Comments on: Eat spam Twitter bot!

By: @millerian

@millerian — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:42:31 +0000

Hi Justin,

I have tried both Twimailer and Topify, and much prefer Topify. Main reason is that it's easier to follow/block/spam report new followers, but also you can keep your main email address on Twitter, and then only forward follower notifications to Topify for processing. Otherwise, all other Twitter emails (e.g. password resets) go through a 3rd party which I'm not so comfortable with.

Here's a post I used as a basis for rules in Gmail http://bit.ly/RD2If

Also, between Twimailer and Topify, Topify has been a LOT more reliable, Twimailer kept losing follows and has had several server issues for me.

By: @millerian

@millerian — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:42:31 +0000

By: @millerian

@millerian — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:42:31 +0000

By: justinparks

justinparks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:37:55 +0000

That sounds interesting, will check it out. I have looked for information on blocked twitter accounts but nothing solid as yet, so I would assume its not available in the API.

I totally agree though, the best way to judge is the twitter stream but having this little bit of information also adds depth to real accounts and makes spotting the bots and spammers that little bit easier.

By: John Girvin

John Girvin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:43:51 +0000

I've been informed that @tmailer http://twimailer.com can be used to rewrite notification emails and add useful information such as the last 10 tweets and a follow-back link. I've signed up and I'm now waiting for a new follower to test it out!

"number of blocks" would be a useful addition I think, and something that @tmailer could add if the information was available through the Twitter API.

But there's nothing like seeing a user's Tweet stream to judge for yourself if they're a spammer, linkbot or whatever.

By: justinparks

justinparks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:08:31 +0000

Indeed John, but the problem is if Twitter do not deal with this spam and bots we wont be going anywhere except away! What are you thoughts on the number of blocks idea?

By: John Girvin

John Girvin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:00:07 +0000

Putting the user's last 5 or 10 tweets into the notification email would go a long way to helping me decide quickly if (a) they're a spam bot and (b) if I want to follow them back or not. When I click through to their Twitter profile page that's what I judge on, but like you say, perhaps discouraging page visits is not in Twitter's own best interests.