Is TrueTwit up to the Task of Reducing Twitter Spam? I don’t think so!

Spam on Twitter is an obvious and growing problem. I mean, many of the tweets in my stream are about “how to make money on Twitter” or some loser trying to sell an eBook. Don’t even get me started on auto-DMs – especially when I tried getting notifications on my mobile! I don’t want to check your Facebook profile, I am not interested in voting for whatever you want me to vote up and I do not want to know about what new porno movies you have on your disgusting website!

Yes, Twitter spam is getting on my nerves and might be a deal breaker unless Twitter does something about it.

TrueTwit.com: Nice interface but not a solution to Twitter's spam problem!

What’s spam on Twitter?

Hmm, I think you already have a bunch of examples pop into your mind. It’s not only the annoying list I mentioned above, but also Twitter bots, numerous fake Twitter accounts as well as spammers trying to use trending topics to gain exposure. I am sure there is more, but these are the examples off the top of my head right now.

There are many tools attempting to solve this issue, but recently, I ran into and tested out TrueTwit.com, and I was not too impressed by the logic behind it. Here is why…

TrueTwit: A new attempt to stop Twitter spam – NOT going to work!

I’m not trying to be hard on the folks behind TrueTwit, but I really do not believe that they have the solution for spam. Actually, I do not think they even have a part of it! I like the UI design of TrueTwit and the fact that they’re using OAuth, but:

1. Why would I want to verify people that follow me? I want to verify people whom I follow and see their tweets in my time line! Really, this is a major flaw – TrueTwit team, please explain the logic behind that. I believe you are solving a problem that does not need to be solved!
2. Spammers can be human. I actually believe that most spammers are humans – and the non-humans are being suspended by Twitter.
3. Bots are owned by humans, whom are able to punch in the CAPTCHA and register their bot as legit. The easiest system to crack with a one time interaction. No?
4. People do not trust external links, which might lead to loss of potential followers.
5. If a user is just a little popular, this means that he/she will get so many emails per day from TrueTwit, that might be even more annoying than spam.
6. CAPTCHA tests are not that secure, although it might give spammers a harder time creating their bots.

Bottom line…

Just my 2 cents. The important topic here is how to stop Twitter spam? Should Twitter implement an internal reporting system and take the load of detecting spammers off our shoulders? Would this even work? I might consider a tweep advertising a “Twitter tips” ebook spam, while others would find it useful.