More problems highlighted on Twitter prior to IPO

When it rains, it pours. For Twitter, this means all of their little secrets and hushed challenges are coming out into the light for everyone to see, digest, dissect, and blog about. Will it be too much for investors? Will they still pull the trigger or risk missing out on a big social media opportunity?

At its heart, Twitter is a firehose. Everything you tweet shows up to every one of your followers. It’s what makes Twitter feel like the real-time pulse of the world. But it could also be preventing Twitter from growing. Follow too many people, and you lose track of those you love and stop following anyone new.

Imagine you’ve just joined Twitter. You follow some popular accounts of big publishers and celebrities you’re interested in, as well as some friends and acquaintances. The unfiltered feed works. You get up-to-the-minute news and stay aware of what people you know are up to. There aren’t so many tweets in your stream yet that you miss the ones from the people you care about most.