Twitter Needs a Spam Filter? No, We Need a Marketer Filter

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_needs_a_spam_filter_no_we_need_a_marketer_filter.php

by theforay • 17 years ago

11 20 17 years ago

TrevorJ• 17 years ago

I very much agree.

I wonder how much traction there will be in the next 18-24 months for a social network service that advertises a "No marketing" policy for it's users. I think people would value a service that refused to advertise to them or otherwise sell their data.

brandnewlow• 17 years ago

I feel no pity for people who don't want to see #moonfruit tweets. If it's that big a deal, unfollow your greedy friends who are willing to spam you in order for a shot at a laptop.

akkartik4• 17 years ago

Yep. Twitter's best use case seems to be awareness of what good friends are doing (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=139421). If people stay true to that you should never have more than 7 subscribers who post a lot.

If you want to subscribe to more, none of them can post a lot. Otherwise the infrequent posters will get drowned out and you'll be likely to miss their updates. (http://akkartik.name/blog/2009-06-06-18-18-34-soc).

eli3• 17 years ago

If you're just following friends, doesn't Facebook do everything Twitter does and more?

jamesbritt3• 17 years ago

I follow a ~350 people. Most don't seem to toot much. But I don't expect catch everyone's postings; that's not the point for me. It's more like being in a really crowded room, where i occasionally wander around and overheard bits of conversation. I can step in if I like, or like it flow past. Sometimes I have a twitter client running where I can change stuff via peripheral vision. Usually I just poke in to see what the recent 100 posts happen to be.

It's an ambient medium.

I'm surprised, then when people speak of using twitter to get news out on something (such as an upcoming local event), since there's a very good chance people will not see it (unless it gets repeated and re-repeated).

I have stopped following people who tend to not offer much useful info (I really don't care where you are eating breakfast, nor want to be reminded that you enjoy being a shill for someone's business). Basically, I prefer that any random slice of messages will have some actual information content in the mix.

olefoo2• 17 years ago

I think there is some value in a twitter client that filters for you. The canonical example that comes to mind for me is a couple of friends of mine who are sports enthusiasts and when the #redwings begin flying I am less than interested; but they still have worthwhile things to say about topics I am interested in.

I also don't have that much time for twitter, there are a number of people that i follow whom I don't need to know what they had for breakfast, but I would like to know what they thought of a site or idea. That's a harder nut to crack, some sort of adaptive learning filter might work.

rw• 17 years ago

This could just be solved by etiquette. Or, different accounts for different purposes: one for your minutia/personal life, one for your coding life, one for your politics life...

eli3• 17 years ago

If you took out the people trying to market something (or themselves) there would be hardly anyone left

Twitter Needs a Spam Filter? No, We Need a Marketer Filter

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