Comments on: Say No To Twitter Stalk-Bots http://www.cssquirrel.com/2008/05/22/say-no-to-twitter-stalk-bots/ One nut's look at the world of web design Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:31:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Kyle http://www.cssquirrel.com/2008/05/22/say-no-to-twitter-stalk-bots/#comment-45 Kyle Fri, 23 May 2008 16:26:22 +0000 http://www.cssquirrel.com/?p=28#comment-45 I hadn't thought about scaling. It's definitely one thing when you've got 10 followers, it's another when you've got over a thousand. The idea of being told how many followers a person has is a good one, so is the service one. I'm doubting Twitter will bother adding the first functionality themselves, though, as they seem to have enough technical issues plaguing them at present. Hmmm. I wonder how hard it'd be to jury-rig something like that. Now I get the feeling I'll be playing mad scientist over the weekend... I hadn’t thought about scaling. It’s definitely one thing when you’ve got 10 followers, it’s another when you’ve got over a thousand.

The idea of being told how many followers a person has is a good one, so is the service one. I’m doubting Twitter will bother adding the first functionality themselves, though, as they seem to have enough technical issues plaguing them at present. Hmmm. I wonder how hard it’d be to jury-rig something like that.

Now I get the feeling I’ll be playing mad scientist over the weekend…

]]> By: Eric Meyer http://www.cssquirrel.com/2008/05/22/say-no-to-twitter-stalk-bots/#comment-44 Eric Meyer Fri, 23 May 2008 12:29:35 +0000 http://www.cssquirrel.com/?p=28#comment-44 I like the idea in theory. Visiting each new follower's page to check, though, isn't a scalable solution. I'm already past the point where I could reasonably do that. And anyway, visiting their pages means being exposed to the spam they're trying to shove at you, so they win by losing. One quick way to address this would be to have Twitter tell you how many accounts a new follower is following in the e-mail notification. Or, alternatively, someone could set up a service like Twitter Quotient (http://web.forret.com/tools/twitter-tq.asp) that you can forward your e-mail notification and it will respond back with the user's stats. Hmmm... I like the idea in theory. Visiting each new follower’s page to check, though, isn’t a scalable solution. I’m already past the point where I could reasonably do that. And anyway, visiting their pages means being exposed to the spam they’re trying to shove at you, so they win by losing.

One quick way to address this would be to have Twitter tell you how many accounts a new follower is following in the e-mail notification. Or, alternatively, someone could set up a service like Twitter Quotient (http://web.forret.com/tools/twitter-tq.asp) that you can forward your e-mail notification and it will respond back with the user’s stats. Hmmm…

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