Twitter Spam
Been thinking about this possibility a bit lately. Seems to me that there’s a real danger of Twitter becoming a spammers paradise. There are very few safeguards in place (other than a captcha during sign up). People could easily @reply and direct message you until the service got so annoying you had to leave . . . Am sure the guys over at Twitter have given this though, and it doesn’t seem to be an issue at the current size, but as with anything internet, the spammers are never far behind the trends.
Hi, I'm 
Agree. Just as much a threat is the tendency of people in your network to become like spam. To be sure, Twitter is microblogging — a proper venue for more mundane expressions. But I feel there are dialects evolving and maturing that appeal and deliver value to specific readers (or followers). On the other hand, there are people who are simply using Twitter as an ear unload upon. There’s nothing so wrong with that, but to me it sometimes becomes like people spam, and I turn it off. But back to your point of spammers infiltrating the network, I think over time Twitter will need to adopt tighter controls and layers of permissions.
Max, very good points. I completely agree on the danger of people in your network becoming like spam, which has happened with both email (think forwards) and blogs. In the case of the latter (and Twitter), subscribing from those you consider spam is not a problem. My bigger worry, however, is the ability to directly message someone and @reply them. These two features are quickly becoming part of what makes me like Twitter so much. The barrier to conversation with those I don’t know personally has been lowered significantly. However, these two features also allow for easy spamming.
As for the dialects emerging, I agree and also find it fascinating that so many people use the service in so many different ways. I’ve become impressed with how it has infiltrated my life in the last few months and (as a side effect) has given me renewed belief in the desktop app as a hugh opportunity for web companies.
Hiya Noah,
I’ve touched on this a few days ago on my blog, here: http://thayer18.livejournal.com/1455.html
Also, a counter argument is here on Mike Butcher’s blog:
http://mbites.com/2008/01/10/twitter_killed_the_status_star
Hope this is interesting :)
Cheers,
Thayer
noah (and others) – how do you feel about news outlets using twitter to deliver breaking news and updates, with headlines and links to stories? i know there are a few twitterfeeds out there already from newspapers (CNN, NYTimes), not sure how many of them are actually affiliated with the publications though.
it’s not spam… it’s twitter! ;-)
related article on the smart seth’s blog – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/crime.html – :) – great minds think alike…but thankfully that leaves space for me to explore the line between funny and gross.
Hi noah, I don’t think you can receive a direct message from someone you aren’t following.
you also won’t see messages from people you aren’t following.
you have to willingly add someone to follow them. so you have opted-in into their communication stream.
The @reply stuff is already getting annoying for me. There’s this guy who I have asked repeatedly to un-friend and stop tagging delicious links for me who @replies with corrections and crap to my twitter, too.
You people all need to remember that this crap is so much worse for the girls on the internet…