (Twitter is notoriously quiet about their actual numbers), but the guesstimates by people more in the know than I am all seem to point to that as a fact.

So why did it take me so long to finally get to using Twitter regularly and falling in love with it? Well, after reading more about how people were using it, lurking a whole lot, and doing some thinking about the Twitter phenomenon I finally "got" it, and I'll try to explain Twitter to you as I understand (and use) it: Twitter is a social networking tool. That's it. I'll break that down, because people are always talking about social networking as if we all took that class in 8th grade and are intimately familiar with the concept.

• social:

  For all intents and purposes, "social" means "people". Specifically social means people who want to interact with other people (whether they know them or not), and there's a million reasons why they want to interact with them. Maybe it's a new mother reaching out to other first-time moms, or a small business trying to get it's message out there. It could be the iPhone app developer releasing his latest version to the iTunes app store or even the intern in a big company who's trying to keep sane working for her third new boss this week (and it's only Tuesday). Each of these people has a story they want to share.

• networking:

  If social means people, then "networking" means "connecting with" those people. And by connecting I mean engaging. Interacting. Mixing it up, if you will. Twitter's like a dance we're all attending, and in order to cut a rug we've got to cross the room to ask that pretty girl to dance. If you're not networking, you'll never "get" Twitter. And I don't mean networking in the job-fair-at-the-airport-hotel sense of the word. I'm talking about putting yourself out there and making a connection with people. Whether it's one person or 1,500, you're making a connection, and possibly a friend. Maybe even a difference.

• tool:

  The real tool in this scenario is whatever you use to connect to Twitter. It could be the "What's happening?" form field we all put our 140 characters into and then press the "update" button. It could even be Tweetdeck, or Hoot Suite, or your Blackberry. Whatever you're using to make those connections, that's your tool. That's what's getting you out there, and without it you wouldn't be able to do any of the social networking mentioned above.

No one can make you make the connections with other people, and that's what I see as the stumbling block for most people who give up on Twitter. My suggestion on getting started the right way? Do a search on Twitter for your city's name, or maybe even a hobby you're into. Start browsing through the people who are talking about those things, or any other topic you're interested in. Take a look at the profiles of the people who are talking and see who already "gets" Twitter (read: they're talking to other people), and follow them. Start up a conversation. Ask them a question. Interact with them, because that's what Twitter is about. Finding a connection with someone and interacting with them.

And if you or someone you know don't know who to start with, feel free to follow me on Twitter. I'm easy to talk to.

Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as Twitter etiquette, and whether you're a complete newbie or a Twitter addict, there's a good chance you're making a few mistakes (socially speaking). Every online community has unwritten rules of usage and/or proper behavior, and using proper etiquette on Twitter will keep you from being blocked, booed, or banned.

Instead of learning things the hard way like I did, you can check out this list of 10 tips on Twitter etiquette that I've come up with during my time on the service. A lot of them are common sense and apply to other areas of life, too (much less other social networking sites). I hope you find them useful. You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/halfbrown.

1. Don't plagiarize:

   If you see an interesting tweet, regardless of whether or not it's from someone you're following or a random post you found online, don't try to pass it off as your own, that's bad Twitter etiquette. Like most web-based communities, Twitter self-polices itself very well, and naughty boys and girls are made examples of swiftly and surely.

   Make things easier on yourself and retweet (you may have seen it written as "RT" on Twitter) your find for proper attribution. Not only will the original poster be thankful, but it also helps make you part of the community.

   Not sure how to RT? Don't worry, I can show you how to properly retweet on Twitter.

2. Easy on the tweets:

   Unless you're churning out consistently interesting links, useful information, or insights into your soul, you should keep your tweet stream to a sane amount every day. Believe me, no one wants to hear about the 5 times you went to the bathroom or learn that the reason why you're going so much is because of the big lunch you had at the mobile burrito truck (there's a reason they're called a "roach coach", kids).

   Something along the lines of a half dozen or so tweets is probably good if they're of the "blah blah blah, pay attention to me" variety, but there's no hard/fast rule about this. If you're pumping out 30-40 interesting tweets a day you're not going to have much, if anything, to worry about.

3. Too many links, whether sausage or website, aren't good for you:

   It's very tempting to add more than one URL when posting, but try not to. Any more than 1 link, maybe 2, is begging for confusion in your 140 characters (and for the love of Pete, use a URL shortener like Bitly). If you have multiple links you should think about splitting them up into multiple tweets.

4. Let us know you're joking:

   Written communication like tweets, IM's, and email can't convey the subtle inflections that the spoken word can. If you're trying to be humorous make sure to let people know it by adding a smiley face ":)", an "LOL", or a well placed "j/k". Remember that the written word always reads about 3 times more harsh to others than it does to you and re-tool your content appropriately.

5. Get to know your followers:

   You'll have a much bigger impact on your followers if you can find out what makes them tick, learn their (online) personalities, and deliver the content, information, or entertainment they want. The only way you'll do this is by listening to what they have to say in their tweets, their blog posts, etc.

   By all means jump into the pool with the rest of the Twitter community, but once you're in the water wade in the shallow end for a while until you get a good feel for how the rest of the folks are swimming. You don't want to belly flop your first time out.

6. Know when (and when not) to DM:

   Direct messages are a great way to send someone information you don't want publicly available like a phone number or private email address. DM's tend to feel more personal, too, so be sure to not abuse your followers with too many messages. No one wants a stalker. And resist the urge to use an auto-DMing service since they're really easy to detect and it's usually thought of as spammy, and is a huge no-no in the realm of Twitter etiquette.

7. One message = one tweet:

   Your followers are more than likely going to be hit with a lot of tweets during the course of a day from the group of people they follow. Don't unnecessarily add to the mix by re-posting the same tweet multiple times in a short period of time. It's rude, it's spammy, and it's a waste of everyone's time.

8. Keep private things on the DL:

   Throwing a naughty little soirée with some friends? Making plans for a special date with your significant other? Maybe you're organizing a get together for after-work drinks with your co-workers to talk trash about the new HR Director? Great! But don't spill too many details on Twitter, otherwise you just might open the door for a real buzzkill by having unwelcome party crashers show up. Tweetups are one thing, but make sure you want to actually have an open invitation out there before you tweet about it.

9. Would you want your grandma to read your tweet?:

   Even if you have a protected profile, you still have followers who read your tweets, and those people can copy+paste what you write in an email. Never post anything you wouldn't want a beloved family member, your boss, or a local sheriff to read.

   Examples of things to keep on the QT are embarrassingly graphic details of your love life, the who's who of your KOS list (those of you who PVP in online games know what I'm talkin' 'bout), or especially what you think of your boss or your job. Things posted online live forever, and there's no way to take them back. Ever.

10. Not everyone will read (or follow) this list of Twitter etiquette tips:

    You should know by now that the Internet is chock-a-block full of idiots, naysayers, and contrarians. Don't get spun up by their posts and then sucked into a flame war because they're a nut looking to get a rise out of someone. Either ignore them or block them. Problem solved, and you don't look like just as big an idiot for falling prey to their brand of crazy.

That's it. Ten simple rules to make your life on Twitter easier. For the most part you can consider these Twitter etiquette tips more of a guideline than actual rules of the road and of course they can be fudged a bit every now and again, but be careful when doing so. The last thing you want is to be That Guy (or girl) and find yourself in the hot seat by something you do or say.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Abraham Lincoln

Happy Twittering!

A "retweet" on Twitter, sometimes called an "RT", is the most common form of promoting content written by someone else and sharing it with your followers. Any great link, information, or insight is potentially retweetable, and there are a few courtesies and conventions on how to do it properly.

There are many reasons for you to retweet compelling content, not to mention creating retweetable material of your own. Examples include attracting more followers, increasing your personal relevance among your followers (depending on the content of the original tweet itself), and even being placed on a one or more Twitter lists. I've personally seen all 3 of those examples happen to my @halfbrown account after posting content on Twitter. Increased followers and popularity is all about great content (unless you're a celebrity, in which case your existence alone on Twitter can get you followers), and retweeting that content helps everybody.

There are two common ways to properly retweet, and each method is detailed below:

1. Using the Twitter RT:

   Twitter added their own retweet functionality in late 2009 to mixed reviews, and love it (or at least have a "glass half full" view of it) or hate it, it looks like it's here to stay. To retweet using the Twitter-supplied way, simply mouseover the tweet you want to RT and look in the bottom right-hand side of the tweet. You should see 2 options, "Reply" And "Retweet". (See the graphic below for an example.)

   

   Just click on the "Retweet" link and a confirmation saying "Retweet to your followers?" will appear. If change your mind on the retweet, simply click the "X" to close the confirmation, otherwise click the "Yes" button to retweet it. When you click "Yes" the tweet is sent out to your stream like your other tweets, but shows up as being from the original tweeter user (their profile's avatar is used, etc.) with text at the bottom showing it as retweeted by you.

   The up side to using the Twitter RT method is ease-of-use and automated attribution of the original poster. The down side of using it is that you can't add any additional comments. I like to use this method of retweeting when I don't have anything to add to the mix and just want to quickly pass the info along to my Twitter followers.

2. Creating a manual RT:

   Before Twitter added their retweet functionality the only way to RT was to do it by hand. It's a little more complicated than the Twitter RT method, but it gives you more control over what's shown and how it displays. The basics are simple:

   • Find a compelling tweet to send to your followers:

     Chances are good that if you have real followers who like what you usually have to say, they'll be interested in most things you'd want to retweet.

   • Copy+paste the content of the tweet into your status update field:

     Sometimes you'll need to strategically trim a few words to get under the 140 character limit. Just try to stay as true to the original content as possible and no one should mind. If you have room left over, feel free to add your own commentary or maybe a relevant hashtag. The former will help increase your engagement with the original tweeter, and the latter will expose you to a few more folks searching for that hashtag who otherwise may not have found you.

   • Retweeting etiquette calls for crediting the original tweeter:

     This usually in the form of an "@" which, when prepended to a Twitter username, auto-links to that person's Twitter page. Prepend the previous step with the following: "RT @username ", where "username" is replaced with the username of the person who originally tweeted the content. Make sure to add a space after the username so the original poster will get properly linked and credited!

   The upside to using the manual RT method is the control you have of the content (adding hashtags, comments, etc.). The downside of using it is the potential for broken or missing attribution of the original tweeter and sometimes having to change the original content to conform to the 140 character Twitter limit. I like to engage with my followers and the original tweeters, so I prefer to use this method.

Regardless of which method you use, as long as you’re retweeting quality content and you give credit where credit is due, a good retweet has a lot of value to you, your followers, and the person you're retweeting.

With the year well underway I'm sure you've noticed, like I have, the immense number of tweets, blog posts, and other web-chatter with New Year trends and predictions in the world of tech for 2010. Everyone has an opinion on what's going to happen, as if the spirit of Nostradamus insinuated itself into the Web and imbued everyone who has an Internet presence his legendary powers of precognition.

Some quick background before I continue: I've been cleaning out my garage over the last few days and happened upon a very large stack of magazines, clippings, and website printouts from as far back as 1999 and began sorting through all of it. Of a, oh, 36" high stack of assorted papers and old magazines I only kept about a half inch worth of stuff. (Most of which, incidentally, are funny Dilbert strips, hard copies of emails long since deleted and/or lost in their digital state, and a very small amount of still relevant information like a recipe for a great rib roast) My how the hot topics of the day go by the wayside after 8-10 years of stewing in a box next to my old high school yearbooks.

Anyhow, something I noticed in sorting through the big tall stack of tech-related stuff were the prediction issues of the magazines: who's hot, what's going to happen, and where the big events will take place in the culture and business of technology. Not surprisingly the number of correct predictions totaled approximately .5%. (This is not a scientifically accurate calculation, but is probably pretty F-ing close) Those are really terrible stats. Hell, you've got a better chance at winning a hand at Blackjack in a Vegas casino (if you're counting cards, and if they catch you they'll break your legs) than you do by following someone's advice on what's going to be what.

How could a multi-billion dollar industry, chock-o-block full of smart, creative, and well-connected teams of journalists hailing from so very many respected institutions of higher learning fail in accurately gauging the next wave of movers and shakers? I don't know the answer to that. If I did I'd probably be some sort of high-falutin' media consultant making six figures a year.

Please note: I am *not* a high-falutin' media consultant making six figures a year.

I'm just a dude with a keyboard, a few magazine and RSS feed subscriptions, and a great big bag full of "Here's what I think..." thrown into the mix. I don't have a fancy journalism degree, I don't sit on the board of any public company, and I certainly am not an "insider". Having said that I can't, in good conscience, let this start without giving my own very-likely-to-be-99.5%-chance-of-being-wrong predictions for 2010.

1. Social Media gets bigger.

   Duh. It seems like everyone is on some kind of social media site these days. There are already reports that your Nana has a Facebook account. No, seriously. @MisterHapa tweeted about it.

   OK, maybe not everyone... I guess it's hard for newborns or the recently comatose to sign up. But outside of those groups, or the damned, dirty apes of the world (read: neo-luddites and other tech naysayers), people are jamming themselves into social media sites like sardines in a can; and it's my opinion that it's just going to get tighter in the tin. Every social media site* is going to blow up with more users, or at the very least will continue to receive an insane amount of press.

2. Microblogging is dead, long live microblogging.

   I think it's safe to say that 2009 could be considered the year that the (mass) media finally picked up on (and halfway figured out) Twitter, rammed it down everyone's throat who didn't know about it (with the aforementioned media outlets seeming, to those folks, like a cutting edge source of tech information), and fostered an environment of "Hey we ought to try that" amongst the pointy-haired bosses of the world.

   It's a wonderful thing, this Twitter phenomenon, but I think we all know that 140 characters just ain't enough to make a lasting impact all by it's lonesome. I certainly don't think Twitter or any old/new micro-blogging platform is going away, but I do believe that people, people who have a stake in a company's online presence in particular, are going to course-correct and focus on real content for the long term. And by "real content" I mean the 141+ character variety.

   I'm not saying anyone is giving up on microblogging, it's just going to be given it's due attention and integrated into the rest of a media campaign vs. being the flavor of the week with all eyes on it like it's the lightning in a bottle everyone is hoping for.

3. Mobile technology, media, and apps get bigger, better, and more penetration.

   Hmmm... in retrospect that sounds kinda dirty, but we'll stick with it for now. What we call a smart phone now is going to be morphing over the next 3-7 years to something akin to a Tricorder from Star Trek: The Next Generation. 2010 will be the next big step in this evolution with a new iPhone circa July and another leap by someone else circa November. Droid? Palm? Blackberry? I dunno, folks, I'm just spitballin' here like everyone else.

4. Netbook sales will shrink as mobile computing becomes a reality in your pocket.

   Much like my mobile prediction previous to this, the more our phones become like our computers, the need for a netbook will dwindle. Tablets (decent ones, that are powerful and affordable) might not come to fruition this year (in a widespread fashion, at least), but the promise of them will be enough to make the idea of buying a netbook seem downright silly by the end of the year, especially with phones doing more and more for us. Personally I can't wait to be able to painlessly edit my code and run a mini server on an iPhone or the rumored iTablet from Apple.

That's it. Be they ever so humble, those are my predictions for 2010. Let's check back in next January to see how I did.

* Except for MySpace. Bonus prediction time, kids: MySpace will continue on a downward spiral into obsolescence until:

1. It gets carried off like Han in carbonite by some kind of sale to a sucker new investor, who hopefully will have the resources and matching brain cells to find a way to stop the insanity of the overly-customizable profile pages with red backgrounds & blue text and under-sexed teen anime drawings as background images (not to mention increasing revenues and growing their user base again), or

2. The powers that be pull their heads out of their asses and focus on the 2 things with the potential to keep 'em coming back: Music and Comedy (in particular: something that will work for both artists and fans, like exclusivity agreements to artists in exchange for revenue sharing or something crazy like that).