Stop Twitter Spam

There was a very interesting discussion about Twitter Spam between @AndrewBadera, @Scobleizer, and a few others this morning. This is what I could piece together.

AndrewBadera: holy awesome anti-Twitter spam site: http://www.stoptwitterspam….

(Thanks Andrew!)

Kabren: @andrewbadera…That’s actually really nice. I’ve noticed a lot of Twitter follower spam recently.

Scobleizer: @andrewbadera why does it matter to you who follows you? If you don’t like it, just don’t add them. Don’t blame me, blame yourself.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer the ethos of what you’re encouraging is essentially spammy. it simply adds to the noise level.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer a majority of these mass adders aren’t doing it to enhance the quality of the experience, they’re doing it in an effort to increase their own personal volume potential. FAIL.

Scobleizer: @andrewbadera noise is good. If you don’t want noise, just use TweetScan to search. Followers don’t matter. It’s who YOU follow that matters.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer it’s the ethics and the intent as much as anything else. why encourage people to degrade something?

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer SIGNAL is good. noise is bad. If only you had a formula for instant increase of SIGNAL.

Kabren: @Scobleizer That makes sense…It’s just annoying, to me, at least, to see that people (companies) are misusing it.

Scobleizer: @Kabren if companies misuse Twitter block or unfollow them. Problem solved. WHO YOU FOLLOW DEFINES YOU.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer again, intent. purpose. ethos. way too many people blindly adding nothing to the equation.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer ok, it works for you. but let other people discover what works for them. don’t encourage behaviors that translate into spam.

Taytwit: @AndrewBadera someone did a script to autofollow everyone they could find – got a 17% add rate

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit and I’ve seen a few accounts that say “this is a fake account, I’m just testing to see how blindly people respond to follows”

Scobleizer: @andrewbadera I don’t see ANY spam in the 20,000 people I follow. I block spammers.

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit unfortunately human nature is such that the practice of mass adding is a lose-lose proposition

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit if people added only because they found someone interesting, great

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit but does someone following 3000+ people, with few followers of their own, really represent an interested and interesting party?

Kabren: @Scobleizer Yes. But wouldn’t it be nice to see those companies actually talking with their followers? Instead of just mass adding…

AndrewBadera: @Kabren craziness!

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer ahhh, but the perspective you’re missing here is “ours” vs. “yours” — how much additional, unwanted crap do we more “average” users have to put up with now, due to the behavior you’re encouraging?

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer not everyone’s a 24-7 always-on everything-geek. why encourage behavior that means others have to sort through more mess?

Scobleizer: @andrewbadera you simply haven’t thought about Twitter enough. If people spam you unfollow them. End of discussion.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer obviously, if I disagree with you, it must be because I haven’t thought about it enough. no room for another perspective.

bloggersblog: @Scobleizer You use autofollow though so don’t you end up unintentionally endorsing companies that might be doing it wrong on Twitter?

Scobleizer: @bloggersblog I block spammers when I see them.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer thank you for proving my point.

Taytwit: @AndrewBadera I find it intriguing that people follow regardless – even a self-identifying script experiment. Are they the problem?

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit no, but people blindly adding people to no greater purpose means 1000s of extra emails, 1000s of extra profiles to check

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit it becomes that much more difficult to connect with people MEANINGFULLY through the clutter

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit it becomes that much easier to overlook someone who really is worth reciprocating the follow

Scobleizer: @andrewbadera seems you want to win some sort of argument. I’ve already proven to everyone that unfollowing removes spam.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer you’re the one who initiated this conversation, not me. Who’s arguing? Who’s trying to “win” something here? Not me.

AndrewBadera: @Scobleizer I have an opinion. I’m defending it. You’re attack it. I’m fine with that, but you arbitrarily decide to cut off the convo.

Taytwit: What I don’t understand is the people locking their updates “because of spam” – I can’t see what they gain. Now only meaningless follows?

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit just like advertising email spam, both the spammer, and the suckers who buy in, are the problem.

Taytwit: @AndrewBadera I don’t know, I only add based on conversation. Would the issue would be fixed if follow notifications went away?

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit not really. you get a notice. you check a profile. that’s the MINIMUM in order to validate someone, to decide whether or not to reciprocate. which means, for all the interesting people worth following, I now get 100x as many notices for people who are spammers, who don’t get twitter but blindly follow Scoble’s advice, etc. etc. etc.

gcn1: @AndrewBadera There are people way smarter than me that could figure it out. But in the meantime, I’ll just block people.

AndrewBadera: @gcn1 the site I linked that started this convo actually maintains a list of suspected spammers too.

gcn1: @AndrewBadera but the prob with spammers is that they are chameleons. They have no shame and are clever enough to work/strain the system.

AndrewBadera: @gcn1 no doubt there. but how effective was, say, bluefrog, before that tier 1 douchebag got bribed, and bombed them off the grid?

Taytwit: @AndrewBadera it’s not, though. Don’t get notice. Follow people who excite you, regardless of who they follow. Wouldn’t that solve it?

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit yes and no. there’s only so much serendipitous discovery. every now and then, the pipe has to flow the other direction.

mdelfs: @AndrewBadera I think the issue (with “Twam,” Twitter Spam) would be solved if they would just tell me all about the person in the eMail!

mdelfs:@AndrewBadera I can’t say that I have found one yet on my side; they are all trying to push a site or sell a product or admit to using a bot

AndrewBadera: @mdelfs see that’s just it — a large majority are. which is why what Scoble encourages makes it harder to find the diamonds in the rough.

Taytwit: @AndrewBadera If following you means you owe them your time, then I can see your frustration. But I’m not sure that’s a sensible paradigm.

AndrewBadera: @Taytwit: I think it’s rude to not at least give someone a glance, if they’ve made the effort to follow you.

Well alrighty then! That was quite a discussion. My quick take on this? The core issue is the New Follower notification and the low signal to noise ratio on these. Robert Scoble – if you’re reading this – do you have your New Follower emails turned off? Just curious.

Updates:

1) A few hours after this conversation Scoble decided that 20,000 followers is enough. He has asked Twitter to turn off his auto-follow script.

2) There are some interesting comments about this discussion on Andrew Badera’s blog