Comments on: How brain-amputated developers created the social media plague

By: The Weekly Insider 1-18-10 to 1-28-10

The Weekly Insider 1-18-10 to 1-28-10 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:52:50 +0000

[…] How brain-amputated developers created the social media plague […]

By: robert art

robert art — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:37:13 +0000

If nothing else, this piece is worthy of the “Blog Title of the Year” Award!

By: The Weekly Insider 1-11-10 to 11-15-10

The Weekly Insider 1-11-10 to 11-15-10 — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:26:38 +0000

[…] How brain-amputated developers created the social media plague […]

By: beth charette

beth charette — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:32:47 +0000

Let me second, third and fourth my appreciation for this content.

My husband referred me to your blog for the “truth,” and Dan is a very cautious man.

Twitter was such a great idea with so much promise. I am sorry to hear about the content degradation you describe.

On the surface, it is difficult to see the full picture.

But, Dan says that you have done the work for us, and you are trustworthy, so you have our complete buy-in and support.

By: mohsin

mohsin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:25:28 +0000

@ Sebastian, more than your article above, these last comments of yours has inspired me most. I am always amazed, and equally thankful to you, on the contribution you are making by share such knowledgeable posts with blogger or internet users. And I salute you on these words of yours “which knowledge would you sell to your clients in ten years when today all search/tech bloggers quit, so that you’ve to figure out everything by yourself?”

I am not that technically savvy in particular issues that you raise, but I have deep and sincere respect for your work.
Twitter is actually turning into crap by this bot game. Being an Internet Marketer, I understand that the concept of twitter is fabulous, but the way it is being put into use is terrible.
Keep up the good work.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:42:06 +0000

Jonas, obviously you’re an experienced optimist.

Think a bit farther … which knowledge would you sell to your clients in ten years when today all search/tech bloggers quit, so that you’ve to figure out everything by yourself?

It’s not the Web that’s broken by design. As always, it’s the user’s fault.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:42:34 +0000

In years this is the first post by you that leaves me with the feeling that I don’t care anymore. On my side, the time and money wasted with the idea to educate people is immense.

I love to sell the knowledge to my clients but ranting in blogs is somehow useless. The web is broken by design and we cannot fix it anymore. Sad but true.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:20:54 +0000

Andy, whether such a bot grabs the short URIs from Twitter’s Web UI or via API isn’t the point (although Firehose should increase the overall bot traffic). And yes, ThingFetcher seems to check URIs from tweets for redirects.

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:55:54 +0000

You will probably find your malicious bot is evaluating shortened URIs being displayed on Twitter’s web interface

By: RB

RB — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:11:24 +0000

Even though I really think you are somewhat obsessed with HTTP access logs, redirect chains and URIs in general, I have to strongly agree here.

It took me a while to stumble upon the same ridiculous bot behaviour you describe here. It’s the fucking worst.

I have personally reported ThingFetcher to Rackspace twice, by the way. No dice.