Yes, finally some more attention focused on Twam (Twitter Spam)! I noticed a great place to go voice your complaints about this problem right to the source: http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter. Go create some discussions, give some ideas on how YOU would stop Twam and help us take Twitter back--it's too good a service to fall into the wrong hands and ruin it. I'm sick of wasting my day clicking on the follower eMails only to find out they are from Spambots. Comon Twitter, step up to the plate before this spirals further out of control and turns you into a complete joke of a service that nobody will continue to use anymore.
Wolfy
· 1 year ago
What's the big deal? The good thing about Twitter is that you can unfollow someone and everything will be fine... If you're friends are spamming you, talk to them.
Right?
I agree though that there are some people who are using Twitter in a destructive way. The damage as the tuesday night tech chow said is turning it all into a big joke...
-M
The Tuesday Night Tech SHOW
· 1 year ago
No, no--that's the Tuesday Night Tech SHOW, not CHOW. Though we *should* consider putting out our own line of food.
No, seriously--the big deal is that I get sometimes up to 20-30 new emails a day from Twitter asking me to go follow someone, only to find out right there on the Twitter homepage that they are following 5,000 people and only have 3 people following them. That wasted a good 60 seconds (times) 20-30 times a day.
They could fix this in about 30 seconds if they wanted to.
Dan
· 1 year ago
Is @stopthespam an account for a person? telling me what they're doing? How is this not spam?
Stop Twitter Spam
· 1 year ago
Dan, from your comment it sounds like you think any use of Twitter is spam so this may be falling on deaf ears but here goes...
Yes, @stopthespam is a person and yes, I am using it to make updates related to Twitter Spam and the 'Stop Twitter Spam' web site. That is the whole point. If I thought that Twitter was a waste of time, I wouldn't be there in the first place, would I?
And for the record, Stop Twitter Spam is NOT objecting to: 1) People who tweet too much 2) People who link back to their web site 3) Businesses using Twitter to promote their product or support their customers 4) People following a lot of people
I follow Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble even thought they tweet a lot and link back to their web site and I follow business like @pandora_radio and @twitter_status because I use their services and I want to know what's going with their services. I found them - they didn't find me.
What I am objecting to is obvious spam sites (Web cam girls, Viagra sites, Squidoo lenses loaded with ads, etc.) following thousands of people at a time in an attempt to get someone to click a link on a profile page. These emails get in the way of authentic emails. Many people are turning off the email alerts altogether which sucks.
Martin Ringlein
· 1 year ago
@stopthespam is the problem. Using a "personal" social conversational tool as a loud speaker for their own organizational agenda. Regardless of the intent or subject matter; you are less about the conversation and more about self-promotion (promotion of anything is still promotion). You are using Twitter as a marketing/promotional forum. It isn't "what are you doing" ... it is "what are you complaining about that you want as many people as possible to know about"; which "sucks".
You want the masses to change user behavior and are upset because it "sucks" you have to change your behavior to help combat "your issue". Stop asking the masses to change and reach out to Twitter. They can help; perhaps adding an RSS feed for followers will keep you informed and not having to use email notifications.
Twitter Spam sucks, but the people with the largest voice are often times the largest problem.
Stop Twitter Spam
· 1 year ago
Martin, if you bothered to look at the 'Stop The Spam' web site, you'd see that we are absolutely reaching out to Twitter and trying to come up with solutions. The links on this page - http://www.stoptwitterspam.com/blog/proposed-so... (yeah, I know, I know - I'm linking to my web site) - are all links to Get Satisfaction, which is Twitter's official platform for dealing with issues like spam on Twitter. There are over 85 people in the Twitter community who have CHOSEN to follow me because they care about this issue.
And once again, I'm making no apologies for being self promotional about 'Stop Twitter Spam'. If I piss off a few people like you along the way - so be it.
Dan
· 1 year ago
I don't think all uses of twitter are spam, there's one that isn't, and that is the one the site was built for—communication between humans. 'Spam' is at its basis anything not created by a human, or to take it a step further, anything that's intended to subvert a channel of communication, taking advantage of a pre-existing audience. I'm all for stopping twitter spam, It just seems that a crusade operating for the greater good should hold itself to the highest standard. If people won't notice what you're doing without auto-tweets, maybe the problem isn't bad enough yet. Be patient and it will work itself out; no need to continue to decrease the S:N ratio.
Stop Twitter Spam
· 1 year ago
Dan, I agree that there should always be a human behind a Twitter account, even if it is a company. And I agree with you that taking advantage of a pre-existing audience is spam. I'm only following people who chose to follow me so I don't think you can fault me for that. Yes, I have been a little noisy on Twitter the past couple of days so point taken on that. I really don't think we're that far apart on how we see this issue.
Martin Ringlein
· 1 year ago
"If I piss off a few people like you along the way - so be it."
That is exactly what the Twitter spammer say! Walk like duck, talk like a duck, must be a?
I see all sides, I know you have good intentions, but it is like protesting to stop protesters. Or sending hate mail to stop someone from sending hate mail ... just adding to the problem.
Good luck in stopping Twitter spam -- it will be around longer than telemarketers. And people will keep picking up the phone and buying crap.
Stop Twitter Spam
· 1 year ago
OK, I'll rephrase that. I am expecting to piss off the spammers who are trying to exploit some holes in the Twitter platform and I make no apologies for that. I'm getting a tremendous amount of support from other people on Twitter and we're having some great discussions about this on Get Satisfaction - and that includes staff from Twitter - e.g. @crystal. If you want to paint me as the bad guy that's fine. I have thick skin.
Halo
· 1 year ago
Spam on twitter is big business. There is an auction on ebay where an account with over 1400 contacts as receiving bids of over $1000. This illustrates how much money spammers can make of twitter. The best way to reduce spam is to reduce their profit potential.
All Comments
Right?
I agree though that there are some people who are using Twitter in a destructive way. The damage as the tuesday night tech chow said is turning it all into a big joke...
-M
No, seriously--the big deal is that I get sometimes up to 20-30 new emails a day from Twitter asking me to go follow someone, only to find out right there on the Twitter homepage that they are following 5,000 people and only have 3 people following them. That wasted a good 60 seconds (times) 20-30 times a day.
They could fix this in about 30 seconds if they wanted to.
Yes, @stopthespam is a person and yes, I am using it to make updates related to Twitter Spam and the 'Stop Twitter Spam' web site. That is the whole point. If I thought that Twitter was a waste of time, I wouldn't be there in the first place, would I?
And for the record, Stop Twitter Spam is NOT objecting to:
1) People who tweet too much
2) People who link back to their web site
3) Businesses using Twitter to promote their product or support their customers
4) People following a lot of people
I follow Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble even thought they tweet a lot and link back to their web site and I follow business like @pandora_radio and @twitter_status because I use their services and I want to know what's going with their services. I found them - they didn't find me.
What I am objecting to is obvious spam sites (Web cam girls, Viagra sites, Squidoo lenses loaded with ads, etc.) following thousands of people at a time in an attempt to get someone to click a link on a profile page. These emails get in the way of authentic emails. Many people are turning off the email alerts altogether which sucks.
You want the masses to change user behavior and are upset because it "sucks" you have to change your behavior to help combat "your issue". Stop asking the masses to change and reach out to Twitter. They can help; perhaps adding an RSS feed for followers will keep you informed and not having to use email notifications.
Twitter Spam sucks, but the people with the largest voice are often times the largest problem.
And once again, I'm making no apologies for being self promotional about 'Stop Twitter Spam'. If I piss off a few people like you along the way - so be it.
That is exactly what the Twitter spammer say! Walk like duck, talk like a duck, must be a?
I see all sides, I know you have good intentions, but it is like protesting to stop protesters. Or sending hate mail to stop someone from sending hate mail ... just adding to the problem.
Good luck in stopping Twitter spam -- it will be around longer than telemarketers. And people will keep picking up the phone and buying crap.
Halo http://www.dragonlasers.com