The day a thousand apps stool still

I noticed some weeks ago that Twitter’s OAuth implementation didn’t appear to be verifying signatures. I knew this because I purposefully set an invalid access token which was accepted unconditionally. I thought this was odd, but as a newbie to OAuth I was just happy that my app was working, so I filed the problem at the back of my mind under “deal with it if it becomes a problem”. Today (the week I release by beloved TwitBlock app) it very suddenly became a problem.

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A bulk blocking and spam filter tool for Twitter

www.twitblock.org

I’ve finally got round to building the Twitter app I’ve been thinking about for months. While everyone else is preoccupied with making fun, or cool apps, I’ve been thinking about the increasing problem of spam and junk followers on Twitter. I won’t go into why I think this is such a problem right now, plenty of time for that later.

This is just a quick announcement to say that I’ve released an early alpha version of a tool that I hope to develop into something genuinely useful. Currently it’s a simple scanner that analyses your followers for signs of “spammy” behaviour. I’ll post more details about these indicators soon, and I’ll also share some of the interesting discoveries I’ve been making about Twitter spam as I go on my mission.

UPDATE: I have posted about these indicators

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