ByteClub Platform

Tim Haines came up with a great idea to collect Twitter usernames of iPhone developers with a simple form using Google Spreadsheets. If you are using TweetDeck and wanted to add all these followers into a group, beware of getting Repetitive Stress Injury accompanied by blindness: there are 460+ names on that list as of right now, good luck clicking that many times. How about a script instead? I hacked Tim's script that automatically follows these people on your behalf, to insert some rows into TweetDeck's SQLite file instead.

Before you launch it:

- Make sure to install sqlite3 ruby gem ("sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby") and google spreadsheet gem
- Open TweetDeck and create a group. If you have one already, that's fine. Remember it's name. Close TweetDeck
- Find out where TweetDeck keeps it's database file. On OS X, follow these instructions:
1. go to ~/Library/Preferences
2. Search for directory that starts with "TweetDeckFast."
3. Inside, you'll find another directory called "Local Store"
4. Check that directory for a file with a name that looks like "td_26_your twitter name.db"
5. Copy the full path to that file, including it's name (In my case, the file is called "/Users/peter/Library/Preferences/TweetDeckFast.F9107117265DB7542C1A806C8DB837742CE14C21.1/Local Store/td_26_byteclub.db")
- In the script, replace values with your own

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that this script actually doesn't follow people, it only attempts to add them to your TweetDeck group. Before you run this script, make sure to follow developers either by manually entering them in Twitter or, if you are into doing things in bulk, running the script that's mentioned in the spreadsheet itself.