Twitter Doghouse

   app / Emily / Ruby on Rails / twitter / Twitter Doghouse      Posted on July 30, 2012 by Emily

The Olympics started this weekend, which means our collective Twitter feeds are suddenly inundated with Olympics-from-every-angle coverage. Not so into it? Check out the new "Twitter Doghouse" app, which allows you to unfollow fellow tweeters for scheduled periods of time. You can use Twitter Doghouse to (a) jokingly call out obnoxious behavior (and, if you want, ping said tweeps to let them know you've "doghoused" them) or (b) seriously avoid Twitter-centric events of limited interest to the non-involved (Think "SXSW").

Twitter Doghouse was created by developers Elan Dubrofsky and Jure Stern. Dubrofsky coded the app using Ruby on Rails and has the open-source code posted to his Github page so other programmers can check it out and suggest improvements or tweaks. For the front-end user, here's how it works (full tutorial video, below): you log in and authenticate with your Twitter credentials and are then presented with a form to fill out indicating who you want to put on timeout and for how long. When you give someone the cold shoulder, you can keep it secret or send an automated teasing tweet their way.

We're thinking this app could be very useful for blocking those prone to live-tweeting as well as friends on vacation who insist on posting every speck of sand and morsel of food. What do you think? Anyone entering your Twitter Doghouse this week? 

[Via Mashable]