An Apple a Day: Top Ten Rants on Twitter
No surprise - Spam makes the list at #9
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Let Your Customers Do the Talking
May 13, 2008 – 9:35 pm
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Andrew Kinnear hits the nail on the head with his take on how to use Twitter as a marketing channel. Let your customers do the talking…
If I’ve got a product or service and I want to spread the word virally, then all I really need is a hard-core group of influencers– a seeding group. If it’s the right message, to the right target audience, then the right influencers can spread the word faster than a million poorly targeted emails.
- Andrew Kinnear: Is Twitter a real marketing tool or a time waster? (5/13/08)
Track Spam issue will be fixed
May 7, 2008 – 3:01 pm
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Twitter Product Manager Jason Goldman provided an update today on Twitter’s plans for fixing the Track Spam issue. Here’s part of that update:
1) Track is a feature that allows you to receive (via sms or im) all Twitter updates matching certain search terms. A common use is to track one’s own name. This is useful to find replies directed at you from people you don’t follow.
More info is here : http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=…
2) Currently, this feature does not respect the block list. That means that if you block a given user and they create an update with a phrase you track, it will still be delivered to you.
3) We consider this a bug not a feature. It is our intention to change the track behavior such that it respects the block list. I don’t have a specific timeline for implementation; it’s not an easy change, technically. But if we could will it to be so, track would respect the block list.
Twitter Spam on TechCrunch
May 7, 2008 – 2:17 pm
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TechCrunch has a post today about Twitter Spam titled Twitter Starts Blacklisting Spammers. I actually think the post is going to confuse some people. It mentions The Twitter Blacklist, which is not affiliated with Twitter, and a recent post on Stay N Alive, which covers a recent discussion on the Twitter Dev discussion group about how to detect users that have been “blacklisted” by Twitter. These are two completely separate things.
If you quickly scan the TechCrunch article you might come away with the impression that TechCrunch is saying that the Twitter Blacklist is what is being used by Twitter to identify spammers. If you read the article carefully you’ll see that they didn’t really say that. But at least one person came away with that impression and I’m sure there are many others.
From what I can tell, this is the process that Twitter is using to identify and deal with spammers:
1) Suspected spammers are reported to Twitter from this Help page. Another way that Twitter can be notified about a suspected spammer is a high volume of Block activity against a specific account.
2) Someone from Twitter reviews the account to determine if the Terms of Service have been violated. It’s important to note here that they are mainly looking for people who are contributing to “Follow Spam”. This is where someone follows thousands of people at a time, resulting in a New Follower email. From what I can tell, all of these spam requests are reviewed by an actual person and they are not just using a simple formula like the Following:Followers ration to make their decision.
3) Once Twitter has determined that it’s a spammer they take action against the account. I have received a number of emails from Twitter about spam reports that I have filed. Click here for an example. Some typical actions that they will take are: removing their tweets from the public timeline, suspending update capabilities, and suspending follow/unfollow privileges. Based on the Stay N Alive it appears that Twitter is going to take a stronger actions moving forward and terminate the account versus just cripple it.
This type of coverage about Twitter Spam usually generates a lot of discussion. Here are some posts from people who question whether or not this is an issue:
- Daggle - Twitter Spam: Myth or Reality?
- I’m Not Actually A Geek - Spammers on Twitter and FriendFeed: Really A Problem?
Check out TechMeme for more discussion on this. And of course, there has been lots of discussion on Twitter about this.
ProBlogger: 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence
May 7, 2008 – 9:58 am
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ProBlogger: 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence
Some good tips for getting more people to follow you without resorting to automated “Friend Adder” tools.
Now you can see who is following the Spammers
May 7, 2008 – 7:44 am
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Social Times has pointed out a subtle change that Twitter has made in the last couple of days. You can now see who is following someone on Twitter.
Why is this interesting to me?
Have you ever looked at an obvious spammer’s profile (e.g. Following 25,000 but only 100 following back) and wondered who is following them? Well, now you can check. I’ve checked out a few spammer accounts and noticed that many of the followers are “A-Listers” who have lots of followers and are either auto-following everyone (using a script provided by Twitter or using a tool like SocialToo or Your Twitter Karma). You’ll also see spammers following other spammers because they’re following just about everyone.
Following someone on Twitter is a form of endorsement. It means that you think they have something interesting to say, even if you don’t always agree with them. So it bothers me when I see people following spammers on Twitter because it means that someone is endorsing them and giving them some credibility. So if you click on the Followers link on a spammer profile and see one of your friends on the list, send them a Direct Message and tell them to unfollow or block that person. You’ll be doing them and the rest of the Twitter community a favor.
Update:
Now I’m thinking that this might be a subtle move by Twitter to encourage people to be more accountable for who they are following on Twitter. Before yesterday, there were 80 people following a white supremacist on Twitter. But we didn’t know who they were because Followers info was private. Now that the Followers info it totally transparent we know exactly who these 80 people are. It’s clear from the list that most of those 80 people have no idea that they are following a white supremacist. As of today (May 7th) there are a number of A-Listers such as @chrispirillo on that list. But I have to ask. If you are following this person and you are actually reading the tweets of the people that you’re following, how do you put up with reading tweets like this? How do you not unfollow or block that person?
An Official Update from Twitter on Abuse/Spam
May 5, 2008 – 7:30 pm
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There haven’t been too many official updates from Twitter about the spam issue. We know that they’re “working on it” but the updates have been few and far between. Tonight we got one of those updates from Twitter product manager goldtoe. The update, which appeared on Get Satisfaction, addresses “follower spam”, an issue that we’ve beaten to death on this blog, track spam, and abuse, which is an issue that has come out of nowhere (from what I can tell) and has the potential to really damage the Twitter community if it’s not handled properly.
Below is the update provided by Twitter. I have highlighted the portions that address spam in bold.
Twitter is a recipient-driven communication utility; you choose what appears in your timeline. To this end, we offer tools designed to give you more control over your experience using Twitter. For example, with the block tool, you have the option of preventing your content from being delivered to other people’s timelines.
There are areas where we can improve our tools. For example, the track feature does not currently obey the block list, but it should. And we’re actively working to prevent abuse by spammers of the “new follower” email notices.
Our goal is to provide tools that allow people to enjoy the Twitter service in the way that makes sense to them. To achieve this goal, we need to curtail abuses that impair our ability to provide this service.
Content and Abuse
As a communication utility, Twitter does not get involved in disputes between users over issues of content except in very specific situations. Twitter is a provider of information, not a mediator. Specific physical threats, certain legal obligations, privacy breaches of specific types of information (e.g. SSN, credit cards), and misleading impersonation are some cases where we may become involved and potentially terminate an account.
Overall, we hold ourselves responsible for building tools that allow our users to control their own experience. Twitter is not a judge for resolving disputes over most content issues—our focus is on service.
Technical Abuse and SPAM
While our policy regarding content is mostly hands-off, we are strictly intolerant toward those who would subvert our intention to provide a utility for recipient-driven communication. Twitter will terminate accounts for a variety of technical abuse violations.
That includes the above-mentioned follower spam problem as well as other means that degrade our service. For example, our service is degraded through the cross-posting of updates from multiple accounts as a way to get around the block and unfollow tools.
Note: We have been paying close attention to these issues and as a result we are in the process of reviewing our Terms of Service. Our goal is to align our Terms of Service with the concerns of our users with an eye towards what we intend to enforce. We are also working to make this process more transparent.
Some advice on following
May 4, 2008 – 9:54 pm
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Following a lot of people does help you get more involved with Twitter. That’s the point of Twitter. However, don’t do it all at one time. This is the worst advice to give a new Twitter user without any type of clarification on how to do it.
- SheGeeks: Twitter 101 (05/04/08)
