Did yo know that the people behind the people of Twitter are starting another service called Chirp? It will be like 15 characters and the challenge is to be witty in that frame work. That alone will kill Tweet tweet twitty pitty bird

Victor the Synic (sp)

I also use the twitter search RSS feature for work. I search for what other people are saying about our company and it gives me a chance to jump in and explain or if they are having a problem, help them with the solution.

I had one guy from a non-profit say on twitter that he loved the service but didn’t like the price because they are a non-profit and don’t get a lot. I contacted him and gave him the discount for non-profits that he was not getting at the time. He didn’t feel comfortable contacting us directly but did post it on Twitter. He was very happy that we heard him and helped him out.

I guess that use of Twitter for marketing can be good, but just random spam is bad bad bad.

Danny, you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Allison, it’s not link bait, it’s a genuine concern about the destructive capability of spam tools like Twitter Getter.

Ignore the autoresponder issue, Twitter are addressing that themselves. Ignore it too because if you don’t use it, because it doesn’t affect you. Ive been on Twitter since 2007 and I have NEVER signed up to a spammer. I take personal responsibility in who I follow. I am picky and choosy. I wish I could say the same for email or browsing (both of which seem to be still going strong after how many years).

Also get some good Twitter clients that will help focus Twitter the way you want it. Tweetdeck and the new Statuzer allow you to create groups, follow searches. Great research tools and noise cutters.

Finally when I first read this my thoughts were “He has missed the point so badly this must be an attempt at link baiting”. With Twitter (like with Captain Planet) the power is YOURS

Twitter will do well by all friendly users by pinching the conduits of automated access; automated garbage cleanup. Tricky, but worth the time, in my opinion.

See any similarities to myspace in Twitter? Any difference between Twitter, Facebook and Myspace in this regard?

Could it be that increased mention by pop-culture media & pundits + displaced complexity from general users + complex access through an API = Twitter becomes a veritable petri dish for spamkers and list-pimps?

After re-reading my comment I feel I stumbled into somewhat of a rant and I apologise for gracing your website with my insanity.

Off topic, I’m liking the new design, the new header is not so much “in your face” now. I presume you are still fiddling with it as the homepage is still the same.

I also don’t see the point of using some 3rd party app in order to make twitter usable. My time is too valuable to sort through the awful signal-to-noise ratio on twitter. Twitter updates my status on my website and facebook.

My RSS feed already includes aggregators that pick up the hot stories from the blogosphere, so I doubt I miss much with retweets. If I have a question, I email people directly or respond in comments where other visitors could benefit from my questions / comments. Why shouldn’t people be able to join your website conversation directly instead of a third party app with loads of downtime?

Twitter followers are akin to facebook friends and digg traffic, and we all know how valuable they are…

Just keep churning out quality content and you’ll be fine…

Over the next month Oprah will bring a new wave of soccer moms and couch potatoes to Twitter and we will all have to put up with their crap.

Twitter is the new Myspace. Kids and losers have taken over the coop.

The blog post notifications are there so that people can choose to use Twitter in preference to their RSS feed. Not that many do, however. RSS is still king and will be for a long time to come.

Sure, I don’t have to follow those who annoy me. But, unless I’m mistaken, there is nothing I can do about the slew of automated messages from Tweeter Getter that is growing every day.

I’m not bashing Twitter. If you read what I’m saying again you might pick up on the point that I’m angry that Twitter is becoming a play ground for marketing drones and attention hungry spammers, hell bent on using every automated tool under the sun. I’m bashing the people who are ruining the system, not the system itself.

I was excited when I heard you were signing up to Twitter but after looking at your twitter stream I’m disappointed. Unfortunately YOU seem to be a Twitter spammer, mostly every tweet in your stream is about new blog posts, that is exactly the kind of people I avoid. I have you in my RSS reader, so why would I follow you on Twitter to get “re-spammed” what is coming through my reader?

You get what you put into Twitter. I’ve made some great contacts and online friends through the service, as well as leads for illustration commissions. I’ve never had a problem with any nefarious spammers and I really can’t see how you have.

It seems that before you even joined Twitter you were against it, which is fine, it is not to everyone’s taste but before you go bashing Twitter, maybe actually use Twitter as a social media tool, rather than another means to continually bombard followers of blog posts, which they probably already know about anyway.

Tweeter Getter will find its nefarious way onto the radar of this new influx of gullible newbies who will probably jump at the chance to follow their divine leader and chase thousands of artificial followers.

And for every gullible newbie that signs up for Tweeter Getter there will be hundreds of new spam messages flying around.

Things are going to get worse in a hurry.

I’ll note your theory and watch with interest, but I think it’s excessive concern at present.

My goal was to seek out people to network and build relationships with. Although that has worked, to an extent, I am turned off by all the “blah, blah, blah”. I do not want to be bothered with spam, or gross personal stuff better left unsaid, etc.

Isn’t the goal for most people to network and get name recognition? My experience is that most people are simply talking and not listening.

And besides, if they are collecting “a large following of like minded idiots” then they really aren’t gaining anything.