This is the app I wrote using the API. It looks at the ratio of follower to followed and blocks folks. Feel free to check it out and offer your suggestions.
http://dogearedpress.com/curtains/ On Sep 8, 12:57 pm, Shannon Clark <shannon.cl...@gmail.com> wrote: > Speaking here more as a user than just as a developer - this approach would > both not work and annoy many users. > > It would not work because it would merely delay the blocks which are the > signals (among others I assume) to twitter that an account is a spammer - > i.e. until people know that an account has followed them no one will know > that the account exists (or very very very few people) and thus no one will > have started to block the account. > > It would also depending on how implemented mean that users who, like myself > (and many many many others) use multiple means of accessing Twitter would > see different information via different means (i.e. perhaps see users in > their followers list via the web who aren't there via applications/api > calls?) > > Already the emails vs online list of followers is NOT very accurate - I have > been seeing followers on my followers list who are NOT generating emails to > me about the new follower (though others on the list before and later after > a new follower are generating such emails). > > I try to go through my followers list and purge spammers (and block them) > once a week or so - an amazing number of clear spam accounts are NOT being > auto detected and blocked of late. > > Shannon > > On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 9:50 AM, Craig Hockenberry < > > craig.hockenbe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > An added benefit to this approach is it adds a disincentive for SPAM. > > Spammers don't waste time on things that no one will ever see... > > > -ch > > > On Sep 8, 9:12 am, Craig Hockenberry <craig.hockenbe...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > As we're all aware, there has been a huge influx of spammy followers > > > (e.g. @Girl12345.) > > > > These accounts are deactivated quickly enough, but we're seeing cases > > > where they accounts hang around in the user's follower list. From the > > > application's point-of-view, there's no way to know that the > > > @Girl12345 account has been suspended so it goes to load more > > > information (e.g. the relationship status.) This results in a 404 > > > being returned. > > > > For the user, this presents a couple of problems: > > > > 1) They are being shown users who no longer exist and get errors if > > > they try to query these users. > > > 2) Some users find these (mostly adult) followers to be offensive and > > > don't want to see them. > > > > I'm thinking about how our application might go about helping with > > > these problems, but I can't find any good solutions. The main problem > > > is that the followers list contains old data (that hasn't expired from > > > a cache.) > > > > Would it be possible for Twitter to delay the addition of followers to > > > the user's list? Presumably, most of these spammy followers are > > > identified in the first 24-48 hours. If a user doesn't get flagged in > > > that period of time, then they get added during the follower list > > > update. > > > > -ch
