Comments on: Be Careful with Twitter Lists

By: Rob Dore

Rob Dore — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:43:32 +0000

I haven’t been caught out by this but this is very useful information. Particularly useful for business users on twitter such as myself.

By: Heads Up!! « Coolwired’s Social Media Blog

Heads Up!! « Coolwired’s Social Media Blog — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:15:36 +0000

[...] http://www.justgabe.com/2009/11/11/be-careful-with-twitter-lists/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)No TitleTwitter Me MadAre Your Salespeople Using Twitter? [...]

By: Gabe

Gabe — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:43:25 +0000

Hi Donna,
Glad you are now checking the lists but I believe the porn spam is separate. Everyone is getting that garbage. A later post that I wrote helps to deal with it. -Gabe

By: Donna DeVane

Donna DeVane — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:40:08 +0000

Thank you so much for this information. I saw that I was on lists, hadn’t thought to check what the lists were actually about. I wonder if that’s why I’ve gotten some porn spam the last few days. Will go check now.

Love light joy,
Donna

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:31:30 +0000

They are API’s doing this, and I found out also. However not only can you block and report, you can lock your lists so no one can get to them. The only catch in that is they can still go through who you follow, of course that is also locked.

By: This Week in Twitter for 11/13/2009 « Church Mojo

This Week in Twitter for 11/13/2009 « Church Mojo — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:24:41 +0000

[...] Use the New Twitter List Feature Duct Tape Marketing gives you more reasons to get your list on. Be Careful with Twitter Lists Gabe O’Neill looks at the downside of lists. The lesson here is if your church gets on some [...]

By: Gabe

Gabe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:03:22 +0000

No problem, Mark. I’m not sure if it’s as sinister as all that – I think it is more of a random thing. A few services such as Twitter_Tips and Socialnet_Daily picked up the post, but as more similar services like that picked it up, their descriptions ended up further and further away from the actual list that I was on. They said things like “You could be on a sexual predator’s list” meaning that the predator himself had you on his list. The originator was the opposite – one who was supposedly “outing” these types by creating lists of sex traffickers and predators, etc. As I mentioned, they also chose Regis and Kelly which leads me to believe there are no keywords involved.

Interestingly enough, I just looked and the account is still active… -Gabe

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:52:49 +0000

I didn’t go look at your twitter account until after I commented (my bad, I should have done that first). I’m now wondering if it’s the word “kids” in your user id that caused you so much woe. We’re dealing with the bottom of the barrel when we’re talking about those who traffic in that kind of stuff, so now my guess is that they trolled for key words and attached themselves to you that way. Good luck with the battle and hopefully it’s all taken care of from here on…

By: Gabe

Gabe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:08:59 +0000

Thanks Mark. Having the Twitter ID “KidsAreHeroes” you bet I am watching who follows me. I “report as spam” all porn bots instantly which is nice because that automatically blocks them as well.

From the level of the interest in this post I believe this may either be very new or an isolated incident. Only one other person said that they were followed by the same account. In my experience though, there are no “isolated incidents” on Twitter. I will be as diligent about what lists I appear on as I am who follows me. -Gabe

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:01:18 +0000

I have to ask: Were diligent in regularly cleaning out the porn bots that follow accounts like so many cyber-barnacles? It’s very possible that if you have a lot of sexually oriented users following you, their high number or ratio attracted them to you.

I make a point of blocking any obvious porn bots that travel my way (although it’s possible a few have made it through) and haven’t had any of the problems you’re reporting here.

On the other hand, I could have just been lucky and none of this applies (only the guys inside twitter know). So, as you point out, the lesson here kids is that we need to stay sharp & not let our twitter accounts got on autopilot.