timwhitlock.info

Statement on the TwitBlock backlash

Constructive criticism of TwitBlock seems to have quite rapidly turned into some quite aggressive complaints including several demands for immediate closure.  This is not intended to be a malicious project, but with a sudden rush of large numbers, I am experiencing a minefield of issues that I did not predict. I am doing my best to fight these fires, but please bear a few things in mind a few things when feeding back to me:

First and foremost, this is alpha software.
I did not expect 7,000 visits a day after just three weeks. (I can thank Mashable for that overhead). I am constantly thinking of ways I can please everyone and still keep the application doing what it needs to do, which is help people remove illegitimate followers.

Secondly I accept that the scoring is misleading out of context.

The scanner is designed to show your most likely spam followers, which is why it lists them in order. In terms of accuracy, the real spammers do seem to top this list with huge numbers. The problem is when people analyse an individual account (often their own) – they think that any number appearing on the screen means they have been identified as spam.

The heuristics used are only relative indicators.

By adding up various indicators, most likely spam can be identified – This works well in context, but I am not saying that if you follow more than twice the number of people that follow you that you are a spammer. My task now is relay this information to avoid offending you.

It is quite possible that I will remove the single-scan feature and internalize the scoring mechanism, so that you can only see your followers in relative terms as a leaderboard of “most likely” spam.

TwitBlock does not report you if you get a score

The application does not contact Twitter or black list you if your account gets a score. A score is just a number to be put in context.
People are saying their account is in jeopardy because it will encourage people to block them, this is a fair point and I’m addressing it, but only Twitter can suspend your account and they are unlikely to do this without manual investigation. I apologise if you feel your reputation is somehow ruined, this is not what I intended for this application.

TwitBlock is not intended to replace the brain

In 30+ years of email we still haven’t really cracked automatic filtering of spam, so in 3+ weeks of TwitBlock I don’t expect to either.
Please don’t block users who come up in scans without looking a bit closer. The tool is just designed to bring them to the surface.

TwitBlock only uses the tools Twitter provides

Twitter provide a blocking feature, and the Twitter API makes this data available to applications. This could well change in future, I think a lot of things are going to change in the near future. If you think access to blocks is against Twitter’s responsibility to your privacy then take it up with them. I promise to never reveal to anyone who is blocking who.

Finally, this is not a commercial product

I developed this application in my “spare” time out side of my 40+ hour week as Technical Director of Public. I am not trying to make money, I actually hope that this application makes itself redundant. I don’t want for it to be required, because I want spam off Twitter the same as you. When feeding back, please try to be constructive and polite. This way I will be much more likely to implement features and ideas based on your comments. I am listening, even if you don’t @ me directly.

Thanks.

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Comments

  1. Harrisonma1

    Great job – this is an extremely useful tool in removing spammers. Spammers ruin it for everyone. I carefully review each identified ‘spammer’ before I block them. I agree with ceejayoz that your complainers are likely ‘affliliate marketers’.

    Keep up the great work!!!

  2. ceejayoz

    Funny how many of those complaining have something like “affiliate marketer” in their profiles.

  3. Tim

    @kesasar Bang on!
    Reciprocal blocking is a myth… (unless another app out there provides it)
    TwitBlock could reveal who is blocking you if you are both TwitBlock users – but we WILL NOT.

  4. kesasar

    Tim thanks a lot for your website
    We all know that the magic formula to detect a spammer doesn’t exist
    Please all remember how email spam filters works …

    Blocked Spammer won’t block you in return :
    - they don’t care
    - they are are bots !
    - you can’t see who’s blocking you …block in peace my friends !

  5. iRobt

    Keep up the good work Tim. The only suggestion I have is to make the whitelisted sites equally ranked with the blocked/blacklisted and give both lower rank in the algorithm.

    That’s the biggest source of false hit’s I’ve noticed.

  6. Tim

    Many thanks to the supporters,

    To those against the service: I am listening and you are making some valid points. You are just making them in a non-constructive way.

    To whoever reported my IP addresses as spam: don’t assume this helps the situation. This makes me much more likely to take a hard line with the service. I am currently trying to please everyone.

    Seeing spam scores out of context is the primary problem. They are of use when in context, i.e. seen relatively with the spammiest people brought to the surface for you to investigate.

    I will be working on this problem immediately, stay tuned.

  7. Binny

    TwitBlock is great, don’t listen to anyone who tells you its not!

    I found you this week by accident, was looking for a way to get rid of those pesky spammers. I have always block the ones I think are spam, not just to protect me, but to stop anyone else following me from seeing them and even thinking about having a look.

    You clearly say the software is Alpha, and all blocking software requires some common sense. There are a number of accounts that I know are not spam but have high scores.. at least I can see the potential ones and get rid of the real ones.

    Spam is a problem for Twitter, and I think its only going to get worse. Spam blocking will become an important part of Twitter like it is in e-mail, and blog comments. Your service will only get better, and I look forward to it.

  8. Matt King

    I always systematically blocked “dodgy” followers before TwitBlock existed, so having an this app to do it really has made no difference to me other than make it easier for me to manage this process plus also help build up a picture of spam behaviour.

    I have never come across reciprocal blocking. I currently block around 20-odd accounts and none have returned the favour. This is probably down to the fact that I carefully select them based on a common-sense approach so the only ones I ever block are 100% spam. I doubt if these spambots have feelings or egos so no love lost

    When I run TwitBlock I get at least 4-5 accounts that score very high (in the hundreds) that I know aren’t spam (but some people may view as a nuisance, causing a high score based on block count). I personally leave these unblocked due to the fact that TwitBlock simply indicates the likelihood of the account being spam.

    I will continue to use TwitBlock as a handy tool for bulk-managing the increasing amount of spambot accounts that follow me on Twitter. As David mentioned above – TwitBlock requires user common-sense to operate correctly. However as this can’t be guaranteed, maybe one solution is to apply less weight/points to the block count.

    Nice one Tim on the creation of TwitBlock. I understand that you’ve had this plunged rapidly into the limelight so I assume, currently, most of the pointing system was based on calcualted guess work. The only way is up. :)

  9. Duane Roelands

    Tim,

    Your site causes damage to no one. Your site provides -information- to Twitter users, and they use that information to make decisions.

    Twitblock helps users to improve their Twitter experience. Keep up the excellent work, and if there’s any way I can help you with Twitblock, please let me know.

  10. naesk

    Seems the Tweeps who are complaining don’t really understand TwitBlock service, nor the affects of spam proliferation ranging from pure annoyance to a individual user, to the resources & time required to fight it, which ultimately places strain to the quality of service.

    I wonder if those complaining have the auto follow function turned on, or use mutual-follow & similar services for kudos/inflating ego purposes, more importantly do they contribute by reporting spam they receive?

  11. Dougie Lawson

    I love twitblock. I found it from RSSFriends. It’s the most useful twitter tool I’ve found so far.

    The only addition I need is I’d like you to have an option to direct message to @SPAM with the name I’m just about to block.

    Keep up the good work.

  12. Larry

    Like Anita did (in the blog link from my above post) – I also have decided to unblock all the accounts I had previously blocked – including “many” spam and porn accounts – because of the likeliehood of reciprocal blocking. It is not what I wanted to do but Anita is right – if you block someone – they may return the favor & Twitblock will magnify the effect. I really don’t want to see those accounts in my follower lists again but I have little choice & now will have a “no blocking” policy unless it is in extreme circumstances. Isn’t it ironic that your site is forcing me take that stance?

    I see a couple typos/miswording in my prior post due to “no sleep”…. Good morning & good night (I gotta try to sleep).

    (Please try to find a way to stop the increased blocking of legit accounts like myself & others due to your website.)

    Thx

  13. David Clark

    Tim,

    I can feel your pain more than you know. I waus involved in a project in the late 90′s called bobby (for web accessibility).
    your mantra needs to be “this is just a diagnostic tool – brain required for interpretation”.

    maybe a name change? twitchecker? twitdossier ?

  14. Stuart Harrison

    Nice post Tim, Twitblock is a great resource and helps me purge my followers list of those pesky spammers – Spam is a real problem on Twitter and at the rate it’s going Twitter is going to be all but unusable soon.

  15. Larry

    Tim says “People are saying their account is in jeopardy because it will encourage people to block them, this is a fair point and I’m addressing it, but only Twitter can suspend your account and they are unlikely to do this without manual investigation.”

    Tim – I am glad you realize that your site encourages people to block accounts which causes more people to block accounts ….. which causes more people to block accounts …… which causes more people to block accounts – etc…

    Your site is causing “irreversible damage” to legitimate user accounts and you need to immediately stop the bleeding and hurting by shutting down your site until you can fix/address the issues. You are effecting honest people’s relationship with Twitter = their followers & potentially causing suspensions by falsly causing “block increases”. Though I know it isn’t your attention – your site is hurting legitimate users accounts that they have worked hard on establishing in a very aggressive manner.

    I “do not hate you” but please realize your site is hurting many legitimate users accounts. You need to put an instant stop to it. Please read this if you already haven’t done so http://modelsupplies.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/twitblocking/