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Determining spam on Twitter

Posted by docsmooth on 2009/09/11

First written on Twitter:

@docsmooth: Signs of twitspam: bio is tinyurl; <100 updates, >200 following/ers;all updates “from twitfeed”, inc. link; no conversation. Check yourself!

I just went through my followers list on twitblock.org and thought I’d write a bit deeper on this subject.

Ways to determine a twitter spammer – higher scores are more likely spammers:

  • Bio link is tinyurl or bit.ly or other URL shortener. There is *never* a reason to put this in your URL link on Twitter, unless you’re hiding the destination. +10 pts
  • you have more than 200 “friends” and less than 100 updates. +2 pts
  • you have a follower/following ratio below. .5 +2pts
  • Every single tweet has a link. +5 pts
  • Every single tweet is from TwitFeed. +5 pts
  • More than 2 tweets are from an unregistered API app. +8 pts
  • You have never @replied anyone. +1 pts

I generally block anyone above a “9″ score on this scale.

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