Any kind of unapproved messages to or from somebody, via Twitter, e-mail or anything else, is idiotic. Marketing 101 centers around permission, and if they don't have it, they should get out of the game. It's a very bad practice.
Some default to sending a message but offer an opt-out checkbox, and that's a little better, but too many folks are going too quickly to notice. Twitterank was a good example of that.
sbullo
· 11 months ago
The sentence "I support twply ... every three weeks I show them love" does not in any way specify that you will be sending spam to Twitter.
Scott Sorheim
· 11 months ago
Completely agree with Louis and Robert. I will not use.
They claim to have an opt-out, but the phrase "Support Twply on your first login?" is in no way clear that they will send a tweet out on your behalf.
Rob Schieber
· 11 months ago
Yes, so many of these tools cross our screens. I'm looking forward to hearing from you what the best of all of these tools is, and what is the tool most likely to last, so we don't have to spend half our lives signing up, maintaining, and worrying about what will happen to our signons, i.e., what abuse reputation tainting will occur.
I'd certainly take a hard look. Thanks for the great blogging, & HNY!
Steaders
· 11 months ago
When I challanged them over the fact the sent out a message without my permission, they replied that they had asked on their homepage.
The message on the page states :"I support twply ... every three weeks I show them love" which to me is not saying they will send out a message.
And one hour after signing up, I have still recieved no emails.
I have now changed my password as I considered totally unreliable
smaentz
· 11 months ago
I just changed my Twitter password so they can't use my account. I really don't like giving all these different services my password. The Twitter API is awesome, but you really have to trust these various Twitter clients and services.
MaxWeb
· 11 months ago
I saw someone else's tweetspam about it and thought it sounded like a good service I'd like to try. I don't have tons of people following me, so telling the few that do follow about this service seemed like a good idea... however... I can see how someone who follows (back) as many as you do could be become overwhelmed and be left with a spammy feeling... I hope that the report that they are tweetspamming whether you choose to allow it or not, is inaccurate or an unintentional mistake. Whatever the case, it seems that they accomplished their goal of getting exposure with this tactic, since you're posting about it... I'm sure they appreciate your postings more than if you used their service.
Patrick Veverka
· 11 months ago
They've now seemingly removed the checkbox altogether from their site.
Armin Talicq
· 11 months ago
I kind of jumped to the same conclusion and would generally agree, however, with any new venture I think It's hard to find a good starting balance.
Perhaps these guys/gals took the wrong approach, but somewhat in their defense, their login process gives users the option to enable or disable the first broadcast.
People make mistakes. My $0.02
Oy Vey
· 11 months ago
Who would be foolish enough to register with this site? The basic idea is so lame!
@thewebdawg
· 11 months ago
sbullo no it doesn't, cuz they will send it for you ;-)
Alif Rachmawadi
· 11 months ago
This is absolutely idiot when people out there using twitter inappropriate. But is it a kind of an identity theft, in other words, steal username and password someone else then using it on an API or just pure someone retweets it without using 'RT/retweet' phrase?
ceejayoz
· 11 months ago
The @twply Twitter account is getting pretty testy.
@thewebdawg
· 11 months ago
I still don't understand why the feature isn't a part of twitter's basic features anyway.
Vicki
· 11 months ago
If by "effective" you mean it succeeded in ensuring that a) I won;t use it and b) I've installed a new Tweet filter so I stop seeing these, then yes, it's "effective".
Probably not the effect they had in mind.
Sylvia Webb
· 11 months ago
Any robot generated reply sent without the senders knowledge or permission is spam.
It's also idiotic to send out this kind of response before the user has had an opportunity to validate that it's a tool they want to recommend. A tweet from the user after they've actually used something is far more powerful.
I will not even consider using a product from a company with a marketing campaign that subtly implies they are knowingly trying to game the system.
Twply
· 11 months ago
Honestly everyone needs to stop yelling about the message, we clearly ask on the homepage. Before it was based on IP but we took that off so everyone can see. If you want to see please log out or see the screenshot here. http://upload3.net//uploads/761Picture%206.png
Sorry if this killed your twitter account, but dont say we didnt ask.
The service is currently down right now due how effective the marketing worked.
Rutger Blom
· 11 months ago
Why doesn't twitter use remote keys like Flickr and Friendfeed? Ones you can revoke so you don't have to change your password after something like this.
Robert Scoble
· 11 months ago
Twply: like I said, it is effective. It also marked you as a new kind of spammer. Thanks for the new lesson in Twitter marketing! The message on the home page is FAR from clear what would be sent out. You should have made it much clearer.
Buns and Chou Chou
· 11 months ago
we like the idea, thanks for pointing this out Robert! Hugs, Buns and Chou Chou
ceejayoz
· 11 months ago
@twply - Clearly, people are pissed off. Telling people to stop complaining will not stop them complaining.
Adding a clearer message like "this will post a link to our website on your Twitter stream" would do a lot to resolve the issue. The wording you use is ambiguous even to a native English speaker like me - it is not clear what "supporting you" does.
ChangeForge | Ken Stewart
· 11 months ago
Louis, the problem here though is that "forcible, mass-delivered marketing" works. Permission was given by those who continually fall victim to the scam, so it perpetuates itself. Even worse is that those few perpetuating this scourge don't really care about permission at all.
Look at e-mail, I watch our spam filters daily and the amount of traffic coming across is at least 3:1 spam:legitimate. They take a wonderful communication tool and turn it into something used for self-serving reasons and to the detriment of the greater community!
Ken Stewart
Megan Taylor
· 11 months ago
Ridiculous on two levels: A) Don't hijack my accounts! and B) Twitter already includes that service! Just check this box under the Notices tab: Direct Text Emails: Email when I receive a new direct message.
I'm all about 3rd party apps that make Twitter more useful, but this is absurd.
bunnyhero
· 11 months ago
@twply, your website has *no* privacy policy anywhere i can see.
what is your privacy policy?
tim
· 11 months ago
twply isn't the only one who does this. twittgroups do it too (except that it doesn't ask for password). Considering how fast people sign up, it's definitely very effective and very annoying.
Steaders
· 11 months ago
Twply: Since when did "Support us" mean "send out a message"?
ceejayoz
· 11 months ago
@Megan Taylor - @replies are not direct messages. The two are separate things.
Marco Massarotto
· 11 months ago
Delicious. (not spamming, right... i mean this conversation :) ).
It is indeed a new form of quasi-spam and of "possible" spam (spamming back your twitter account once i got to be your friend) and a new form of marketing.
NASDAQ120
· 11 months ago
Twitter needs OAuth ASAP.
Daniel Tunkelang
· 11 months ago
It may well be a good service, but this kind of spamming is evil and sets a terrible precedent. Not only was it not clear that "support us" meant spam all of my followers, but I explicitly unchecked it! Besides, why would I endorse a tool before even having a chance to use it?
"The company" behind twply might just as well be a high-school kid having fun with an idea on a free day, and seeing an experiment backfire...
Oh well, interesting to see so many people eager to give out their password to a totally unknown "entity" and then complain about something like a little message sent on their behalf :-)
Ryan Merket
· 11 months ago
Anyone who gives their login and password without taking the time to read what that site is going to do with their info and then complain about whatever said site does with that info - looks dumb. That site has a horrible UI, no privacy policy and is a feature you can find on socialtoo.com.
Workstir.com did something similar when we were in private beta. We clearly stated what the message was going to be and stated that the info would not be saved.
Eric Rice
· 11 months ago
Hold the god damned phone, you are SERIOUSLY pissy about Twply after the umpteen gazillion SEESMIC, QIK COME CHAT NOW ping.fm universe we live in?
Seriously, WE are the spammers. We use shit like ping.fm and then it goes to EVERY DAMN SITE and makes no coherent sense.
I HATED seesmic in the beginning because the users had everything on auto-post. It was sickening.
The fact that Twply is offending you, when users of other services (and I'm sure other services themselves) have done this time and time again.
Look in the mirror already. We are the worst spammers of them all.
Daniel Tunkelang
· 11 months ago
Eric, I don't know about you, but this is the first time a service has automatically sent out an endorsement signed with my name without asking permission--or, more precisely, ignoring my opt-out of a vague request for "support". This isn't just about spam, this is about undermining what it means to endorse a service.
Fabio Seixas
· 11 months ago
The problem is that they are spreading an opinion ("neat stuff") like that was written by us and this is realy wrong.
Mike Doeff
· 11 months ago
Interesting development... The founder of Twply just sold the property because their servers couldn't handle the load. Winning bid was $1200. http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/54573
Allison
· 11 months ago
I'm in PR, and I find this kind of marketing beyond obnoxious. That tells you something haha. But even more so, I find the company's response in this comment section absurd. Are you really so hung over from last night that commen sense has abandoned you? Making enemies of this audience won't help you gain fans.
Allison
· 11 months ago
(and yes, I really am so hung over that spelling and grammar capabilities *have* abandoned me)
bunnyhero
· 11 months ago
i wonder if anyone has tried to contact the person listed in twply.com's whois record, for comment.
Loving how this is playing out, which I think shows the power of online communities in terms of questionable marketing. This company risked pissing people off to gain more users. The Twitter crowd appears to be policing itself to the extent we may be able to avoid the spam that has made email such a problem. I would encourage Twitter to begin a program to verify identity in such a way that people can't launch new campaigns under different names.
Eric Rice
· 11 months ago
Or, mob justice.
srini kumar
· 11 months ago
happy new year !!! nobody cares about your privacy unless it's you, and advertising pays for everything, so caveat registror. i have been rendered immune to caring about this by the parade of throwaway facebook apps + the news feed - this simply seems like an "i got bit by a vampire ! do you want to get bit too ?" for the twitter crowd.
this service at least strikes me as useful. someone was apparently trying to do something helpful for others, and if the final payoff was $1200 i mean that sounds pretty coder-altruistic to me. i don't see a ponzi scheme brewing inside this guy's head. this simply seems like a case study in contagion, and quite likely will become a "best practice" for a certain class of projects - as Eric Rice points out, it's Qik and Brightkite and such which proclaimed to the world "hey coders, you can program robots to talk into twitter, it's cool, no biggie". so this twply coder just did that too, which was adapt a best practice from inane fb apps and qik et al to his intentions (which apparently started with "i want a truck of people to use this" and ended when he got his wish).
is a tweet saying "hey i'm live streaming on _service_, come chat" automatically any better than this ? frankly, it's worse, isn't it? if you're a qik user do you see how annoying this "feature" makes you on twitter? whereas new signups to a service - at least that only happens once....
Taylor Blue
· 11 months ago
It's a great idea for me because I don't stay logged in to Twitter all day. If I were I would never get my work done. Instead I go in a couple times a day and then answer to all my replies. People hate that. So I thought this would be a great idea. I signed up and so far I haven't got one reply sent to my email yet. So who knows...I may just disable it...
Kosso
· 11 months ago
Twitter really needs to have a secondary/API key/password separate to the main user password for all third party things like this.
timehasnotime
· 11 months ago
If I want to check I just sign in from my Palm. How hard is that? Ya don't need to have someone do it for you.
sahar009
· 11 months ago
All these tools are amazing when they are used well - unfortunately it's only a matter of time (usually pretty short, too) before something initially great becomes a pain in the you know what. Think of Facebook - it started as a tool for students to communicate. You knew the person you were talking to really was a university student with that name, but now... -Sighs- I have about 30 friends requests from people with names like "Naughty Bear" and "Everyone's Friend".
guidosoundadvice
· 11 months ago
Those techniques wreak of the old MLM days! not a bad idea, def should be tweaked out more to be effective though. I almost wish I were an affiliate ;)
Christopher di Spirito
· 11 months ago
Wow! I thought it was just me.
I signed up for Twitter after reading an article about it in a reputable computer magazine that likened it to the invention of email.
While some of the social networking stuff was fun and useful during the election, most of what I see now is written in a foreign language (sorry, I only have two semesters of college level Spanish) or people "Tweeting" as a means to get free advertising for their business.
The remainder are posts similar to this: "Whoa, so tired today, Tweets!" Or, "Looking forward to spring!" Or, "My husband is away this week, I sure would like to meet you."
Am I missing something magical about Twitter?
Gregory and Shelina
· 11 months ago
We've been using twitter to post our daily life which many find interesting as we have been called modern prophets and bring information about the first creation of humans which people have never heard of before. We've also made a JesusandMary twitter since they channel through Gregory as they are in our soul group and are sharing new messages which others have not heard before along with tidbits about their guides, angels and past lives. Our intentions are not to spam anyone. It does look like it can be overwhelming sometimes as we are following Obama, Oprah, Depak Chopra and others but for the moment we are having fun with it and will be putting it on our regular website which is being built. Blessings for a Happy New Year!
All Comments
Some default to sending a message but offer an opt-out checkbox, and that's a little better, but too many folks are going too quickly to notice. Twitterank was a good example of that.
They claim to have an opt-out, but the phrase "Support Twply on your first login?" is in no way clear that they will send a tweet out on your behalf.
I'd certainly take a hard look. Thanks for the great blogging, & HNY!
The message on the page states :"I support twply ... every three weeks I show them love" which to me is not saying they will send out a message.
And one hour after signing up, I have still recieved no emails.
I have now changed my password as I considered totally unreliable
Perhaps these guys/gals took the wrong approach, but somewhat in their defense, their login process gives users the option to enable or disable the first broadcast.
People make mistakes. My $0.02
But is it a kind of an identity theft, in other words, steal username and password someone else then using it on an API or just pure someone retweets it without using 'RT/retweet' phrase?
Probably not the effect they had in mind.
It's also idiotic to send out this kind of response before the user has had an opportunity to validate that it's a tool they want to recommend. A tweet from the user after they've actually used something is far more powerful.
I will not even consider using a product from a company with a marketing campaign that subtly implies they are knowingly trying to game the system.
Sorry if this killed your twitter account, but dont say we didnt ask.
The service is currently down right now due how effective the marketing worked.
this.
Hugs,
Buns and Chou Chou
Adding a clearer message like "this will post a link to our website on your Twitter stream" would do a lot to resolve the issue. The wording you use is ambiguous even to a native English speaker like me - it is not clear what "supporting you" does.
Look at e-mail, I watch our spam filters daily and the amount of traffic coming across is at least 3:1 spam:legitimate. They take a wonderful communication tool and turn it into something used for self-serving reasons and to the detriment of the greater community!
Ken Stewart
I'm all about 3rd party apps that make Twitter more useful, but this is absurd.
what is your privacy policy?
It is indeed a new form of quasi-spam and of "possible" spam (spamming back your twitter account once i got to be your friend) and a new form of marketing.
More ranting on my blog:
http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/01/01/faux-vira...
Oh well, interesting to see so many people eager to give out their password to a totally unknown "entity" and then complain about something like a little message sent on their behalf :-)
Workstir.com did something similar when we were in private beta. We clearly stated what the message was going to be and stated that the info would not be saved.
Seriously, WE are the spammers. We use shit like ping.fm and then it goes to EVERY DAMN SITE and makes no coherent sense.
I HATED seesmic in the beginning because the users had everything on auto-post. It was sickening.
The fact that Twply is offending you, when users of other services (and I'm sure other services themselves) have done this time and time again.
Look in the mirror already. We are the worst spammers of them all.
this service at least strikes me as useful. someone was apparently trying to do something helpful for others, and if the final payoff was $1200 i mean that sounds pretty coder-altruistic to me. i don't see a ponzi scheme brewing inside this guy's head. this simply seems like a case study in contagion, and quite likely will become a "best practice" for a certain class of projects - as Eric Rice points out, it's Qik and Brightkite and such which proclaimed to the world "hey coders, you can program robots to talk into twitter, it's cool, no biggie". so this twply coder just did that too, which was adapt a best practice from inane fb apps and qik et al to his intentions (which apparently started with "i want a truck of people to use this" and ended when he got his wish).
is a tweet saying "hey i'm live streaming on _service_, come chat" automatically any better than this ? frankly, it's worse, isn't it? if you're a qik user do you see how annoying this "feature" makes you on twitter? whereas new signups to a service - at least that only happens once....
not a bad idea, def should be tweaked out more to be effective though.
I almost wish I were an affiliate ;)
I signed up for Twitter after reading an article about it in a reputable computer magazine that likened it to the invention of email.
While some of the social networking stuff was fun and useful during the election, most of what I see now is written in a foreign language (sorry, I only have two semesters of college level Spanish) or people "Tweeting" as a means to get free advertising for their business.
The remainder are posts similar to this: "Whoa, so tired today, Tweets!" Or, "Looking forward to spring!" Or, "My husband is away this week, I sure would like to meet you."
Am I missing something magical about Twitter?