Think of this in a good way. Spammers create jobs. Without them there would be no anti-spam software and the jobs created to make that software... or those delicious gmail recipes so i say I salute you spammers *bunchofnonsequitors* i salute you
Diana
· 10 months ago
thankyou for bringing us such up-to-date info that is helpful, in not only alerting us to new threats, but educates us about using the internet in an ethical way for business and socialisation.
I was almost drawn in by a new company last night but a fellow twitterer send a warning about the spam potential of the program so i pulled out, until I have more information on them.
well done!
Diana
Nicole Simon
· 10 months ago
I disagree slightly. I would love to have a tool to manage several accounts, and yes even create them automatically for a real purpose. It is throwing out the kid with the bathwater - because banning these tools will make sure that the useful purposes get attacked as well. Back to pen and paper anyone?
Instead people should really head over to forums like digitalpoint / warriorforum and such where these tools are given out with instructions how awesome for spamming (excuse me: advertising and huge amounts of traffic) is - only if you tell them that we do infact watch and react on it there might be a chance to not stop them, but make their life more miserable.
It does not stop there. Spamming is an issue in every system and it is no wonder that they pop up so fast, accompanied by gurus who really are successful in this game - but only because they know how to play it.
I am not saying to give up, just react in a way we know it works. :)
pnw fitness
· 10 months ago
Name of the game I guess. Always works itself out.
Nicole Simon
· 10 months ago
If you have a look at the video, you should note that they do have some good features in there. Now take away the "oh my good spammers" view and look at the features from a real power users point of view ...
Karl Long
· 10 months ago
Until Twitter get's a business model they are going to be plagued by spam and the reason is spammers have a business model. The problem of course is this is not a technology problem it is a people problem, as long as spam has a conversion rate and near zero variable costs for distribution they will keep investing in new ways to spam twitter. I wrote a while ago that I thought spam and MLM are a huge risk to twitters business because if twitter has to keep investing enormous resources in combating well funded and motivated spammers they will not evolve their business. Here's the article: http://experiencecurve.com/archives/why-mlm-wil...
Guest
· 10 months ago
Nicole Simon
· 10 months ago
Jason, there is more than just tweeting to using accounts and there are people running more than just one account. I am currently juggeling 5 accounts and yes all of them are valid ones. It would be a real help having professional software available for managing the accounts - tweeting is only a small part of that.
Hell, even a working tool to sync my german account with my main account would be enough. Why do i have to dive into API programming when clearly there are ways to do it differently? Because it is exactly the either or view, the black and white Jason portraits (or shall I say lack of imagination?).
*sigh*
Diana
· 10 months ago
well spam is counterproductive! what is spam, unwanted advertsing. i get it on my comments to be approved page all the time. 90% of it is pointless, build relationships in business first. As for the software granted I have not looked at it, but in this day and age we rely a lot on the recommendations of those people who use the technology the most and make it a point to look into it.
Now what do most people call spam and is the software able to be uzed in more productive ways, more than likely. it is important to dialogue about these issues to come to a balanced view.
However, i am glad that people look out for the less savvy users! With increased popularity of programs like twitter the likelihood of exploitation is much higher.
Jason Moffatt
· 10 months ago
I'm not sure how much good it does to even publish this story to be honest. Just giving these guys more attention is probably having them jump with joy.
And let's face it, tons of spamming marketers read the stuff here, and they are probably off buying the crap right now because of this and other stories condemning the software.
Agreed, the software is another pollutant.
Telling people about it probably ain't the wisest move if you ask me.
Diana
· 10 months ago
point taken!
Guest
· 10 months ago
Nicole Simon
· 10 months ago
@jason no you cant. firefox is just a solution for a small need to have more than one account in the hands of one person who only from time to time needs to switch. Then it is useful, and trust me I know Twitterfox.
To begin with: it is not outsourceable (as it runs in your firefox), it does not allow for efficient updates of either the tweets (yes that would be also scheduled tweets) nor the management of the profile (you are aware that people do use the background image for useful scenarios like http://twitter.com/philharmoniker)?
Just to stay with the automated tweeting - and you may lack the imagination when there is a valid use for such - but none of the shiny web services allows you import for example from a text file or spread sheet. [If anyone has one available, please ping me]
My point being: the only ones currently bringing these kind of featuers are the spammy ones, which I really find sad. Given the popularity of Twitter I have to ask why spammy tools manage to bring useful innovation which normal services lack.
Now where is my automated tool where I can quickly search for a phrase through twitter, go to all of the accounts and block them with not many clicks per entry (search - view profile - click block - click yes do blog, repeat)?
And as Karl wrote in his article, the real problem is that they have a business model behind it.
Guest
· 10 months ago
Will
· 10 months ago
The same story we've seen countless times with other social sites. But Twitter has no revenue, so they really need to watch themselves. Spam can make or break sites before they have a chance to "enter the mainstream."
Joe
· 10 months ago
I love how it says ZDNet discovered this software. I saw this at least a week or more ago. Same old people taking credit for all the news on the web.
I think a lot of us "small people" would be very impressed if you guys gave us a plug now and then. If you only listen to the "a-listers" of the web you're gonna stagnate just like the old media dinosaurs.
:)
Don Draper
· 10 months ago
Has anyone actually read the Twitter TOS?
There's nothing in the TOS that disallows using scripts, third party tools, multiple accounts, or any of the uses of this software. The most the TOS says is "You must not create or submit unwanted email to any Twitter members ("Spam").", which would be a neat trick since you don't get access to other twitter user's email. Perhaps Twitter would have a better chance at fighting spam if they'd define what is and isn't allowed. Frankly, they've been banning accounts that have done nothing wrong according to their TOS.
In the long run, the marketplace of Twitter will do the best job of fighting spam. Just don't follow the spammers and don't click their links.
Andy
· 10 months ago
I saw these guys last week. I'm not worried about it as twitter should be tackling this fairly quickly. This just confirms twitter is now in fact main-steam.
xen
· 10 months ago
@Nicole: In the end Twitter is a social networking site. That you have 5 accounts is your choice.
The main reason, as I see it, Twitter is a place to have fun and make friends. If people use it as a business thing, it is yet another fun service that is being polluted by people who want to make money on everything and take the fun out of everything.
And why do you need to outsource on Twitter? Seriously, are you for real?
I find it sad that you support a tool like this. I'm extremely annoyed by all the spam on Twitter at the moment. I know users who go from public to private to avoid spam.
They have a API. If you can't be bothered using it, don't complain. ;-)
Mihai Secasiu
· 10 months ago
How is twitter opt in ? Can't they just send you @replies to you without even following you ?
Yes they can. True they have the api limit but even so once they reach the limit they can just jump to the next user/ip.
I think spam @ twitter is still in it's beginning. Expect more once more people get in and see some of the big spamers use their bot nets for twitter instead of email.
mel
· 10 months ago
@mihai yes someone can send you @ message but if you don't follow his/her account, you won't see them. isn't that how it is? unless i'm missing something.
spam is a pain ... but within twitter, i don't see it as much of a problem as you only see someone's tweets from whom you follow --- unless there is an automatic follow option (don't think there is), you are forced to always checkout the person's account before following him.
so the spammer can spam as much as he wants but no one will see it. i follow techcrunch on twitter but MA doesn't follow me, so if I @techcrunch, the twit will just be in twitter space and on my twitter profile. for the spammer, with no one following him/ her, they will probably give up.
even if someone mistakenly followed a spammer, it is easy enough to un-follow him.
the area which could be a little more problematic is when someone searches twits. however, i'm sure someone could easily come up with a twitter search with a filter than excludes twits from certain terms/ words that are spam like (maybe tie it to a Bayesian filter?) or the current twitter search tools out there could just add that function.
i think this automatic following of mass people has been clamped down by twitter. i've have in the past month or so seen a number of people following me and when i click on their profile link (within the new follower email) to see who they are, that account doesn't exist. they must be a certain number of people you can follow at one time or you will be deemed a spammer.
to me, it would be easier to clamp down on spam in twitter as it is a more controlled environment. the spam problem is always going to be there so we can't eradicate it a 100%, just got to live with that.
Mihai Secasiu
· 10 months ago
@mel no it's not like that, just a few days ago I received a message from a guy working with Adobe Air on Linux ( @smmehadi ) , he tried to help with an Air issue but I did not follow him and he didn't follow me but I was able to read his replies and he was able to see my replies.
I also reply all the time to people I follow but they don't follow me back and can see my message and even reply to it.
The only reason you're still not getting spam like this is because twitter is still very very very small compared to email.
Nicole Simon
· 10 months ago
@Xen, for startes, I have a german and an english account as Twitter does not care to allow for easy separation of languages. A third is the account where I interact with my book readers (a twitter book btw), the fourth and fifth are for the topic of my global business women forum and the girl geek dinners I run. All of the messages are done by me, and I currently use different browsers for managing the accounts.
You say it is about social networking and yes, indeed it is. I do check every single profile who follows me. Still results from twitter can either be processed by hand or for example with somebody else helping out. Like asking for events in Europe and then collecting the data out of the stream of answers, prepping an overview and posting this. Which again brings value back to the stream.
I am also not encouraging that kind of tool, I am the quickest one to block these people and report them.
Helen
· 10 months ago
http://twitter.com/suspended came across this after reading your post this morning...it looks like one way twitter is fighting back. i know i've noticed a large increase in "make money fast" followers.
thanks for sharing the info - i think if the twitter community pushes back, we can keep unwated spammers out both with twitter features and from individual members not tolerating it
Tweet Tornado
· 10 months ago
TweetTornado only adds followers, People have to click on the page and choose to follow someone so there is no spam involved, only optin marketing. The only people who receive anything are the people who follow and give permission. Everyone needs to realize this is not like a typical spam tool. This is permission based optin marketing! And if twitter would quit shutting the accounts down for no good reason then the software wouldn't have to create unlimited accounts anymore. I don't see how this software is bad for twitter, anyone can do the same thing without software the difference is this software saves you alot of time following people.
So to all you people who think I am wrong, ask yourself this question...
If a person must willingly choose to follow me and it is also their choice to click on my link to see whatever I am offering to "help" them, Then how could this be considered spam?
P.S. thanks to the blog owner for advertising my service, I'm getting lots of new customers now.
Mihai Secasiu
· 10 months ago
You're right, it's not like typical spam but it's still spam. If it creates 50 accounts / day and all of them follow me I get 50 email messages and I click through 50 useless profiles. How is that not spam? why do we not like spam? Because it's unsolicited distraction. And that's exactly what tweet tornado does. Almost half of the "followers" I get are from such accounts or fake accounts that already got suspended.
You could just as well say that spam email is not spam unless I click the links and go buy something but that's not the case.
H.K.
· 10 months ago
You know you have made it when there are people selling anti spam software just for your community. It's awful on twitter because spamming abuses the core motive of twitter itself. I've found a lot of good anti-spam information on this digital security site FYI.
Fred
· 9 months ago
Don't people have anything better to do with their lives than live in these Twitter/Facebook sites and exchange banal trivialities with each other?
Roanne
· 7 months ago
I actually had like extra 5-6 followers in a matter of minutes--all having TOTALLY THE SAME 1st update.
All Comments
I was almost drawn in by a new company last night but a fellow twitterer send a warning about the spam potential of the program so i pulled out, until I have more information on them.
well done!
Diana
Instead people should really head over to forums like digitalpoint / warriorforum and such where these tools are given out with instructions how awesome for spamming (excuse me: advertising and huge amounts of traffic) is - only if you tell them that we do infact watch and react on it there might be a chance to not stop them, but make their life more miserable.
It does not stop there. Spamming is an issue in every system and it is no wonder that they pop up so fast, accompanied by gurus who really are successful in this game - but only because they know how to play it.
I am not saying to give up, just react in a way we know it works. :)
http://experiencecurve.com/archives/why-mlm-wil...
Hell, even a working tool to sync my german account with my main account would be enough. Why do i have to dive into API programming when clearly there are ways to do it differently? Because it is exactly the either or view, the black and white Jason portraits (or shall I say lack of imagination?).
*sigh*
Now what do most people call spam and is the software able to be uzed in more productive ways, more than likely.
it is important to dialogue about these issues to come to a balanced view.
However, i am glad that people look out for the less savvy users! With increased popularity of programs like twitter the likelihood of exploitation is much higher.
And let's face it, tons of spamming marketers read the stuff here, and they are probably off buying the crap right now because of this and other stories condemning the software.
Agreed, the software is another pollutant.
Telling people about it probably ain't the wisest move if you ask me.
To begin with: it is not outsourceable (as it runs in your firefox), it does not allow for efficient updates of either the tweets (yes that would be also scheduled tweets) nor the management of the profile (you are aware that people do use the background image for useful scenarios like http://twitter.com/philharmoniker)?
Just to stay with the automated tweeting - and you may lack the imagination when there is a valid use for such - but none of the shiny web services allows you import for example from a text file or spread sheet. [If anyone has one available, please ping me]
My point being: the only ones currently bringing these kind of featuers are the spammy ones, which I really find sad. Given the popularity of Twitter I have to ask why spammy tools manage to bring useful innovation which normal services lack.
Now where is my automated tool where I can quickly search for a phrase through twitter, go to all of the accounts and block them with not many clicks per entry (search - view profile - click block - click yes do blog, repeat)?
And as Karl wrote in his article, the real problem is that they have a business model behind it.
I think a lot of us "small people" would be very impressed if you guys gave us a plug now and then. If you only listen to the "a-listers" of the web you're gonna stagnate just like the old media dinosaurs.
:)
There's nothing in the TOS that disallows using scripts, third party tools, multiple accounts, or any of the uses of this software. The most the TOS says is "You must not create or submit unwanted email to any Twitter members ("Spam").", which would be a neat trick since you don't get access to other twitter user's email. Perhaps Twitter would have a better chance at fighting spam if they'd define what is and isn't allowed. Frankly, they've been banning accounts that have done nothing wrong according to their TOS.
In the long run, the marketplace of Twitter will do the best job of fighting spam. Just don't follow the spammers and don't click their links.
The main reason, as I see it, Twitter is a place to have fun and make friends. If people use it as a business thing, it is yet another fun service that is being polluted by people who want to make money on everything and take the fun out of everything.
And why do you need to outsource on Twitter? Seriously, are you for real?
I find it sad that you support a tool like this. I'm extremely annoyed by all the spam on Twitter at the moment. I know users who go from public to private to avoid spam.
They have a API. If you can't be bothered using it, don't complain. ;-)
Can't they just send you @replies to you without even following you ?
Yes they can. True they have the api limit but even so once they reach the limit they can just jump to the next user/ip.
I think spam @ twitter is still in it's beginning. Expect more once more people get in and see some of the big spamers use their bot nets for twitter instead of email.
yes someone can send you @ message but if you don't follow his/her account, you won't see them. isn't that how it is? unless i'm missing something.
spam is a pain ... but within twitter, i don't see it as much of a problem as you only see someone's tweets from whom you follow --- unless there is an automatic follow option (don't think there is), you are forced to always checkout the person's account before following him.
so the spammer can spam as much as he wants but no one will see it. i follow techcrunch on twitter but MA doesn't follow me, so if I @techcrunch, the twit will just be in twitter space and on my twitter profile. for the spammer, with no one following him/ her, they will probably give up.
even if someone mistakenly followed a spammer, it is easy enough to un-follow him.
the area which could be a little more problematic is when someone searches twits. however, i'm sure someone could easily come up with a twitter search with a filter than excludes twits from certain terms/ words that are spam like (maybe tie it to a Bayesian filter?) or the current twitter search tools out there could just add that function.
i think this automatic following of mass people has been clamped down by twitter. i've have in the past month or so seen a number of people following me and when i click on their profile link (within the new follower email) to see who they are, that account doesn't exist. they must be a certain number of people you can follow at one time or you will be deemed a spammer.
to me, it would be easier to clamp down on spam in twitter as it is a more controlled environment. the spam problem is always going to be there so we can't eradicate it a 100%, just got to live with that.
I also reply all the time to people I follow but they don't follow me back and can see my message and even reply to it.
The only reason you're still not getting spam like this is because twitter is still very very very small compared to email.
You say it is about social networking and yes, indeed it is. I do check every single profile who follows me. Still results from twitter can either be processed by hand or for example with somebody else helping out. Like asking for events in Europe and then collecting the data out of the stream of answers, prepping an overview and posting this. Which again brings value back to the stream.
I am also not encouraging that kind of tool, I am the quickest one to block these people and report them.
thanks for sharing the info - i think if the twitter community pushes back, we can keep unwated spammers out both with twitter features and from individual members not tolerating it
So to all you people who think I am wrong, ask yourself this question...
If a person must willingly choose to follow me and it is also their choice to click on my link to see whatever I am offering to "help" them, Then how could this be considered spam?
P.S. thanks to the blog owner for advertising my service, I'm getting lots of new customers now.
If it creates 50 accounts / day and all of them follow me I get 50 email messages and I click through 50 useless profiles.
How is that not spam? why do we not like spam?
Because it's unsolicited distraction. And that's exactly what tweet tornado does.
Almost half of the "followers" I get are from such accounts or fake accounts that already got suspended.
You could just as well say that spam email is not spam unless I click the links and go buy something but that's not the case.
Twitter/Facebook sites and exchange banal trivialities with each other?