More Twitter Weirdness
dan tynan on Aug 24 2008 at 6:08 am | Filed under: (anti) social media, Da Web, Web 2.0
So I got the usual "some total stranger is now following you on Twitter" message yesterday. When I clicked the link inside the email I got the following screen, which I’d never seen before:
"Shelly" says she is from Canada and "enjoys showing people how to market online." She’s following 1922 people but only 30 have reciprocated. OK, so she’s a spammer. Case closed. Then I clicked the link under "Suspended Accounts," where Twitter lays it its definition of "spammer." To wit:
…if you are following other accounts in order to gain attention to your account or links therein, you may be considered spam. If you are creating a series of accounts in order to promote the same thing, you may be considered spam. If you are sending large numbers of @reply messages that are not genuine replies, you may be considered spam. If you are creating updates in order to show up in search results, you may be considered spam. If you are disguising links (i.e., writing about one thing but linking to another), you may be considered spam. If a large number of users have blocked you (relative to those following you), you may be considered spam.
Tell me this. Is there anyone out there using Twitter who doesn’t follow other people in order to get followed back? Who doesn’t sometimes reply to other people simply to get noticed? Who isn’t struggling to show up higher in search results across the Web? Are we all Twitter spammers? Or is it just me?
What do you think?
I joined Twitter about 2 minutes ago and now I’m agonizing about whether I’m a closet spammer, because of COURSE I want to be noticed. What does that make Peter Shankman, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed of HARO? Dan, you’d better not read this post in case that makes me a spammer.
too late. you are now a purveyor of canned meat.
and shankman? he falls out of airplanes. it’s unclear whether he uses a parachute. so he’s in a category unto himself.
dt
Well, Shankman does get 9 lives courtesy of being a cat lover. And he is also both amusing and helpful. However, no spam, I promise. Although I do have a great recipe for a pie made with canned corned beef.