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apple, ipod, touch (1)The Trouble With Twitter
04/08/09 13:32
Despite myriad problems, glitches and lack of any real structure, Twitter has been championed by celebrities and has risen to the upper echelon of social media sites. However just because you can tweet doesn’t mean you should! Twitter has become the Mos-Isley space port of the internet, you may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!
Security Problems
As I write this one of my Twitter accounts has been Hi-jacked and the activities of the Hijackers has caused the account to be suspended. This has become a common theme in the Twitterverse. I never thought it would happen to me but it seems that the real culprit is the right arm of the very outfit that is now my executioner. I am speaking of the Twitter API. The API is a bit of software that programmers and hackers alike can use to create applications for Twitter. The API actually allows you to create applications that are specifically designed to violate Twitter’s own terms of service. IT also contains several loopholes the size of a jumbo jet through which your account information can be stolen, and your account used to post advertising, phishing links and links to questionable material. In a post 911 world it may not be the best idea to use a service that opens you up to a situation where virtually anyone can speak ostensibly with YOUR VOICE! One might argue that this can’t happen unless you give out your user name and/or password, but it seems like pretty much ALL of the addon API generated services out there require this information and a growing number of these services are turning out to be completely and utterly bogus! Do you really want an account with your name on it to be hijacked and used to spread propaganda or worse sound the rallying cry for those who would seek to undermine the very fabric of American society? On top of all this you can very easily find yourself with a virus on your hard drive. You think your professor/boss will buy that the Trojan ate your homework again?
Could you be more vague?
It’s not as though Twitter makes no attempt to combat these problems, but it would be nice if they didn’t also cause most of them. The rules regarding what you can and cannot do with your account are extremely vague. You won’t know if you’ve crossed the line until it’s too late and your account is suspended. These suspensions are to last a MINIMUM of 30 days according to the Twitter web site. Some sort of warning might be a good idea or perhaps if they re-tooled their setup so it flat out does not allow any of the activities that could possibly warrant a suspension. This sort of problem seems to be the scourge of the web 2.0 world, where the applications seem to create more problems than they solve. Secondlife has the same problem with its search application. Users are gaming the current search system so rather than fix the search, they impose restrictions on everyone regardless of any wrongdoing on the part of the individual user. This creates an insurgency if you will, people who are now using Twitter to bash Twitter and tarnish the experience of its user base. This very article will be tweeted into Twitter by anyone using a service like Twitterfeed or Twit Robot to tweet the titles, descriptions and urls of my blog posts! I also might mention the fact that I am already looking for alternatives to Twitter and there are several out there that seem to have more features and guidelines that are much easier to understand and follow.
Spam, spam spam spam
I have read in several different articles, blog posts etc that 10% of the twitter population are responsible for 90% of the content! This is not social networking it’s broadcasting. And the message seems to be all about what people are eating for dinner or one simple trick that burns fat without working out! Twitter claims to be trying to limit the presence of aggressive online marketeers, and yet they still make up the bulk of Twitters regular users. Most of my new followers are trying to sell me something and they almost never respond to any message I send them, even then most time it’s an automated response. Twitter IS essentially spam for the most part. Except for updates from celebrities most tweets aren’t of interest to anyone anywhere. The more people you follow the more you seem to put yourself on the firing line where countless morons fire non-sequiturs into your personal space.
So in the final analysis you may ask yourself if subjecting your computer and yourself to Twitter is worth the potential downside. There are closed twitter like services like Shout em’ that allow you to have a twitter-like experience with in a network of friends that are there by invitation only. This is much more secure way to go. Also since this type of service is not open to the general public, you can pretty much run it however you like.
Security Problems
As I write this one of my Twitter accounts has been Hi-jacked and the activities of the Hijackers has caused the account to be suspended. This has become a common theme in the Twitterverse. I never thought it would happen to me but it seems that the real culprit is the right arm of the very outfit that is now my executioner. I am speaking of the Twitter API. The API is a bit of software that programmers and hackers alike can use to create applications for Twitter. The API actually allows you to create applications that are specifically designed to violate Twitter’s own terms of service. IT also contains several loopholes the size of a jumbo jet through which your account information can be stolen, and your account used to post advertising, phishing links and links to questionable material. In a post 911 world it may not be the best idea to use a service that opens you up to a situation where virtually anyone can speak ostensibly with YOUR VOICE! One might argue that this can’t happen unless you give out your user name and/or password, but it seems like pretty much ALL of the addon API generated services out there require this information and a growing number of these services are turning out to be completely and utterly bogus! Do you really want an account with your name on it to be hijacked and used to spread propaganda or worse sound the rallying cry for those who would seek to undermine the very fabric of American society? On top of all this you can very easily find yourself with a virus on your hard drive. You think your professor/boss will buy that the Trojan ate your homework again?
Could you be more vague?
It’s not as though Twitter makes no attempt to combat these problems, but it would be nice if they didn’t also cause most of them. The rules regarding what you can and cannot do with your account are extremely vague. You won’t know if you’ve crossed the line until it’s too late and your account is suspended. These suspensions are to last a MINIMUM of 30 days according to the Twitter web site. Some sort of warning might be a good idea or perhaps if they re-tooled their setup so it flat out does not allow any of the activities that could possibly warrant a suspension. This sort of problem seems to be the scourge of the web 2.0 world, where the applications seem to create more problems than they solve. Secondlife has the same problem with its search application. Users are gaming the current search system so rather than fix the search, they impose restrictions on everyone regardless of any wrongdoing on the part of the individual user. This creates an insurgency if you will, people who are now using Twitter to bash Twitter and tarnish the experience of its user base. This very article will be tweeted into Twitter by anyone using a service like Twitterfeed or Twit Robot to tweet the titles, descriptions and urls of my blog posts! I also might mention the fact that I am already looking for alternatives to Twitter and there are several out there that seem to have more features and guidelines that are much easier to understand and follow.
Spam, spam spam spam
I have read in several different articles, blog posts etc that 10% of the twitter population are responsible for 90% of the content! This is not social networking it’s broadcasting. And the message seems to be all about what people are eating for dinner or one simple trick that burns fat without working out! Twitter claims to be trying to limit the presence of aggressive online marketeers, and yet they still make up the bulk of Twitters regular users. Most of my new followers are trying to sell me something and they almost never respond to any message I send them, even then most time it’s an automated response. Twitter IS essentially spam for the most part. Except for updates from celebrities most tweets aren’t of interest to anyone anywhere. The more people you follow the more you seem to put yourself on the firing line where countless morons fire non-sequiturs into your personal space.
So in the final analysis you may ask yourself if subjecting your computer and yourself to Twitter is worth the potential downside. There are closed twitter like services like Shout em’ that allow you to have a twitter-like experience with in a network of friends that are there by invitation only. This is much more secure way to go. Also since this type of service is not open to the general public, you can pretty much run it however you like.
How to Spot a REAL #Celebrity on Twitter
12/07/09 17:13
I’ll be honest, which is a rare thing on the internet. There is no way to 100% know that a celebrity is really actually typing every tweet. However there are some ways to spot an account that is all-together fake.
The easiest way is to look at their twitter page. While a normal user might follow a ton of people in hopes that some will follow back, a celebrity can usually amass quite a following without following anyone. So if you see on their Twitter page that they follow many more people than are following them, it’s probably a fake account. If you follow a celebrity and they try to sell you Britney Spears sex videos,.... also a fake!
Don’t be fooled by people who put “THE” or :THEREAL” in their name. This doesn’t mean it’s not the real McCoy, but it certainly doesn’t mean that it is either! If it looks like there’s a good chance that the account is legitimate follow for a while. The celeb in question may post pics of themselves in different locations and whatnot, or give other clues as to the validity of the account.
A number of celebrities are now getting their accounts verified. Remember that even when a Celebrity announces their Twitter account name on live TV, they may or may not be typing every post. The account may also be controlled by an agent or publicist so don’t ever think that every tweet as coming from John Q Celebrity.
The easiest way is to look at their twitter page. While a normal user might follow a ton of people in hopes that some will follow back, a celebrity can usually amass quite a following without following anyone. So if you see on their Twitter page that they follow many more people than are following them, it’s probably a fake account. If you follow a celebrity and they try to sell you Britney Spears sex videos,.... also a fake!
Don’t be fooled by people who put “THE” or :THEREAL” in their name. This doesn’t mean it’s not the real McCoy, but it certainly doesn’t mean that it is either! If it looks like there’s a good chance that the account is legitimate follow for a while. The celeb in question may post pics of themselves in different locations and whatnot, or give other clues as to the validity of the account.
A number of celebrities are now getting their accounts verified. Remember that even when a Celebrity announces their Twitter account name on live TV, they may or may not be typing every post. The account may also be controlled by an agent or publicist so don’t ever think that every tweet as coming from John Q Celebrity.
How To Get Famous #Followers On Twitter
12/07/09 16:04
Okay this one will be short and sweet. There is a simple trick that you can use to possibly get some real life celebrities to follow your Twitter account. It will really help if you have a blog, are a musician, or create any type of media. This may also work for those of you whose sparkling wit is the talk of the Twitterverse as well.
This is not guaranteed! If I could guarantee success I would be selling this for real money!
It’s a simple idea that many people may have stumbled upon. Search for famous people and follow some of the people that they follow. Which ones? The ones you never heard of, in short you follow the ones that might follow you back. What does that get you? Well if this person follows you back and you say something witty or post a great link to your latest blog post, this person might Re-Tweet your tweet in which case there’s a chance that your famous person may see it, read your tweet, read your blog post, listen to your song and like it enough to follow you for more of the same.
It’s a long shot I know. But if you’re going to follow a bunch of people anyway why not pick these people? If you can get these “Followed by the Famous” people in your following you have one degree of separation from a celebrity. Now I will warn you that many celebrities only follow other celebrities, this makes your task near impossible. You will most likely want to restrict yourself to those celebrities that follow some people that may actually follow you back.
Why do you care if celebrities follow you? Well, if they re-tweet a link to your content if could create a huge influx of interest. You would also be able to send direct messages to them, or possibly engage them in a conversation. Having fans of what you do that are in a position to help your career is always a good idea!
If you are lucky enough to snag yourself a famous follower, don’t abuse this new connection. Don’t send them direct messages 19 times an hour, if you send them a direct message at all. In any and all communications with them talk to them like you would talk to anyone else. It’s okay to be complimentary, just don’t be that stereotypical gushing fan who has nothing better than “Oh my god I can’t believe it’s you” to say!
Good luck networking with the stars!
This is not guaranteed! If I could guarantee success I would be selling this for real money!
It’s a simple idea that many people may have stumbled upon. Search for famous people and follow some of the people that they follow. Which ones? The ones you never heard of, in short you follow the ones that might follow you back. What does that get you? Well if this person follows you back and you say something witty or post a great link to your latest blog post, this person might Re-Tweet your tweet in which case there’s a chance that your famous person may see it, read your tweet, read your blog post, listen to your song and like it enough to follow you for more of the same.
It’s a long shot I know. But if you’re going to follow a bunch of people anyway why not pick these people? If you can get these “Followed by the Famous” people in your following you have one degree of separation from a celebrity. Now I will warn you that many celebrities only follow other celebrities, this makes your task near impossible. You will most likely want to restrict yourself to those celebrities that follow some people that may actually follow you back.
Why do you care if celebrities follow you? Well, if they re-tweet a link to your content if could create a huge influx of interest. You would also be able to send direct messages to them, or possibly engage them in a conversation. Having fans of what you do that are in a position to help your career is always a good idea!
If you are lucky enough to snag yourself a famous follower, don’t abuse this new connection. Don’t send them direct messages 19 times an hour, if you send them a direct message at all. In any and all communications with them talk to them like you would talk to anyone else. It’s okay to be complimentary, just don’t be that stereotypical gushing fan who has nothing better than “Oh my god I can’t believe it’s you” to say!
Good luck networking with the stars!
Making Twitter Better
28/06/09 13:18
I have some ideas for making Twitter better that I’d like to share with you. If you like these ideas please twit about this blog and maybe the Twitter folks will take notice and think about implementing them.
1) If you’re like me you’re becoming frustrated by people you’ve just blocked showing up with tweets. You un-follow them, you block them and you feel like that should be the end of them! They aren’t supposed to be able to follow you anymore but then you use some software to follow everyone that’s following you and WAMMMO there they are again. My solution to this is to use Tweetdeck to intentionally Ignore most people and focus just on people I have deemed tweet-worthy. Now I know what you’re going to say, “why follow a bunch of people that tweet things you don’t like to read”. Well it’s called the scientific process! You do a huge random sampling of a bunch of people and then go through a process of elimination by which you end up with only those you find interesting. Un-follow and Block are the mechanisms that should be making this possible, but they’re not functioning at present. Twitter needs to address this.
2) Tweetdeck has a rather nice feature that allows you to create groups, what would be even nicer would be the ability to converse with members of that group only. This would be a great courtesy to those who are following you but they aren’t part of the current conversation you’re having. These groups would have to be easy to create on the fly and it would also have to be easy to add new people to the conversation. There is a service that does something like this called “Shout em”. So I guess this would be like that but inside the confines of the Twitterverse.
3) I would like to see personal Twitter pages become more customizable. It would be great for people to be able to put more information about themselves, embed media etc. Myspace and Facebook are emulating some of the things that Twitter is doing I think turnabout is fair play here! It might make for more interesting conversations if we all had a little more information about each other. This would also be a great avenue for self expression as well.
All great web services and applications tend to evolve, I really feel that incorporation of these ideas need to be incorporated into the next evolution of Twitter.
1) If you’re like me you’re becoming frustrated by people you’ve just blocked showing up with tweets. You un-follow them, you block them and you feel like that should be the end of them! They aren’t supposed to be able to follow you anymore but then you use some software to follow everyone that’s following you and WAMMMO there they are again. My solution to this is to use Tweetdeck to intentionally Ignore most people and focus just on people I have deemed tweet-worthy. Now I know what you’re going to say, “why follow a bunch of people that tweet things you don’t like to read”. Well it’s called the scientific process! You do a huge random sampling of a bunch of people and then go through a process of elimination by which you end up with only those you find interesting. Un-follow and Block are the mechanisms that should be making this possible, but they’re not functioning at present. Twitter needs to address this.
2) Tweetdeck has a rather nice feature that allows you to create groups, what would be even nicer would be the ability to converse with members of that group only. This would be a great courtesy to those who are following you but they aren’t part of the current conversation you’re having. These groups would have to be easy to create on the fly and it would also have to be easy to add new people to the conversation. There is a service that does something like this called “Shout em”. So I guess this would be like that but inside the confines of the Twitterverse.
3) I would like to see personal Twitter pages become more customizable. It would be great for people to be able to put more information about themselves, embed media etc. Myspace and Facebook are emulating some of the things that Twitter is doing I think turnabout is fair play here! It might make for more interesting conversations if we all had a little more information about each other. This would also be a great avenue for self expression as well.
All great web services and applications tend to evolve, I really feel that incorporation of these ideas need to be incorporated into the next evolution of Twitter.
Follow Tons of People on Twitter Right now for FREE!
16/06/09 11:12
Ok folks, If you’re like me you’re getting sick and tired of all these rabid dog marketers selling solutions to follow or auto follow hundreds of people on Twitter. They claim that these software packages target specific people. Most of them just scan all of Twitterland and follow people who have used a certain keyword in one of their tweets! Let me ask you this if you’re selling chocolate do you want to follow someone who tweets the phrase “I hate chocolate”? I wouldn’t have thought so but that’s what people are doing when they use this software that they have paid good money for!
The thing is that if you want to target and follow certain types of people in the hopes that they’ll follow you back there is an easier more effective way and you don’t need anything more than your browser and the Twitter site itself. I’m going to lay this out for you and you’re going to kick yourself that you didn’t think of this. I am of course assuming you didn’t.
Following
Step one
Find someone on Twitter that has the same/certain interests or sells a similar product as you and has many more followers than you.
Step Two
Click the link to see their list of followers.
Step three
Click each person’s “Follow” button to follow all those people.
Step Four
Rinse and repeat as needed!
Un-Following
After a few days you will want to unfollow all those who don’t follow you. You can do this manually.
Step one
Go to your Twitter page and click the link to view your followers.
Step Two
Unfollow or remove the people you can’t send a direct message to. You see you can only send a direct message to someone you follow who is following you!
There is a free site that automates this process, you can find it at Http://www.Huitter.com However once you go over 500 followers it becomes a paid service.
Why do it this way?
You may be asking yourself why would I do it this way when I can pay some money and get 10,000 followers. The answer is simple many of those followers will be automated accounts that auto-tweet the phrases that the software is looking for. If you cherry pick only those people that someone your respect is following most of them will be real people! Bot don’t buy stuff!
The thing is that if you want to target and follow certain types of people in the hopes that they’ll follow you back there is an easier more effective way and you don’t need anything more than your browser and the Twitter site itself. I’m going to lay this out for you and you’re going to kick yourself that you didn’t think of this. I am of course assuming you didn’t.
Following
Step one
Find someone on Twitter that has the same/certain interests or sells a similar product as you and has many more followers than you.
Step Two
Click the link to see their list of followers.
Step three
Click each person’s “Follow” button to follow all those people.
Step Four
Rinse and repeat as needed!
Un-Following
After a few days you will want to unfollow all those who don’t follow you. You can do this manually.
Step one
Go to your Twitter page and click the link to view your followers.
Step Two
Unfollow or remove the people you can’t send a direct message to. You see you can only send a direct message to someone you follow who is following you!
There is a free site that automates this process, you can find it at Http://www.Huitter.com However once you go over 500 followers it becomes a paid service.
Why do it this way?
You may be asking yourself why would I do it this way when I can pay some money and get 10,000 followers. The answer is simple many of those followers will be automated accounts that auto-tweet the phrases that the software is looking for. If you cherry pick only those people that someone your respect is following most of them will be real people! Bot don’t buy stuff!
Death to Twitiots!
12/06/09 06:29
It’s been a couple weeks now since i got my Twitter account. At first I didn’t know how people could stand all the useless crap you have to wade through to get some useful information. The problem I see it is the lowest form of Tweeter, I am talking about the infamous Twitiot. These are people that tweet a play by play of a sporting event, or post 17 pictures of their cat. These are people that ONLY post to sell stuff on accounts that are completely automated for the sole purpose of following as many people as possible in order to gain more followers. Is there any area of our lives that can remain free of advertising. Is there anyplace left where you can escape some marketing person from getting at you in order to get you to spend money you don’t have?
I have news for those of you who look at Twitter as some sort of gold rush! People are becoming more and more adept at spotting automated accounts that are created for the sole purpose of marketing. Even the ones that get through are instantly unfollowed after the first tweet. The incredibly bad downside is that bands, artists and other creative people who want to create a sense of community around what they do often get lumped in with these rabid marketing dogs.
A quick web search will show you that there are tons of people out there selling all manner of services software and gimmickry to get you to give them money in order to get an assload of followers on Twitter. There’s a service out there called Widgetbox that has a service to get you 1000 targeted followers for $999! What that really means is that they are offering you 1000 suckers! People who are going to buy what you’re selling whatever it is! I really don’t think this is why Twitter was created. Besides when you’re dealing with people who are smart enough to understand what Twitter is, even if they are suckers now, they won’t be for long!
As I type this a web radio DJ has been tweeting the name of every single song she’s playing as she plays it. No commentary, or why she’s playing it. I just responded to one of her posts, I’ll let you know if she responds. Am I missing the point or is all this advertising just the price you pay for anything that’s “free” these days?
If anyone has any idea on how Musicians can create a community around their music while at the same time identifying themselves as an artist with something to share rather than a steely eyed marketing entity please clue me in! I could use the help.
I have news for those of you who look at Twitter as some sort of gold rush! People are becoming more and more adept at spotting automated accounts that are created for the sole purpose of marketing. Even the ones that get through are instantly unfollowed after the first tweet. The incredibly bad downside is that bands, artists and other creative people who want to create a sense of community around what they do often get lumped in with these rabid marketing dogs.
A quick web search will show you that there are tons of people out there selling all manner of services software and gimmickry to get you to give them money in order to get an assload of followers on Twitter. There’s a service out there called Widgetbox that has a service to get you 1000 targeted followers for $999! What that really means is that they are offering you 1000 suckers! People who are going to buy what you’re selling whatever it is! I really don’t think this is why Twitter was created. Besides when you’re dealing with people who are smart enough to understand what Twitter is, even if they are suckers now, they won’t be for long!
As I type this a web radio DJ has been tweeting the name of every single song she’s playing as she plays it. No commentary, or why she’s playing it. I just responded to one of her posts, I’ll let you know if she responds. Am I missing the point or is all this advertising just the price you pay for anything that’s “free” these days?
If anyone has any idea on how Musicians can create a community around their music while at the same time identifying themselves as an artist with something to share rather than a steely eyed marketing entity please clue me in! I could use the help.