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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If you know about the Qwitter service, then you may also know what people say about it – that it plain doesn’t work. So for my first Twitter app, I decided to make one that does.
I have been made aware since then that there is also Twitdiff, although I haven’t tried it at time of writing.
If you don’t know about Qwitter, it’s a service that monitors your Twitter followers and emails you if someone unfollows you. My app currently tweets the notification instead, so everyone will know you’ve been qwit.
I’m not offering my app as a public service [yet] I knocked it up in 2 hours and if you know what you’re doing with a LAMP set-up you can download it and run it yourself.
» Download qwitter 0.1.2
Requires PHP >= 5.2.x + json extension, MySQL >= 5.0.45
When I block a commercial user on Twitter I hashtag it #dmblock, a few people have assumed [almost] rightly that DM stands for Direct Message. It could do, buy actually I intended it to stand for Direct Marketing – it could also stand for Data Mining. Read more…
I’ve been forcing myself to Twitter this week. That’s Twitter as verb and a proper noun of course. I say force, because frankly the first time I tried it I didn’t really see the point. But I figured 3 million people can’t be wrong, so I’ve agreed to not only give it some more time, but try and use it properly. Yes, that’s right I was clearly using it wrongly – at least that’s what I’m told by more avid twits than myself, and actually it’s this that interests me most – the idea that you can use a site wrongly. Read more…