I don't understand why we can't simply flag Tweets right next to them on the thread. It would make it so much easier and therefore more likely that people would do it. It would take a lot for my to bother to send something to @spam, but I'd use a 1 click flagging system all day long.
Adam Ostrow
· 7 months ago
Agreed ... should be as easy as possible to report offenders. @Spam doesn't reach nearly enough people as it is to be effective across the whole system.
Chad S
· 7 months ago
Follow @spam. Then direct message @spam with the account name.
Dave
· 2 months ago
I must say, Twitter's Spam account has been very good. I've reported many things, and within minutes, literally, it's removed.
Kudos to them for their efforts.
iTbay
· 7 months ago
twitter is absolutely spam infested - as my followers were climbing, at least 4 out of 10 were blood sucking spammers. I think @mashable must educate its readers on spam protection as noted above - I think the problem is only going to get worse. The worms are scratching the surface like after a rainy day - I think the Twitter Community has to feed them to the fishes like Google does with Gmail's spam reporting function for example. If it walks like a spammer and smells like a spammer, its probably a spammer - this grinds my gears!
@itbay
Miguel
· 7 months ago
Damn spammers and their automated systems!!! I hate them so much :( Twitter users should start something like "cleanup friday" where we just look for spammers and report them.
Christina Gleason
· 7 months ago
I had an even worse experience with Twitter spam the other night. The trending topic was #sigjeans, and it was a Sitewarming Party hosted by @ResourcefulMom. In attendance were dozens, if not hundreds, of moms hoping to win a free cruise from Walmart's 11moms and Levi's Signature Jeans. Our party was invaded by PORN spammers... obviously the same spammer with dozens of Twitter IDs, urging us to chat with their webcam girls who would do "anything" we wanted. One of the moms replied to ask if the girls would do her dishes, but apparently that's not what the spammer meant. Spammers aren't just annoying, but stupid. They couldn't have picked a worse demographic to spam with their message about naked girls.
Adam Ostrow
· 7 months ago
I know! One thing that I'll never figure out about spam is how stupid and untargeted most of it is. It's like they are just trying to be an ass and not even attempting to sell something.
Ina
· 7 months ago
I was just a matter of tine until spam hit Twitter. As it's such a success story nowadays, we can expect an answer from Twitter and probably from other dozen companies :). So far, the only one I know is twittlink.com. It has a special section for "spam", and it does a decent job. Of course, it still needs some tuning.
ALi
· 7 months ago
Reporting trend-jacking does work - I spotted an online poker room (@betfair_bot) hi-jacking #sxstarwars and #sxsw back in March and reported it to @spam - there's a wise old owl on that page now :)
Joseph Manna
· 7 months ago
I agree, this noise is bound to happen -- spammers follow where the people and the buzz are and right now, that's Twitter. It's insanely easy to grow an audience (legitimately or not) and to blindly market themselves into irrelevant streams.
I would love to have the ability to report spam directly, without having to DM @spam on Twitter. I'm sure Twitter could enlist a small team to cruise the site for spam and whack accounts and ban IPs.
Just my thoughts, of course, I won't dictate how others should use the service, but I find it disgusting that spammers are still up to mischief.
~Joseph
atul
· 7 months ago
Twitter should add "Report Spam" button right next to "Reply" and "View Tweet" in the search results.
Chris
· 7 months ago
Totally agree. I was also surprised to find there wasn't a "report abuse" button on a member's homepage. Seems like an obvious first step.
This is why Twitter want a user reputation ranking system. But adding one will forever change the simple, unstructured input scheme that helped grow the user base so quickly. It's a fact of online life that a large user base generates lots of tempting data to mine, exploit and game, which ultimately surfaces credibility issues that require more constraints on users. http://blog.vanno.com/index.php/2009/05/10/meas...
Brian
· 7 months ago
FYI, Apple Shampoo was brought up by Blink 182 guitarist Mark Hoppus, @MarkHoppus this morning. He is still tweeting how happy he is that Apple Shampoo is trending, apparently he has no idea that its spam related.
SelfMadeCelo
· 7 months ago
Apple Shampoo isn't a new song. It was released on the Dude Ranch album in 1997. Just thought I'd throw that out there. And yes, down with spam.
arif
· 7 months ago
Not only that but they will also have to counter people who are unethically playing with the system. The other day I noticed a RT by someone referring to Demi Moore saying Wanda Sykes sucks (or something to that effect). I checked to see that Demi Moore's Twitter account never said such a thing. One can imagine the havoc such type of RTs could wreck or the possibility of it.
Is this where Twitter willing to go for the sake of popularity? People are living in the Utopian world when it comes to internet.
Sophie Guellard
· 7 months ago
I agree with "atul"'s comment (above) that Twitter should do something along the lines of adding a "Report Spam" button next to "Reply" and "View Tweet" in the search results.
Spammers by their very nature are devious types (much like hackers), so regardless of whatever filters Twitter implements to combat the current problem, the spammers will come up with increasingly ingenious ways to submit polluted Tweets. "Genuine" Twitter users, however, simply will not tolerate spam. Twitter should use this fact to its advantage and ally with its core users to control the problem.
Whilst there is no substitute for Twitter getting a handle on the issue itself, by taking advantage of its own "community" spirit, Twitter has the opportunity to detect spam across all topics with the ultimate common goal of making Twitter better for everyone.
Chad
· 7 months ago
You should research before you write an article. Mark Hoppus asked on one of his tweets "Josie or Apple Shampoo?" referring to songs off of Blink 182's 1998 release "Dude Ranch", not new songs, and he asked on sunday night which had nothing to do with musicmonday.
MayankDhingra
· 7 months ago
It had to happen, I too wrote about it a couple of days back. http://mayank.name/2009/05/09/the-great-twitter... . Twitter was quick to clear spam accounts. Next in line would be spam @replies to screw people's happinesses. A spam message containing multiple random @replies
Jason Wagner
· 7 months ago
Good post. I actually wrote a nearly identical post yesterday evening investigating some of the areas on Twitter in which spammers have started to penetrate. I think you'll find some of the points interesting! Check it out if you have time: http://plzkthxbai.com
Feydakin
· 7 months ago
Follow #nascar on any given raceday.. Plenty of spam there and it gets old trying to report it all using DMs..
dacort
· 7 months ago
Stuff like this isn't too challenging, actually. In this case it's a few accounts posting the same spammy domain over and over again. I posted about similar issues twitter was having a year ago. http://dcortesi.com/2008/04/16/addressing-twitt...
When it'll get really annoying is when numerous accounts get registered and they each post to the trending topics with a different URL shortener, or otherwise obfuscated link.
This would also disappear if I could limit trending topics to my own stream. Now that would actually be useful to me.
warbrain
· 7 months ago
Yes, they need to kill it. I've noticed that there are numerous people who are just posting the trending topics and nothing else because they want to use it for nothing but popularity.
andrewacomb
· 7 months ago
That's nothing! Check out this screenshot I took on my iPhone while I was searching the trend SNL last Saturday night.
immaculate infatuation is the next apple shampoo. the kids love the catch phrases... www.immaculateinfatuation.com - That Stang kid is hot.
Bob Lewis
· 7 months ago
Oh No! This is yet another over-reaction to spam by someone who probably should know better and learn how to FILTER their searches.
1. There are NOT loads of spammers in this particular example - there is just ONE - @TrevBusiness
2. Using the right tool for the job (e.g. TweetDeck) would easily enable the complete removal of any and all traces of this berk from one's search.
3. To implement such a filter with TweetDeck takes roughly 10 seconds (or less)
4. REPORT the spammers immediately to Twitter - don't bleat & whine (but otherwise do nothing)
Just out of curiosity I did a search for apple shampoo and out of 100 replies from the timeline just 4 were from @TrevBusiness and just one other spam re: stock that I could see. Even without TweetDeck's excellent filter capabilities this is hardly the level of problem faced by Tweeple searching for Metal Detecting where out of 100 replies from the timeline around 85 were from ONE spammer with another 12 from other spammers (in reality the SAME message though so also easily filtered) leaving just THREE actual user tweets. However even that ludicrous amount of spam is easily removed with appropriate filter usage in TweetDeck.
PLEASE! Rather than carp on about the obvious exploitation by spammers that is bound to occur, can we have some more considered thoughts, training & advice offered about how to completely negate the pratts' pathetic, puerile, promotional practices so easily that they will soon learn not to bother.
Spammers win not by virtue of THEIR acts but by the naivety of OURS; i.e. those who click their links and worse BUY their trash.
No Clicks = No Sales; No Sales = No ROI; No ROI = No spammers. Just DON'T subscribe, DON'T re-tweet and guess what? Very soon no more (commercial) spammers. It won't stop the spoilsport idiots, but fortunately TweetDeck at least should be able to handle them.
I wish filtering email spam were as simple, reliable and easy as it is to remove Twitter spam from my searches.
Magpie is offering 'top Tweeters' payoffs for allowing their ID to be used to push ads. I guess it one way to see how much your reputation is worth...
pyrmontvillage
· 6 months ago
Tell me about it. Some channels are just inundated with automated Spam and when you notify twitter the do nothing. For example the #Sydney channel which is slowly growing is being hammered by automated Pet store Spammer who is also running a baby store. Unlike the spammers in the story above, this type of ebay like automation is easily stopped. Twitter have been notified a few times yet they do nothing.
Yet I have noticed that legitimate Optin sports update services have been shut down. So Tweeter would rather you Spam It then grow/build/facilitate newer business models, within its ecosystem....BIZ Stone You ROck....ROFL
jansegers
· 6 months ago
I believe to have been banned from Twitter (rather suspended) due to a link to this article; like they give very few explanation, I guess this because it was the last tweet I was able to post...
The Twitter censure is in place ? Ok, they're important, I keep telling that to my students, colleagues and friends, but they aren't irreplaceable yet...
jdavies
· 4 months ago
They can institute a "digg-up/digg-down" feature on searches to rate relevance!
All Comments
Kudos to them for their efforts.
@itbay
I would love to have the ability to report spam directly, without having to DM @spam on Twitter. I'm sure Twitter could enlist a small team to cruise the site for spam and whack accounts and ban IPs.
Just my thoughts, of course, I won't dictate how others should use the service, but I find it disgusting that spammers are still up to mischief.
~Joseph
http://pastexpiry.blogspot.com/2009/05/cartoon-...
*CARTOON*
Is this where Twitter willing to go for the sake of popularity? People are living in the Utopian world when it comes to internet.
Spammers by their very nature are devious types (much like hackers), so regardless of whatever filters Twitter implements to combat the current problem, the spammers will come up with increasingly ingenious ways to submit polluted Tweets. "Genuine" Twitter users, however, simply will not tolerate spam. Twitter should use this fact to its advantage and ally with its core users to control the problem.
Whilst there is no substitute for Twitter getting a handle on the issue itself, by taking advantage of its own "community" spirit, Twitter has the opportunity to detect spam across all topics with the ultimate common goal of making Twitter better for everyone.
http://dcortesi.com/2008/04/16/addressing-twitt...
When it'll get really annoying is when numerous accounts get registered and they each post to the trending topics with a different URL shortener, or otherwise obfuscated link.
This would also disappear if I could limit trending topics to my own stream. Now that would actually be useful to me.
http://twitpic.com/4wp9d
1. There are NOT loads of spammers in this particular example - there is just ONE - @TrevBusiness
2. Using the right tool for the job (e.g. TweetDeck) would easily enable the complete removal of any and all traces of this berk from one's search.
3. To implement such a filter with TweetDeck takes roughly 10 seconds (or less)
4. REPORT the spammers immediately to Twitter - don't bleat & whine (but otherwise do nothing)
Just out of curiosity I did a search for apple shampoo and out of 100 replies from the timeline just 4 were from @TrevBusiness and just one other spam re: stock that I could see. Even without TweetDeck's excellent filter capabilities this is hardly the level of problem faced by Tweeple searching for Metal Detecting where out of 100 replies from the timeline around 85 were from ONE spammer with another 12 from other spammers (in reality the SAME message though so also easily filtered) leaving just THREE actual user tweets. However even that ludicrous amount of spam is easily removed with appropriate filter usage in TweetDeck.
PLEASE! Rather than carp on about the obvious exploitation by spammers that is bound to occur, can we have some more considered thoughts, training & advice offered about how to completely negate the pratts' pathetic, puerile, promotional practices so easily that they will soon learn not to bother.
Spammers win not by virtue of THEIR acts but by the naivety of OURS; i.e. those who click their links and worse BUY their trash.
No Clicks = No Sales; No Sales = No ROI; No ROI = No spammers. Just DON'T subscribe, DON'T re-tweet and guess what? Very soon no more (commercial) spammers. It won't stop the spoilsport idiots, but fortunately TweetDeck at least should be able to handle them.
I wish filtering email spam were as simple, reliable and easy as it is to remove Twitter spam from my searches.
Best regards, Bob Lewis.
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boblewis
Yet I have noticed that legitimate Optin sports update services have been shut down. So Tweeter would rather you Spam It then grow/build/facilitate newer business models, within its ecosystem....BIZ Stone You ROck....ROFL
I've had it with Twitter... - http://cli.gs/Asm9UD
The Twitter censure is in place ? Ok, they're important, I keep telling that to my students, colleagues and friends, but they aren't irreplaceable yet...