Open letter #1
I just received an email that I thought would be of interest to everyone. I have removed people's names for reasons of privacy, but I have left the spelling mistakes in for a sense of realism. My open reply to the author follows at the bottom.
Hello Tim,
I'm glad to see you have changed the Twitblock site as it appears it may do the job that you initialy wanted it do & the bleeding seems to have stopped with me at 93 blocks. However – have you thought of ways of how you can reverse the damage your site did to other legitimate accounts like mine, @<screen_name> (71 blocks) & other larger accounts who were majorly affected by your site with account blocks due to being mislabled as spammers/nuisances? All of those blocks damage reputations.
There is no question that a "lot of damage" was done. As I had said – on Friday night I did not sleep a single second as I had watched that evening my account blocks starting to increase & increase. I have no idea of exactly how many acount blocks I had before your site came into existence but I am pretty sure my numbers were similar to @<screen_name> and "snowball effect" blocking due to your site rapidly increased the #s.
Personally I feel that your system should reverse all account blocks that you were responsible for and have people start over again fresh with your current site status. I also think you should apoligize to the many people that Twitblock affected negatively. <name> (@<screen_name>) is one of the sweetest ladies & you saw how she was affected which is similar to my feelings – I felt awful & it got worse as I saw the #s increase. Most accounts probably have no idea how they were affected by being mislabeled.
Anyway – I ask you to find a way to correct things. I do not want those account blocks on my Twitter account which damages my reputation & potentially my account with Twitter. I look forward to your response.
My reply
The reason the blocks appeared to increase is that every time a Twitter user authenticates with TwitBlock we get access to more blocks. i.e. most of the blocks on these people's accounts probably already existed. The incremental nature of them is largely an illusion.
It is physically impossible for me to ascertain which blocks were performed via TwitBlock as opposed to those performed on Twitter.com or another third party application.
To log into the Twitter API with one of my users' access keys and unblock a user from their account would be an abuse of TwitBlock's privacy policy, not to mention thoroughly immoral.
To establish which blocks on your account were performed via TwitBlock, you would have to contact Twitter. I don't know whether they record this information or whether they would give it out – My guess would be "maybe" and "probably not".
As to what I shall be doing to "correct things":
I shall be doing nothing to reverse the alleged and spurious damage for the reasons stated above. I have already spent my weekend altering the application in favour of a very small contingent of people, i.e. the author of this letter plus one or two more, who incidentally were far more polite.
I have also had one aggrieved "customer" succeed in getting two of my IP addresses black listed by an SPF provider meaning I cannot send emails to some ISPs from the TwitBlock servers. This act of aggression makes me very unlikely to bow to further pressure and less inclined to apologise to anyone.
I suspect the aggressor is one of the few people who have made contact with me already, and I shall also be exercising my own right to block Twitter users who direct aggression at me, or continually make unreasonable demands.
My focus continues to be making an application that works well for as many people as possible.
Tags: open letter, twitblock
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
“i did not sleep a single second”
hello, people, this is twitter we’re talking about – get a grip (and a life).
nice response, tim.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Two thumbs up Tim, couldn’t be more pleased. I plan to make it a regular part of my online brand management.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Vhat I don’t get is how does one know if an acct has been blocked by anyone without using twibblock? the only way that there could be any harm (let alone irreperable) is if the account is viewed in twitblock?
If so, these people are assuming you have immense influence/power.
Be flattered :)
August 24th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Oh Tim do something for him !
People block him and he “did not sleep a single second”
But not a single second this person ask himself why people block him !
That’s the problem of your site (before removing the blockers count) :
For the first time of their twitter life you put them in front the REALITY : not everybody likes you !
August 24th, 2009 at 8:38 am
I should mention also that the person who wrote this letter has followed an average of 473 people per day over a 6 month period. The account promotes “affiliate marketing” and weight loss programmes. Somehow it has amassed 85,000 followers.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I think you should refund him his sleep. Maybe 40 winks per 40 blocks? ;)
August 24th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I get the feeling that the people complaining about TwitBlock do not consider themselves as “spam” when they quite clearly are. Anyone that sends updates every minute of their waking life and/or follows hundreds of people a day in the hope that at least a small percentage return the favour may consider themselves as a “service”, but now they are starting to see the true picture they have painted of themselves. A Twitter account doesn’t have to be run by an automated bot to be spam.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Quite right Matt.
And I’d like to point out that my softening of the scoring system was to protect popular users where high follow rates are a result of “following back”, and also to protect people who are blocked out of animosity, or for political and religious views. I wasn’t trying to protect affiliate marketing “entrepreneurs”.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:06 am
85,000 followers on a junk twitter account? That’s a whole lotta bots. He should use TwitBlock!
August 24th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Be honest Tim – you need to also point out that person who you unethically violated their trust by posting this email without permission……
does not post links to his sites in their tweets but does list the 2 sites you mention in his profile, he doesn’t spam, he doesn’t use auto-DMs, he builds relationships, he also promotes his Twitter account off-site, he has volunteered for his community in times of trouble, he helps other Twitter users with their questions & problems via email-Twitter-DM & phone, treats all with respect, etc…. also according to your stats follows 474 people a day & 5 of these people per day don’t follow back. You talk about protecting this persons privacy yet shortly later in comments you provide information exposing him? (sigh….)
Yes – this person is an affiliate marketer & entrepreneur but he also properly uses Twitter by not spamming his links. His sites sell weight loss products, clothing, etc…. which is absolutely “OK”. Your words suggest prejudice to all entrepreneurs/affiliate marketers.
I don’t like spammers on Twitter just as much as everyone else but to misclassify regular entrepreneurs/popular users as spammers/nuisances as your site “initially” did caused false blocks by many people…. that is an absolute fact. Everyone has different reasons to use Twitter & people shouldn’t have vehement anger to those who have amassed many followers for various reasons. I admit that I enjoy having many followers & I also understand the reasons of those who choose not to have many followers. The key is to repect each others choices/opinions & try not to attack different points of view.
In case everyone hasn’t figured out – that person is me. I stood up for what I saw was injustice of many great Twitterers being labeled as spammers & nuisances and having their accounts falsely blocked at a rapid pace. Recent site changes have stopped that effect (Hooray!). I don’t regret my stance because I know it was right. I have been kind to you Tim & have been honest in my thoughts. I would like to think that my words have made a difference improving your site. I am however very saddened to see my private email to you published.
Twitter isn’t a game to me – it is the social media platform I have chosen to hopefully excel in. I don’t want to see that torn apart. I wish you & all Twitter users the best.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I amended this post because I suddenly just realised today .. the “rapid pace” of blocks increasing was actually the rapid pace of people joining TwitBlock and sharing the blocks they had already made.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Twitblock doesn’t block users: users do.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is misinformed, a spammer or (probably) both.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I agree with Julie – people like that need to get a real life.
September 6th, 2009 at 1:04 am
This spammer deserves a slapped across the face for losing sleep over Twitter. I think he should even lose more than sleep, his account should be blocked too.
September 6th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
“It’s Me”
Twitter is a FREE service. You are NOT paying for this service so YOU are not entitled to ANY special privileges. Where do YOU get off complaining about a service that people want to use to preserve their PEACE?
Personally, I do NOT want to be on anyone’s FOLLOW list who has millions of people on it. Especially not marketing affiliates, GURUS, businessmen, “experts” or anyone else promoting themselves at MY expense. So if I find ME on YOUR follow list, you bet your bottom dollar I’ll block you, using Tim’s Program or my own little finger on the Twitter Block button. You don’t need to Complain about Tim’s program. All he did was make it a little easier for those of us who have old computers..you know, the ones with Windows ME 2000, who have to take way too much time playing around going from page to page wasting time looking at sites like yours.
I’m a Nurse, and have a small business too. I’ve blocked 833 followers. I have only 600+ followers, that’s fine. It’s QUALITY I care about, not quantity.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I, as do MANY round the WORLD, fight SPAMMERS & the GARBAGE they pollute our Soc Med with! Your doin a GREAT JOB! You DO tell ppl that the report is only an INDICATOR of POSSIBLE spam & PHYSICALLY check the SUSPECTED profiles THEMSELVES B4 BLOCKING! – TJM
September 6th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Also, to ocdgirl2000 You GO GIRL! I Couldn’t Have Said It Any BETTER! & TO “It’s Me”, Follow ME & See where That Spammin SH*T ends UP! & how MANY of MY humble 500 do EXACTLY the SAME! You R TheJackal’s “MARK”! TJN