Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

HalfEmptyWallet — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:11:01 -0000

Interesting. Thanks for the tip enough though I found this article too late, I hope its still relevant.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Richter10.2 Media — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:51:21 -0000

I hate those direct messages...

Ali Magnano

www.whywebpr.blogspot.com

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Sheinina West — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:54:50 -0000

I have to agree DM's can be a nuisance especially when they are unexpected. As a member member of numerous networks from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for example and my inbox is over DM'd. Although I have responded to each request for Mom Lounge I have considered the time that could be saved as I would like to say a sincere thank you to fans. Mom Lounge supports Twitter's initiative for a human response to a human request!

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Sheinina West — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:54:00 -0000

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Sheinina West — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:51:37 -0000

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Sheinina West — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:30:08 -0000

I have to agree, auto DM's can be a nuisance especially when they are unexpected, as a member of numerous social networks from, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to Flickr for example, my in box is over DM'd. Although I have responded to each request for Mom Lounge I have considered how much time could be saved by auto DM, as I would like to say a sincere thank you :-) to Mom Lounge fans. Since reading the Social Too article, I support Twitter's new direction of making sure a human responds to a human request.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Dana Franks — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:22:11 -0000

If I get an auto-DM, all it tells me is that they didn't look at my account long enough to say something personal about it. I find it almost as offensive as being followed by an account that follows thousands and doesn't have any Tweets. I follow a lot of folks, but I make sure to actually read them before I follow and then reply to a Tweet.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jessica — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:08:20 -0000

Well,

where is the sense in creating an APP to allow auto-DM's only to bring a feature that blocks it?
Halllooohooo?

Something is wrong in this world...

Cheers,
Jessica

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Simone Icough — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:48:48 -0000

Boy am I glad I found this website, I only just realised I was sending automatic messages, I was horrified when I noticed this the other day, I hate them yet I am sending them!

After finding your post I now know how to change this, however, this started happening 2 days ago because I have had SocialToo for some time and automatic messages were not being sent, has this happened to anyone else?

Great post and thanks so much, I would have been pulling my hair out otherwise!

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

funkyboy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:47:29 -0000

That is a nice feature Jesse. Thanks!

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Joseph McLaughlin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:13:33 -0000

Thanks Jesse, I think that adds a very personal touch to it without pretending I wrote it.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jesse Stay — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:02:04 -0000

LOL - I give up. DM me and I'll tell you how to do it. :-)

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jesse Stay — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:00:48 -0000

Er, let's try that again (remove the spaces): < > and < > are what that's supposed to say.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jesse Stay — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:56:30 -0000

Joseph, thanks! One suggestion - if you choose to send auto-dms, I suggest you add the user's name to make it more personal. You can do so by inserting <> or <> where you want the user's name to go.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Joseph McLaughlin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:50:39 -0000

First off: Great job on SocialToo Jesse, I don't think we'll ever be able to thank you enough!

Next: I use auto-follow and don't mind most of the messages I get, I actually think they're pretty cool. Here's my auto-follow message:
Auto-reply: Thanks for following me! I'm always looking for new people to follow, so please introduce yourself!

This message is particularly useful because it gives me the opportunity to meet more people while letting the person know that I didn't write it personally to them. I think this is a great discussion and I think it's great that Jesse's added the great feature to turn of auto-DM's from SocialToo users.

Thanks and feel free to contact me on twitter: @mclaughj

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Michael T. Seeker — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:57:06 -0000

Yea, and I just hate it when someone I say hi to on the street automatically says hi back. It's just so tacky and disrespectful of my time!

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

funkyboy — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:08:22 -0000

I think it really depends on how you "conceptualize" the service offered.
If you have a high rate of followers per day, there is no way to make a personal greeting message.
Unless you have found a way to stop the time for a while :)
Or maybe you automatic dm can be something like: "don't follow me for a while cause I
am busy saying thanks" :)

The discussion in this thread is about sending/receiving. Of course an anonymous
message is not perceived as a message written exactly for us.

But I think a tool has to meet the needs of everybody, those who have 2.000 new followers per day,
and those who want to receive only customized DMs.

Jesse's tool is rather new, and it is growing (thanks also to our suggestions I guess) so let's give
him time to improve it. In any case I think this issue is now fixed, right?

My 2$

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jesse Stay — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:04:04 -0000

@Andrea, so far - 192 people have opted to not receive auto-dms, 2,650 people have opted to send them. So I believe it's probably a minority - probably people with lots of followers and get overwhelmed with the dms, that turn them off. I still think people should have choice though, which is why I enabled the feature.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

mike fabio — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:22:47 -0000

I use an auto-DM to tell followers other ways of connecting to me. Is that so wrong?

Personally, I have no issues with auto-DM, but I do hate Twitter 'users' that are simply bots or feeds. I see very little point to that, especially when most of these feeds are freely available RSS anyhow.

In any case, the ability to block incoming auto-DMs is a nice SocialToo feature. Keep up the good work, Jesse.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Ben Nesvig — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:33:37 -0000

The automatic DM is the most annoying aspect of Twitter. Make it personal.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

RSS.lt — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:55:08 -0000

I hate it.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Jesse Stay — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:07:09 -0000

Ari, the reason is because my resources are limited and I haven't had the time. Our privacy policy is this. We do all we can to keep your information private, under lock and key, and will not sell your information to third party services. If you read the Twitter development lists I am also one of the stronger advocates of encouraging OAuth and removing the need for plaintext usernames and passwords - I've been pushing this for a year now. I hate having your information on our servers. I'd rather Twitter have control over that.

Oh, and I'm having the same issue - it looks like the textarea tag exceeds beyond the size of the div it's in.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

JanSimpson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:50:35 -0000

Hate is a strong word - but when used on objects such as technology, furniture, cars etc. it is quite acceptable. However, using on a person is unacceptable. It doesn't matter what they do to you or others, I use the saying "I wish you no bad luck, I wish you no good luck, my only hope is that the courtesy you bestowed upon me is bestowed upon you" Not sure who said it - but they were right - then let the universe take care of them - I have too many other important things to do with my life than waste it on someone that makes me feel negative.

Just my humble opinion.

Jan

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Guest — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:43:04 -0000

Hate is a strong word... but yes, they are annoying.

Re: Do You Hate Automatic Direct Messages?

Anne Goodrich — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:39:55 -0000

I send DMs that let people know I know who I'm connecting with. Oftentimes I read their blog, check out their web site or peruse their tweets. It's about relationships, isn't it? Maybe if it's too time consuming, then a Social Media VA would be a good choice - but not auto-replies. That kind of defeats the purpose of it all...