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How to Identify Twitter Spammers

by Luca Filigheddu on October 27, 2008



How to Identify Twitter Spammers
Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

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A couple of days ago I blogged about Qwitter, a service which informs you when someone quit following you on Twitter.

In the last week I received five emails, where Qwitter informed me about people no more following me.

You know what? All of them started “following” me just not long ago, maybe “waiting” for me to follow them back. Since this hasn’t happened, they unfollowed me. The point is that their only aim was to increse their followers’ number, without really caring of my tweets. Their only aim was to catch my attention and to make me follow them back.

Unfortunately, as stated many times, I follow people I really care about. If you follow me but I don’t think I can be interested in what you write on twitter (with all my respect, of course) I will never follow you back. At the same time, if I follow you it’s because: 1) we know each other personally (well, in that case I would appreciate if you follow me as well) – 2) I care about your thoughts and I don’t care if you follow me back.

It’s great how Qwitter gives me a confirmation about this bad behavior by “marketing-only” twitter accounts. Here is an example for all, Mr iphone reviews unfollowed me after just a couple of days he started (on October 21st) following me, “much interested” in my thoughts and opinions:

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  • Franco-Folini
    Luca
    Do you recommend to block Twitter spammer who are following you/me or just to ignore them?
  • Franco, I would never use the "block" feature. Those users don't really disturb you. Ignoring them, in my opinion, is the best weapon against them.
  • Franco-Folini
    In the past I blocked a few cute girls looking for companionship... I don't regret it, they were not really interested in my CAD-related tweets. Do you know if accounts receiving several blocks are removed by Twitter or marked as spammers?
  • Well, I don't know. But I guess it's possible.
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