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Twitter MUST Stop the Spam Use of APIs Now
I just woke to find these four stupid messages in my Twitter inbox. All in a tidy row. I’ve received more and more of these over the last several days, and over the last many months, I’ve been bothered by people inviting me to play their spy games, their mafia games, and to answer trivia.
This is less-than-useful. This is the kind of behavior that will encourage me to pull back my participation on the platform. I currently have a policy of following back everyone who chooses to follow me, and then just weeding out the annoying stuff. I do this so that people also have access to send me a direct message, should they need my attention.
I won’t be following that policy any longer, if I am going to receive a raft of spam like this.
The problem isn’t the fault of the users, per se. They often times don’t realize what the 3rd party site they’re using will do once they submit the information. These 3rd party sites then access Twitter via the API (a kind of connection point developers build for other developers), and pow, I’m asked about which city I should live in.
Please, Twitter. Enough.
RECOMMENDATION: reactively block URLs that promote spam behavior like this. Find the obvious culprits and block their access to the Twitter API portals.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Agreed. As a user and developer, I was very upset when I logged in a couple of weeks ago and found a half-dozen spams that “I’d” sent that were active-attack sites for Windows usees. I disabled the two-and-only-two Twitter-connected services I’d been using, and have since been vigilant in checking at least once a day. This *has* cut down on my use of Twitter, and my former enthusiasm in recommending it to others.
That having been said, however, Twitter DOES fill a niche in our Net-communication ecosystem, somewhere between IM software and ‘traditional’ blogs. No matter how much Twitter fanbois (twits) posture, however, I don’t see it ever being a true replacement for either.
Whenever I see these kinds of tweet I click on “report for spam” ASAP…it’s better that the Twitter people check it out before it becomes a full blown SPAM just like the APIs.
I must admit to not getting as much tweet spam as I used to, so I guess they’re getting good of finding these spammers!
Good day, Guru! what is your twitter?I’ll follow u. Ours is storkclubNY
Happy Monday guru, my twitter name is on the top right hand side of the page, under my logo, and a direct link is at http://twitter.com/harounkola
Tweet you later