Comments on: To what extent is SPAM in the eye of the beholder?

By: Mike Portson

Mike Portson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:30:11 +0000

I can’t disagree with an opinion that Twitter is just one huge spam machine – it is one hundred percent truth. And so are other social networking sites, there is nothing strange about it. We live in web marketing times and spammers are just people searching for a way of making money (not exactly fair with other people). Spam a phenomenon that will grow in strength and become one of the most common form of communication in upcoming years.

By: jamesbritt

jamesbritt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:38:12 +0000

"Instead I'm sifting through hundreds of tweets and finding the one or two cries for help where our _free_ solution fixes their problem. Then responding to the individual personally. I consider this to be a completely valid use of Twitter but not everyone in our office agreed so I wanted to get some outside opinions."

That sounds like the exact thing twitter is for. Maybe it's not for everyone (including me, at times), but that quasi-random interaction thing is a feature, not a bug.

Seriously, if people don't want to hear from other people, let them run their own blog with comments turned off. If twitter is a form of micro blogging, then feedback is to be expected.

By: jamesbritt

jamesbritt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:31:59 +0000

I disagree with Dan on being so hardcore about calling something spam. If I make a comment in a public arena (e.g Twitter), then related DMs or replies are to be expected. At least if it's *one* message related to something I posted.

But it's a fine line when deciding what "related" means. If I tweet that I like the show Hell's Kitchen, I am not looking for replies about your restaurant. But maybe your cooking school would interest me.

As for calling attention to your own stuff, I don't see the problem if you're actually addressing someone's question or concern, but I've seen people get all pissy about this. For example, on HN, people ask What time tracking tool do you use? And I tell them "JotBot."

One time I did not say that I sell it. For one person, that was a major faux pas. But my answer was the truth, answered the specific question, and my selling it had nothing to do with my using it ( I actually like me own product!) except perhaps to the extent that, as the owner, I get to make it the product I want.

Some folks get antsy about that, which I think is tied to a sorry culture of self-deprecation: don't toot your own horn and that sort of crap. I say, tell the truth, be honest about yourself and your work, and if you have something good to offer, speak up.

By: scrollinondubs

scrollinondubs — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:55:05 +0000

Dan & David,
Here are examples of the messages I respond to: http://www.scrollinondubs.com/wp-content/upload...
I only respond to people expressing frustration or explicitly asking for help with installing an application.

If I setup a bot to automatically tweet a canned response based on the presence of certain keywords, then that would be SPAM. Instead I'm sifting through hundreds of tweets and finding the one or two cries for help where our _free_ solution fixes their problem. Then responding to the individual personally. I consider this to be a completely valid use of Twitter but not everyone in our office agreed so I wanted to get some outside opinions.

Thanks for your feedback.

sean

By: David

David — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:01:05 +0000

Is web advertising spam? It is absolutely unsolicited, commercial solicitation. Does the ease of ignoring it, help determine whether it is spam or not? Something else? In-your-face web advertising (click to skip, click to make popup go away, etc.) really annoys me, but text ads I can just ignore.

Dan Switzer, I agree with your examples, but what about the case where a tweet is “Gee, I wish Drupal wasn't so hard to install!!!”

By: Dan G. Switzer, II

Dan G. Switzer, II — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:53:39 +0000

I'd define spam as unrequest/unwanted solicitation. If you're send me that tweet out of the blue, then it's spam. If I post a message that says "Drupal rocks!" and you send me a tweet about Drupal on JumpBox, then it's spam.

However, if I say "Can't get Drupal working!!! Need help!", then sending a tweet about a solution is fine.

In simplest form, if you're answering my call for help, then I don't see it as spam. If it's unsolicited, then I see it as spam.

Just my two cents...