I rely on Twitter for a lot of things: stay in contact with people all over the world, get myself updated on issues that interest me, do some research, exchange points of view with others, share content I find interesting with my timeline. If it is true that every single user can make of Twitter what they want, and use it as they want, I think it would be safe to say that the vast majority of users are on Twitter with the same or similar purpose.

I grew used to this idea that Twitter was the “pulse of the planet,” like Twitter’s founders one day want it to be. The visual idea of the planet pulsing with tweets is an image that I use often to explain what Twitter is to people that don’t use twitter.

Unfortunately, in the course of the last several weeks, the “pulse of the planet” has become weaker—so weak that it is perhaps no longer reliable.

The World Cup 2010

Twitter has been through some reality tests in its short life: Michael Jackson’s death, Haiti and the events in Iran/ Venezuela/Gaza, come immediately to mind. In spite of the fact that these events had a global impact, this impact was not a lasting one and it got diluted on Twitter’s daily information flow after a few days.

And then the World Cup happened: either you like it or not (or don’t even understand the game itself and its strange rules) football (or soccer for my American readers) is a global sport: It attracts millions of fans around the world, like no other sport does, and it generates passion like no other.

Unlike past events, Twitter (the company) got involved in a way that they had not previously done from a corporate standpoint, and created a special search page for the World Cup event. They also created and implemented special #hashtags that turned into flags for this event. Suddenly, regular Twitter uses started to feel the effects of how a global event like the World Cup can negatively impact our ability to communicate through this medium. Twitter Status mails started to be a common presence in our mailboxes, the Fail Whale once again became a seemingly omnipresent part of our daily lives. When Twitter wasn’t in full on Fail Whale mode, the service was interminably slow and blog posts about what to do when Twitter is down started to be more and more prevalent.

Last Saturday I sent out a tweet stating that if USA and Brasil were eliminated from the World Cup we would probably see Twitter working as it should once again. If you think I am exaggerating take a close look at this graph based on today’s game Brasil vs Chile.

As you can see, on the moment that Brazil scored its first goal, the number of tweets per minute using #bra were 40x more than they were 30 minutes before the game started.*  This means that Twitter’s servers were getting 40 times more traffic then they usually did and that meant the “High Rate of Errors” a.k.a. Fail Whales that users started to experience.

Please note that these numbers are already reflecting the fact that Twitter was forced to cut down its API Limit by 50% (down to 175 API calls/hour) in order to deal with this anticipated problem and even so, they couldn’t handle the massive influx of traffic and tweets.

Please keep those Red Phones connected!

There’s no doubt about it – Twitter IS an amazing tool, and its potential as a truly global communication tool is undeniable. Unfortunately, the World Cup and problems created as a result of this event evidences that there is still much room for improvement in the infrastructure of Twitter in order for it to live up to its fullest potential.

In the meantime, please keep those red phones connected, Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev. This is a timely reminder that relying on any one medium of communication is dangerous. And, as long as the Fail Whale is a regular when it comes to the medium of Twitter, it just makes sense to have a backup communication plan. None of us that live on this planet want a Fail Whale to get in the middle of an important and potentially final message.

UPDATE [Tue, 29 June 2010] Twitter has temporarily lowered API-rate limit from 175 to 75 but has just now restored it to 175.

* Results obtained via Twitter Search main page

Picture Credits: Ann Douglas via Flickr (Under a CC License)

Editing: Shelly Kramer

Of course that every crisis is specific and some of these guidelines might not apply at all. Please bare that in mind while reading this post.

1. Observe before you get involved

If you are really trying to help the first thing you should do is to watch what is happening on your timeline: Try to identify the sources of information and start following them; look for what hashtag(s) are being used and keep track of them; Identify keywords that are being used and setup a Twitter search: the best online tool, in my opinion, is TweetGrid. This website allows you to setup a search grid with multiple keywords  that you can monitor in real time. It also allows you to Tweet and RT right from the website. Unlike TweetDeck it doesn’t spend API calls something that is very important.

2. Try to add value

When I started to try and help on #tempmad (the hashtag that was used to gather information that was coming from Madeira) 90% of the information that was being tweeted was in Portuguese. Instead of just making RTs of that info I started to translate them into English and sending them out. I also asked some of my followers to RT that info. My thoughts were with the Portuguese community (1st, 2nd and 3rd generations) living abroad, specially in the U.S.A., where there is a big Portuguese community as well as South Africa and Venezuela, that were looking for information on Twitter. My (wonderful) Twitter network started to RT the content that I was translating and spreading the word.

3. Target influencers and send them information

One of the beauties of Twitter is that everyone is available to you. TV journalists, editors, producers, radio hosts they are all on twitter just like the rest of us. Target them and send them info that you want to see spread to a wider audience. Be factual, be polite and be persistent. By doing a quick search on Twitter I got to find whose CNN, Sky News and several radio hosts in Venezuela were online and started to send them information regarding the events in Madeira. After some tweets I got feedback and a request to send them more info via e-mail. Incredibly CNN, Sky News and radio stations in Venezuela were giving the news about the events in Madeira before Portuguese media. Something to think about.

4. Do not try to reinvent the wheel. Join efforts instead

Dário Ornelas is a computer science student from Madeira, currently living in Lisbon. Alexandre Gamela is a Portuguese journalist living in Birmingham,UK. Dário had set up a netvibes website where he was gathering all the info that was coming from people in Madeira, via Twitter, and other data that he was gathering from the Internet. Alexandre had setup a Google Map where he has adding pictures and videos that were showing up on Twitter (and that was being used by online newspapers and television stations later on). All the information on Dário’s netvibes site was in Portuguese. It took one Tweet, two DMs and a 5 lines of G-Talk chat for Dário to grant me access to the website where I started to translate the available information to English, based on the information that was already on the site. Alexandre also put his map on this site and suddenly an ad-hoc team of 3 people was being used as an independent hub for information coming from several sources.

5. Be responsible and don’t give up

From the moment that people are relying on the information you are sending out your responsibility grows. Double and triple check the information you are giving or posting on a website. In case of doubt ask different sources in order to get the facts right. No matter in what part of the world you are, official channels will try sooner or later to put a cap on the information flow and try to discredit  any other information. Don’t give in to any propaganda and keep doing what you were doing from the beginning: trying and help people.

In the case of  #tempmad, one of the decisions that was taken, by the three of us, was to setup an e-mail address so that friends and family members of people in Madeira, that were abroad, could contact us in case they couldn’t get any news. We would then forward that information to Linda Machado (someone that was from the first moment one of the most reliable source of information coming out from Madeira), that was tireless in trying to get back at us with good news. Be aware that to get into such an endeavor can be hard and very stressful. Only do it if you think you have what it takes to, if necessary, pick up a phone and tell someone across the world that one of their relatives/friends are missing. Once more, the use of TweetGrid, with the right keywords, was invaluable to reach out to people and letting them know we could help in trying and locate their relatives or friends. We got calls for help from many countries including Slovenia and we were able to locate almost everyone.

6. Be bold

If you think that something makes sense and that will help people, try and make it happen. When the first donation accounts started to show up on several websites they were missing an IBAN or SWIFT code. Knowing that the Portuguese community was willing to help I got on the phone with 3 major banks in Portugal (that were managing the solidarity accounts) and asked to speak with their Communications Director. Two of those banks that were contacted, immediately changed the information that was on their website in order to have the IBAN and SWIFT codes available.

By using Twitter, TweetGrid, a netvibes website and MSN/G-Talk, a team of three people that had never met, based on the information that was being made available on Twitter, were able to produce an information central that was fundamental in the first 24h after the events in Madeira. None of this would’ve been possible without the people tweeting from Madeira and without the power of the twitter community (local and international) that showed that we all can put our differences apart to try and help those that need it the most at a certain point. I hope that this post helped shed some light on the backstage of what happened in this specific event and that it can be useful if there is need for it. Any questions, tips or comments are, as usual more than welcome.

Photo Credits: Paulo Henriques | Originally posted at Bit Rebels

More and more people are joining Twitter. This is a good thing, no doubt, but more and more I’m seeing mistakes being made on my timeline that sometimes get me upset. Some other times, when they occur more than once, those mistakes put an end to my relationship with that user: I stop following them and sometimes I even block them.

I have compiled a list of, what I consider, the most common and annoying mistakes made on Twitter. For that I’ve created a new Twitter account, since I didn’t want to point the finger to anyone

1. Putting words on my own tweet.

This one is more usual than you might think. In the same way that no one likes to have people putting words in their mouth, no one really likes to have their tweet adulterated. When you do that, like in the example above, it looks like just a normal RT, it looks like @fjfonseca said all that, and that was not the case.

Either make your comment BEFORE the RT or use a symbol like “|” or “/” at the end to make your own comment.

2. No matter what you have listened to, Twitter is not about speed typing!

I repeat: No matter what you have listened to, twitter really isn’t about speed typing. Check your tweet before you send it out. Double check it if you have to. There is no reason to miss a RT. For every RT you do improperly it is one more step down to your way to being blocked. Think about it, is it worth it?

3. Don’t throw my tweet back at me. I mean it!

Even if you don’t believe it, I know what I tweet and I don’t need anyone to send to my mentions column my own tweet, because I have just tweeted it. This is is like someone asking for directions to another person and, after receiving them, saying: “Ok, now I will tell you how to get there!”.

4. See that reply button? Use it!

I lots of replies to my tweets and usually I just click on the “in reply to” link and, with a glance I can know, what that tweet refers to. On the other hand, if you don’t click the reply button and send me a tweet saying whatever you think about something I just tweeted about, and you expect me to be reading your mind, I’m sorry to inform you that I still don’t have that software upgrade on my brain. Probably you will be ignored. And if you keep insisting on that, even if I ask you (politely) to use the reply button, you surely are going to be blocked. #justsayin (copyright Shelly Kramer)

5. Don’t Steal Tweets!

To steal a tweet is a twitter crime! Really! And if you really think you can get away with it well, think again. Many people track their tweets based on the urls they send out. So if you steal a tweet they will know. They will probably not say anything to you and suddenly, you don’t have them on your timeline anymore. As the song goes “That’s Life“.

Before you start flaming me: All of these situations have happened to me personally. Furthermore, in some cases, I tried to reason with those who made the same mistake over and over again only to be called a “Twiter Nazi”. I don’t consider myself one, and in reality was only trying to help. I hope that this post does exactly that. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Picture Credits: Ben McLeod under a CC License

This post is divided in two parts: The first one has to do with Twitter and how the circle of trust works for me. The other part is aimed at describing and calling attention to how some unscrupulous companies or individuals try and take advantage of young musicians.

The Twitter circle of Trust

Today in the morning I saw a tweet by my dear friend Shelly Kramer  that was a RT of a RT:

I was tempted to RT the Tweet immediately but the fact is that I don’t know who @yahaloma is, so I decided to click on the link and read it for myself before I did my RT. What I found on that post is the reason I am writing this one. If that tweet was “@ShellyKramer RT @SEOcopy RT @adamsconsulting text link ” I would not hesitate and I would have RT it immediatelly. All of them are what I call trusted sources (Shelly and Diana I’m honored to call my friends).  I’m not blaming anyone here, mind you. I’m just trying to explain how this twitter circle of trust works for me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is important to check the link if you don’t know who the original person is. That way you are helping to keep the level of overall tweet quality on Twitter high and clean. Also beware of people you don’t know asking you to RT something: Always check the link before you do. On the other hand I’m glad Shelly did RT that tweet because she gave me something to rant about! So thank you Shelly and here we go:

A Scam disguised of Opportunity

With every line I read of this post I got more angry. I got angry to the point of shouting out loud “What the FUCK?!?!?!” (Told you I was going to use strong language). I’ve seen lots and lots of these messages spreading across message boards and also via email and let me tell you: Be careful.

I will skip the motivational blah blah that is the first part of that post. It’s innocuous and it can be applied to everything from fridges to frogs. Let’s deconstruct what really matters:

Universal Music Group is taking submissions for their upcoming compilation cd, deadline is February 28th for the selection process.

Notice the lack of a link to the Universal Music Group? To that page at the Universal Music Group website where they announce they are taking submissions? I do! And so should you. And why is there no link? Because there is no competition, or any call for entries I suspect. Universal Music must get hundreds if not thousands of submissions every single day and to scout for new talent they have a department called “A&R” (Artists and Repertoire and not Artists and Repitore as it is written on their website)

The master, finished product, must be submitted no later than June 2010 for all selected artists, which will be for the summer and Holiday releases.

As anyone in the music industry can tell you, music works pretty much in the same way as Fashion does: Any “finished” product submitted by June 2010 would probably be able to make it to the shops by June 2011. But not only that: Universal, like all majors, likes to keep a tight control on what their bands sound like: All the mastering is done by their trusted studio engineers and adds to the bill that artists have to usually pay. The way it works is that a band gets signed by a major, its taken to a studio, records their material with trusted producers and engineers and then it’s sent on a tour if it sells enough records. If not the band is ditched. End of story.

They request no fewer than 3 songs, from each artist, be submitted for the selection process in which one or two songs will be chosen. One song selected is $250 and if two songs are selected $400. If two songs are selected, they will choose which song is to be on which release.

Ok let me get this straight: You have to submit more than 3 songs, you have to master them (this costs real money) and on top of that you will have to pay $250 if one song is chosen and $400 if two songs are chosen. Anyone wants to bet with me that the lucky winners are going to have two songs selected? Am I the only one smelling something strange around here?

Artist WILL RECOUP this expense: they will receive their royalties from sales and music will be submitted to SoundScan and various publishing companies, which will be paid through your publishing company. They will build a tour from artists with highest number of downloads, and a video shoot of artist in concert, developed into a video for airplay, which the artist is to receive royalties from as well.

This part is what I call the funny, hilarious part of the post. Really! Hilarious! I could laugh till the walls around me would turn into rumble. But I’m not laughing. Actually I am pretty pissed off! Why? I will tell you why!

Do you have any idea how many records an artist has to sell or stream on services like Spotify to get $250 of royalties? I will give you a number to make you think: Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” streamed more than one million times on Spotify and got payed €133 (Around $191) [read the whole story here] Just do the math please. And what publishing company? You mean the same publishing company that is now calling for tracks to be submitted? Universal Music group? Who? Or do the artists have to setup a publishing company to get the royalties? And just one more thing: Nothing is submitted to SoundScan, as far as I know it. SoundScan is a Nielsen service that companies, like Universal, can buy.

I am not going to post here the e-mail that is given for sending submissions but I would alert you that a company that has a gmail account as their contact should not be trusted. If you check the website you will see how active it is and how full their tour dates are. Furthermore, and interestingly, there is no mention of this call for submissions anywhere to be found.

To give an opportunity to comment on these issues I will send a tweet to @yahaloma asking her to read this post. I do hope that she takes the time to read it since I’m still thinking that she is an innocent victim in all of this.

* Pictures  from Mikey da Photographer and Photos8 via Flickr and edited by me under a Creative Commons License 3.0 by-nc-sa

Recently I was given the advice to write, to go ahead and write away like there was no tomorrow. The truth is that that tomorrow turned into the next today and the next tomorrow turned into the next today like a mathematical sequence that never fails you.

Tomorrow is today is tomorrow is today.  2010 is today is tomorrow.

Every time that the calendar tells us that a new year is ending and a new year is beginning, as sure as the sun always shines even if we don’t see it, there is this feeling in the air that next year is going to be THE year, the year that everything will change… and usually it doesn’t.  I’m one of those pragmatic people that think we need to work our future on a daily basis, without committing to long term plans that usually get in our way.

But this year I’m going to give it a try. Yes, I’m going to try and be one of those people that will make some resolutions, make a check list, a detailed plan and personal implementation’s costs and make it stick:

Let’s start!

I will stop using WordPress that allows me to publish this post to the world while being somewhere else, totally disconnected from the wired world. This sounds like one of those resolutions that make sense. New Year’s resolutions are all about being disruptive and this is one is disruptive enough. I will start using some unknown system, that will make me look really cool among a niche group of 4 people,  and will spend most of the time programming how to upload a post instead of focusing on writing any content at all. But I will not stop here, oh no, this feels great all of this disruptive stuff. I will start using those great tools that allow me to get 424242 followers every second and will start concentrating on getting the largest amount of followers, mentions on lists and whatever they come up with next (I will even pay for followers, oh yes I will). By December 2010 I will have 8 million followers, will talk to none of them and this je ne sais quoi will make me look oh-so-cool that some Hollywood producer will want to make a 3D movie just about me, a blue planet and some precious metal.  If this doesn’t work I will tell my doctor to kill me so I can become a trending topic on Twitter for 6 days in a row. Woot! Woot!

Oh man, I’m getting on cruise speed now, this will be a great year and I’m just getting started. What’s next? I will stop making music: Enough of that experimental stuff that no one listens to. I will cut down all of those creative urges that make me  spend 12h straight trying to find that specific sound texture, that curve that makes a kick drum sound like its coming from the stomach of an ogre. Geez this is liberating!!! No more music! Yeah! More, more, more, I need more. This New Year’s resolution stuff is like a drug, I can’t get enough of it. (Might be a good idea to stop doing drugs as well but maybe that can wait till 2012).  I will insist that everyone calls me a guru, an expert or, better still, a gurexpert™. I will trademark and copyright everything I’ll produce. I will stop supporting creative commons music… better still: I will stop supporting any form of free culture. I will stop denouncing those that plagiarize content, will only review movies that I’ve never seen, books that I’ve never read, applications that I’ve never used. I will stop having strong opinions about fracturing issues, I will start being diplomatic and will stop helping those that need help.  I will forget (h)activism all together and become a corporate mogul. The whole universe will be my oyster that I will eat for breakfast, lunch and supper. I will enjoy it! Yes, I will ENJOY it!

I will start my own self-help program that will help people become a little more like me for only €2500 a month. I will use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to sell it. This only will get me a Nobel Peace prize.  While in Sweden I will take the opportunity to buy the whole country and put an end to that Pirate Party that only gives a bad name to the real politik.

I will only buy and use products that involve some kind of third world exploitation to be produced, will deem any human rights and freedom of speech issues as “their problem” and will call any kind of art form a waste of time (unless its mine and/or has a high market value).

I will support any government that decides that education and health are not a common problem but only the problem of those that can’t afford it (And that really makes it “their problem” doesn’t it?)

I will start an online petition to have a Margaret Tatcher’s statue in every single round about in the UK, I will stop defending the Welsh culture and I will cut all connections with the country side: I will be the archetype of urban living and everyone will aim to be like me. I will be 2010’s role model, TIME’s man of the year, I will win every Mashable award there is to win (I’ve been told that next year there will be 4500 categories so that all info-advertisers can win at least one award), I will make a plastic surgery to look like a mix between Tony Blair and George Clooney with David Bowie’s eyes and the will then take to court Tony Blair, George Clooney and David Bowie for looking like me. X-Factor and Britain’s got talent will be my favourite TV shows (enough of those pseudo-intellectual TV series like Larry David’s “Curb your enthusiasm”). I will make sure to have a TV set in every single room I’m in with access to 4200 TV channels, including TV Shop Dubai, TV Shop North Korea and Rupert Murdoch’s hidden office camera.  I will never meet personally with anyone unless they have more than 40000 fans on Facebook AND above 2 million followers on Twitter. Wikipedia will be my only source of knowledge and I will make sure that the facts about anything important regarding human civilization are written on Wikipedia in the way I see it. After all, human kind needs guidance and that whole God thing had 2010 years to make it right, with the results we can see for ourselves. I will start my own religion! How could I forget it? Yes, I will start my own religion loosely based on all religions that exist: I will call it Patch and I will be the only one that can listen to what Patch says.

In July I will take some holidays:  I’m guessing after all this work I will be in need of some rest by then.

After those much deserved holidays I will start preparing what will become my favourite event of the year:  Halloween! I will embrace Halloween and I’m going to enjoy it. Actually I’m going to enjoy lots of things in 2010. 2010 is going to be a GREAT year according to my own resolutions.  Christmas will follow in this hectic schedule and I will make sure to offer those that are most dear to me some socks, ties and mugs (the mugs will come with a picture of me).

By December 31^st I will have accomplished all of this and Bill Gates will be giving me the keys to his house to have some face to face time with Steve Jobs. I will refuse.  I will be too busy writing my 2011’s New Year’s resolutions, planning it to the detail so that everything goes as I want (and as Patch wishes)… … … … … … … … Something about Google Wave… …. … … wind…. rain…. thunder…

I wake up. My head hurts from this nightmare. Outside the wind plays a melody that resembles, pretty much, something that I’ve been playing around in my mind to compose and the raindrops, big enough to drown any super-hero ant play a tribal rhythm of such complexity that I stay, for some minutes, listening to it and trying to capture the way it makes me feel so I can keep it in my memory forever.

Outside the wind plays for me. A two and a half months old German shepherd dreams of ping pong balls, red baby jackets and of that bigger version of it that comes to visit and play every day.

I step outside with my first morning coffee, I look at the dark sky, the speeding clouds above that bring the rain down on the soil that can’t absorb the water any longer much like a old shower sponge. I take a deep breath, the cold air filling up my lungs and a ray of sunshine threatens to pierce the clouds… but it doesn’t.

I take a yellow post-it note, a pen and I write:

“2010: I will just be myself.”

“Twitting on Twitter costs job for Vodafone employee in Hungary“

You can read the whole thing right here but to put it in a nutshell:

T-Mobile Hungary was having some troubles with their network and Müller Tamás the person tweeting with  Vodafones Hungary‘s twitter account made a RT of the rival company by adding:

“OK, give us a call“

Because of it  Müller lost his job. For using Twitter in a fun and engaging manner Müller got fired. I fail to understand how this can happen and its another great example of how brands really don’t get it. What Müller did was to inform those following Vodafone Hungary’s account what was going on with T-Mobile and adding a piece of information in a very cool way: “Hey we are online. If you need any help in sorting that out we are here” and at the same time by telling its followers: “This is why we are better than our rivals. We even help them.” all in 4 words: Twitter genius

Furthermore  Müller was the only one actually using Vodafone Hungary’s Twitter account that didn’t have any update since this happened. The worst mistake you can make is to stop Tweeting and not facing the consequences of whatever happened.

What is the solution for this? Give Müller Tamás his job back and he can apologize to T-Mobile Hungary via Twitter. (Not that he has to but just to clear the air).

Or we can give them a call

Please help make some pressure on Vodafone Hungary by:

1. Tweeting: #VodafoneHU @Vodafone_HU give @muellah his job back. Engaging on Twitter is not a crime.

2. E-mail: Send a e-mail to ugyfelszolgalat.hu@vodafone.com asking for Müller to be reinstated on his job.

It is bad enough that there are companies that don’t get twitter like apparently is the case of Vodafone Hungary. It is even worse that they fire employees that do.

Update: Would you really get rid of a employee that comes up with the idea of inserting an advertising on Google everytime people are searching for “your rivals’ brand + crash?”

—

Picture Credits: Mallala Museum via Flickr [CC by-nc-sa]

Twitter’s teams might be doing heavy work to fight and prevent spam (I believe it!) but its not communicating with us, users, letting us know what is going on. I sometimes think that Twitter’s founders have no idea of what a simple tweet coming from one of them could do in terms of communication. Something along the lines “Also getting spam on my mentions and, believe me, I like it is as much as you do. We are on it but we need your help: example url” from @Jack, @ev or @biz pointing to a blog entry, where best practices to report spam and fight spam were detailed, could make wonders: Fighting spam could be turned into a global community effort.

The fact is that at this moment fighting spam is not something everyone is doing.

Some users only complain about it:

Others joke about it (#meaculpa)

but few users do the right thing.

I believe that fighting spam is the responsibility of all of us and we should take it seriously. If we all do it, maybe we can turn this battle around into our favor and Twitter will join us in a more visible way.

But the main question is, of course, how to fight spam on Twitter?

• Always report spam to Twitter: You can do this by sending a DM to @spam with several usernames that are spamming you. If @spam is not following you just sent it a Tweet.
  • Applications like TweetDeck and others allow you to this directly. Always do it.
• Check your new followers: Go through your followers list often (once a day, twice a day, how many you see fit) and report those that you see are spam
  • To do this you can you use the Block and Report to Spam option on the drop down menu
  • In case of doubt check the user’s time line, see the ratio of followers vs. following, look for what kind of Tweets are sent: If you see “Sent from API” you probably found a spammer.
• Change your password often: This applies not only to twitter but to your online life. Yes, it is a drag but way better than to get your account(s) phished.
• Check your connections often: You can find them on your twitter.com page under “Settings“.
  • What Twitter calls Connections are the applications you have authorized to use your account and send tweets on your behalf. Most of the spam DMs afflicting Twitter happen via this method. If you see any application that you are not familiar with or remember authorizing click on the Revoke Access option.
• Be carefull: Always make sure you are logging in at the twitter.com home page.
• Don’t RT content before checking it: This is very important! Unless it comes from sources you trust don’t RT before you check it. With every RT something good, or something bad, is reaching more users. You can stop spread something bad in the same way you can help spread something good.

I hope that these guidelines can help all of us in trying to fight spam in a effective way. If you think that I missed something please don’t hesitate to leave it in the comments.

LET THE HUNT BEGIN!

Picture Credits: Polina Sergeeva under a CC License

After receiving around 15 Auto-DMs today (slow day, don’t know why) I have decided to explain why, I personally think, AUTO-DMs are a wrong practice and why they do more harm than good to those who send them.

• AUTO-DMs are abusive: Twitter is (should be) about building relationships. You don’t start a relationship by trying to push something into someone you just met. If you don’t do with in real life you shouldn’t do it on Twitter.
• I know how to look for information, thank you very much: If you have setup your twitter profile properly, including the URL to your blog/website/youtube channel/facebook and I am interested in knowing more about you I will click on it. Yes! I will willingly and freely click on that link to discover more about you. I probably did before I started following you. No need to push that same link into my DM box. (Having said that if you put a tiny url in your Twitter profile I will not click it because those present security risks
• If I want help, I will ask for it: “Hey I am so happy we connected. Let me help you being happy forever“. Unless you are the woman of my dreams this won’t work, sooooorrry! These kind of AUTO-DMs make those who send them look ridiculous and the only thing they achieve is a good laugh followed by a block. And if you send them to Shelly Kramer you will also be outed to more than 20,000 people. (Shelly rocks!).
• Not personal: I live in Europe. If I receive a AUTO-DM telling me “Come and taste our apple pie at the “Blurb Coffee House” in Reno for free” I’ll know immediately that you didn’t take the time to get to know me via my timeline. Unless you are willing to pay for the plane ticket I’ll have to decline on your offer and block you.
• Do you really think I believe that?: Auto-DMs with promises to get me more followers, money without having to work, “exclusive” access to a website are an insult to everyone’s intelligence. When you send such a AUTO-DM you are actually calling those people, that decided to follow you, “stupid”. Imagine what happens next? They stop following and will probably block you!

The latest trend I have observed in AUTO-DMs is even more fantastic: You get the AUTO-DM, send a tweet to that user saying something along the lines “That is not cool!…” and they reply back offering a service that will stop you from getting AUTO-DMs. I think these people have too much time on their hands.

To receive one Auto-DM as soon as you start following someone on Twitter is like going on a first date and having that person ask you for a key to your house, at the end of the night. It’s too much, too soon. And, in my opinion, in very bad taste: The only good AUTO-DMs are no AUTO-DMs at all. #imho

What do you think? What is your experience? What was the most ridiculous AUTO-DM you got? Are you using AUTO-DMs? Do explain! This is a place for everyone no matter on what side you are!

Picture Credits: Domib34 under a CC License

Why do I post it here if I already answered on the original post? This is my “home”. And I think that my reasons to launch such a tweet should be a part of this home. Those that know me a bit, know that I am not after numbers of any kind and that I try, to the best of my ability, to make things right. Some people told me “Just leave it, don’t even bother with it. The guy only has 100+ followers”. If I had ignored it I would be breaking one my own beliefs that Twitter is not about how many followers one has but about people. And everyone should be treated with the same respect either we agree with them or not.

Here is my full reply:

1. I am was the user that called to the attention of my followers to be careful regarding #TweetCloud. If you would had made some simple search on twitter it would be easy to find me. I think that is important when speaking of and/or accusing someone of something, to give that person the right to explain him/herself. I thank Jen to call my attention to this post.

2. I took the decision to make the original tweet after reading lots of complaints from people on my timeline (including Scobeleizer *) and trying to contact the author with no success at all.

My original Tweet read:
“BEWARE of #TweetCloud: If you used it go to your settings and revoke access now! (pls RT)“

I then made a second Tweet explaining the reasons why I thought Tweetcloud could present a security danger:

#Tweetcloud 1)No terms or conditions 2)App Tweets for you automatically 3)Don’t need login details to generate the cloud. Revoke access.

3. You accuse me of “Unfortunately the twitterer who originally cried wolf didn’t seem to have much understanding of how services can interact with twitter.”

Maybe I don’t have the understanding that you have. You see I am just a user, I am not an expert but I take security very seriously. I also know what is happening in what comes to spam and phishing on twitter and, at this stage, where constant spam attacks are taking place (via DM and via @mentions) my stance is “better safe than sorry“.

I had legitimate reasons to see #Tweetcloud as a threath (No terms of service), abusive (auto tweeting) and had/have my opinion that there was/is** no need to have OAUTH involved to generate the cloud.

Furthermore, I doubt that the cloud can generate results from one year ago. Furthermore I had users on my timeline complaining that there were words coming up that they had never used.

4. DM Spam/Phishing occurs via OAUTH: That is why when these attacks occur all users are advised to go to their Settings -> Connections and Revoke access to all applications that they don’t know and then change their password. Don’t take my word for it: Check @Twitter_Tips (even if they often mention my posts regarding Twitter security).

5. With my Tweet (the “cry wolf” as you name it) I achieved my objective: @icodeforlove removed the auto-tweet and stated on a tweet to @tomdavenport that he would be writing a Terms of Service so that, before people use the website and grant permissions they know exactly what they are doing.

It is not my fault that people started to RT my original Tweet without asking why. I surely don’t RT any content without checking it first unless it comes from trustworthy sources.

6. At the end of the day it took you I don’t know how many words to get the conclusion that you had to revoke access to #tweetcloud. It only took me 140 characters to do the same.

I would really appreciate that in the future you take your time to correctly link your posts when referring to someone’s actions.

You can find me at:
http://thezargon.org and at http://bitrebels.com

Warmest Regards,

Fernando Fonseca

—–

Original Image from by benefit of hindsight

* Original Typo

** not in the original post

If you don’t smoke and/or if you don’t have a Zippo please keep reading. It will be worth your while. I promise.

So, my Zippo got is guts taken out (like if I wanted to, I couldn’t kill someone with just the case), I got pretty pissed and I tweeted about it. (I would love to show you the original Tweets but Twitter search is not working properly, cool hey?)

I sent a twitpic voicing my frustration about it. I was mad and sad. And suddenly I got a Tweet from @Zippo on the lines of “We just made a moment of silence for your loss. Please let us know if we can help you with anything”.

BANG!!! Zippo was on it. Really on it. Some DMs and a few e-mails later, Zippo Germany sent me a new case for my Zippo, which in Zippo jargon means my Zippo got a new soul inside of the old body I got so used to. Free of charge. Delivered in hand. Did I mention free of charge?

This small example is huge on how brands should be using Twitter. Monitor, take action, interact, do anything in your power to get that client satisfied. I would not need this to happen to use a Zippo. I have been using a Zippo for years now. But I would probably never become a Zippo evangelist like I became now when a company based in Bradford, PA took that extra step to connect with me.

Well done Zippo. Every company on Twitter should take a look at how you are doing things in Social Media.

Special thanks go to Brent Tyler, who spotted my rant, Shirly Evers for taking the problem into her hands  and to Marco Kortboyer for shipping it to me. You rock!