A really nasty trend: apps that write to Twitter or Facebook without user understanding/approval

June 9, 2010 By

Today I spammed my Twitter followers. I didn’t really know that I was doing that. And that pisses me off.

You’ve probably seen this kind of spam. It usually comes when someone you are following wins a mayor badge on Foursquare. Sometimes you don’t even realize it went out. How many people watch their outbound tweets very closely? I don’t.

But today I tried a new feature from Listorious that lets me answer questions from people who visit my Listorious page. I started answering the dozens of questions that both showed up from the service as well as from people who left questions there. I didn’t notice that the button said “reply and tweet.” Hey, do you read everything closely? Do you understand what that means? That it will shove that answer over to Twitter? I didn’t.

All of a sudden I was getting complaints from people who were getting spammed to death.

Yikes.

Then I went and tried to figure out how to turn it off. I couldn’t find a setting. Keep in mind, this is to answer questions left over on Listorious. Why was it spamming Twitter? Where was the off button? I finally went to Twitter’s connection page http://twitter.com/settings/connections and told it to not allow anything else from Listorious.

Listorious isn’t the only one that does this kind of stuff. Foursquare does it a lot. I can’t figure out how to turn off all Twittering on my Android app for Foursquare.

Hootsuite did it too. They forced you to send out a tweet simply to try a beta of one of their new versions (they don’t do that anymore, they tell me).

This stuff pisses me off. You should NEVER write to Twitter on my behalf without making it VERY clear that it’s about to do that.

But, somehow, I feel we’re about to see more apps that spam Twitter. It makes me itchy and far less likely to turn on connections to other apps like Twitter and Facebook.

Oh, and Twitter needs to add filtering to protect against this kind of spam. “Hide all Listorious messages” would be an awesome new feature for Twitter to add.

UPDATE: I called Gregory, who runs Listorious, and he said it was an honest mistake and that he didn’t think through the implications of turning that feature on. I told him that’s not good enough and that this feature really pissed me off. It took me from someone that was very evangelistic about his service to someone who has blocked his service within minutes.

Filed Under: Web
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  • iagree

    This is seriously messed up I’ve had this happen to many times. It’s time for EVERY setting on every app. to be “OPT OUT” by default. If I want it to tweet to my account then I’ll go looking for it. Sorry to hear that Scoble.

  • iagree

    This is seriously messed up I’ve had this happen to many times. It’s time for EVERY setting on every app. to be “OPT OUT” by default. If I want it to tweet to my account then I’ll go looking for it. Sorry to hear that Scoble.

  • @lawduck

    I have to agree with Mr. Soucie. From your post:

    “I didn’t notice that the button said ‘reply and tweet.’ Hey, do you read everything closely? Do you understand what that means? That it will shove that answer over to Twitter? I didn’t.”

    First off, yes, I do read things closely, particularly on the web, and particularly when I’m using a service for the first time. You didn’t notice, and I suppose that’s fine. Suggesting that they’re not adequately disclosing what’s going to happen when you click the button, though, is nonsense. Suggesting that, even if you had read the button, you wouldn’t have understood that “Reply and Tweet” means “post this here and also on Twitter” is astonishing.

    Every Thanksgiving a not insignificant number of people drop a frozen turkey into a vat of boiling grease and the resulting explosion creates a fire of such ferocity that it usually burns the house to the ground. Are you going to champion them next?

  • @lawduck

    I have to agree with Mr. Soucie. From your post:

    “I didn’t notice that the button said ‘reply and tweet.’ Hey, do you read everything closely? Do you understand what that means? That it will shove that answer over to Twitter? I didn’t.”

    First off, yes, I do read things closely, particularly on the web, and particularly when I’m using a service for the first time. You didn’t notice, and I suppose that’s fine. Suggesting that they’re not adequately disclosing what’s going to happen when you click the button, though, is nonsense. Suggesting that, even if you had read the button, you wouldn’t have understood that “Reply and Tweet” means “post this here and also on Twitter” is astonishing.

    Every Thanksgiving a not insignificant number of people drop a frozen turkey into a vat of boiling grease and the resulting explosion creates a fire of such ferocity that it usually burns the house to the ground. Are you going to champion them next?

  • http://fahrni.ws fahrni

    Are they just following Facebook's lead? Everything is “open”, which means you want to share everything, all the time, without having to think about it?

    I don't like these kinds of defaults either. I should have to opt IN, not OUT.

    Thanks for writing about this Robert.

  • http://www.shotbeak.com shotbeak

    'Reply and tweet'. That seems pretty straightforward. What else would it do? But yes, I agree, sites should give greater (and more transparent) control when it comes to issues like this.

    To go from evangelist to blocking it is a tad drastic don't you think? It wasn't entirely their fault imho.

  • http://chrisrechtsteiner.tumblr.com Chris Rechtsteiner

    The Tumblr to Facebook hooks are messed up, too. It can be verified at http://apps.facebook.com/tumblr-feed/.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    It is TOTALLY their fault. All these app developers WANT to build viral features that get you to spam your friends. They want to make it hard to figure out and hard to control and hard to turn off.

  • http://twitter.com/MatthewBooks Matthew Books

    If anything these services should allow you to send selected content to Twitter. “Send this question to Twitter?” “You earned the X Badge, Tweet it?” As well as add filtering for those who don't even want to be bothered with it.

  • http://hapnin.com/users/2 theschnaz

    I agree, twitter spam is rough. I'm really happy tweek deck has filters so as a user, I at least have some control.

  • eolai

    When you tweeted that you liked the new look of Listorius I went over to check it out. Presented with the oAuth login I left because I couldn't see a reason why it wanted to update my twitter account. I wasn't even going to spend time looking for an off button as I suspected the default was on.

    These days unfortunately I don't start applications by giving my trust.

  • http://www.iulianionescu.com/ Iulian Ionescu

    I totally agree! More apps these days want to get people to use them by spamming a user's friends with information, hoping that those friends will find that extra cool and go join themselves. I think this attitude will hurt those apps in the long run because high profile users will stop using them when they see endless complaints… Good writing!

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    Totally. I should have known then that they were gonna spam my followers.

  • teampoop

    I'll take autobot spam over retweets any day. Course I agree that it should be clearer that you are spamming twitter.

    Then again, you had to fill out your twitter name and password in order for it to ping your account, so it shouldn't have been a complete surprise.

  • http://twitter.com/zhephree Zhephree

    Foursquare's Twitter and Facebook settings are EXTREMELY obvious! try http://foursquare.com/settings and unchecking everything Twitter-related

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    They are NOT obvious on the Android app. I'm looking right now and can't find the setting. Foursquare sent out a mayorship announcement on my behalf the other night. Really nasty.

    • Jon

      had the same problem, i connected my facebook acct to my 4sq acct to check for friends on the service. Then the other night i was out, checked in somewhere (but was careful to NOT tell my friends, twitter or facebook) became the mayor & boom – 4sq decided to post i became mayor to my facebook & twitter streams causing ppl who i DIDNT want to know where i was – know exactly where i was….

    • Jon

      had the same problem, i connected my facebook acct to my 4sq acct to check for friends on the service. Then the other night i was out, checked in somewhere (but was careful to NOT tell my friends, twitter or facebook) became the mayor & boom – 4sq decided to post i became mayor to my facebook & twitter streams causing ppl who i DIDNT want to know where i was – know exactly where i was….

  • Philbradley

    I'm sorry, but it's perfectly clear on Foursquare (at least on the iPhone app), when you sign up for the service and when you check in somewhere. Formspring (similar to Listorius as far as I can tell) also clearly gives you options for posting to Twitter/Facebook. Automatic posting and making it hard to turn off I would agree is absolutely not on, but people have to take responsibility for the choices that they make. I'd also echo your plea that Twitter should give us the option of blocking terms, but then who uses the raw interface these days? Plenty of other apps do let you filter.

  • http://twitter.com/MatthewBooks Matthew Books

    At least in FourSquare's defense their tweets about becoming a mayor and winning a badge are limited, unless you're some kind of transient or traveling salesman.

  • http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/ Mike Lee

    Totally agree. Writing to Twitter should be an extra control and opt-in by default.

  • http://www.venturevoice.com gregory

    It was good speaking with you on the phone. I hope that my apology for the confusion, my team's track record making quality products on Twitter for over a two years, and our upcoming change will be enough to earn back your trust.

    We design products rapidly and thought that putting “Reply and Tweet” (screenshot of box in question: http://drop.io/listoriousui/asset/reply-and-twe…) on the button would be clear. After seeing the confusion, we're adding a checkbox to tweet it so it will be very clear. Thanks for bringing the issue to our attention.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    The iPhone app was clear. The Android app is NOT. I just went to the web page and changed my settings there. I swear I set them before NOT to tweet out. But I think the Android app reset them.

  • http://www.randomlyaccessed.com stevefarnworth

    I can see no need for the apps to spam like that. I don't mind apps tweeting automatically, but that's only when I've *done* something. Posted a message/comment with there being a tick box asking whether to tweet (don't mind if it's ticked automatically, just so it's an option).

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    Also, sometimes you set stuff without really understanding the consequences. Listorious didn't warn me what the consequences would be “we'll send all your answers over to Twitter too, so beware.” These services WANT You to spam your Twitter followers so they make it a bit hard to figure out what the consequences are.

    • Philbradley

      Sure, so you start by doing it slowly, one thing at a time. If the app is doing something you don’t want, go back and change the settings, or stop using it until you sort it out. I’m not entirely in disagreement with you on this, and it’s not on. However, people *have* to take responsibility for their own actions and choices.

    • Philbradley

      Sure, so you start by doing it slowly, one thing at a time. If the app is doing something you don’t want, go back and change the settings, or stop using it until you sort it out. I’m not entirely in disagreement with you on this, and it’s not on. However, people *have* to take responsibility for their own actions and choices.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    Yeah, that's true, which is why Foursquare didn't get me to write this post, but I'm seeing more and more of this kind of spam.

  • http://twitter.com/john_jordan John Jordan ✔

    When you signup on Foursquare, you select if you want it to send out. Also on the screen, you should have a Twitter and FB icon. if greyed out they dont tweet, if highlighted they do. If yours hasnt been tweeting and then did that night, i'm going to say its user error.

  • http://blog.jeffharbert.com/ Jeff Harbert

    Totally agree with you, Robert. I was so glad when the latest versions of Tweetdeck added global filters so I don't have to see Foursquare updates (among other things) anymore. That the default is opt-in for certain sites like Listorious is a huge problem. Social media in particular has gotten to the point where filters are becoming a necessity. Search results, too. So many companies have bought popular keywords that many search results are becoming borderline useless to me. I wrote about this very thing a while back, if you're interested: http://j5h.us/n

  • http://www.shotbeak.com shotbeak

    I agree with you on the fact that developers want to shove viral features into apps in order to beguile unknowing twitter users to tweet. And I can imagine them making it hard to turn off, for precisely that reason.

  • http://twitter.com/zhephree Zhephree

    Account settings aren't in any of the apps (The API doesn't have an endpoint for it). I dunno, just seems obvious to me that if a website needs a setting changed I, you know, go to that website.

  • http://jalada.co.uk Jalada

    I think we're seeing Twitter clients respond to this kind of thing. Tweetdeck has added a global filter and at Twitterfall we've supported global exclusions (http://twitterfall.com/featurepage.html#excludi…) for quite some time. The next step might be for these filters to also allow filtering by service, e.g. service:foursquare much the same as you could do on Friendfeed (and I think Google Buzz?).

    Hey, I just gave myself an idea for a feature on Twitterfall.

  • http://blog.jeffharbert.com/ Jeff Harbert

    I hope you mean opt-out by default.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    I don't remember it asking me. Maybe it did and I hit “OK” too fast. Do you read all 35 pages of the iTunes TOS too? I don't.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    What about those of us who don't use the Web much anymore. Certainly not for location-based services. I never even thought of going to foursquare.com for that. I kept looking on my Android phone for it.

  • Randal

    It was an opt-in. Hence the “reply and tweet”
    It should be more obvious that it was an opt-in. Both parties are at fault.

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    It was NOT opt in. I never remember Listorious telling me it would Tweet every answer because I approved something. Anyway, Gregory knows he didn't make it clear enough (see his answer here).

  • Randal

    Is the Mayorship a different setting than telling your friends when you check-in? Cause there's a spot for turning off friend notification in the preferences…

  • http://flapic.amplify.com Flavio

    On Foursquare, just go on Settings from PC (not from smartphone) and uncheck the boxes allowing it to send tweets everytime you checkin or become mayor. You can always decide if you want to send a specific checkin-tweet (at least it is possible on Symbian).

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    There is on the web, but not on Foursquare's Android app, which is pretty much how I use Foursquare now.

  • Randal

    You don't remember them telling you, except for where it said “reply and tweet”… You made a mistake by not reading. Own up to it…

  • http://scobleizer.com Scobleizer

    On the web? What's that? :-)

  • http://twitter.com/avolovoy Alexey Volovoy

    as said before there is no endpoint on foursquare API to do that. However there is Additional settings option on the settings screen which will take you there

  • http://twitter.com/avolovoy Alexey Volovoy

    No android app doesn't reset twitter settings. If your twitter account is link to foursquare and you uncheck the box on the server – tweet is not set, unless you check “tell twitter” from the checkin screen. In such case tweet gonna be send but once and just for that checkin.

  • http://twitter.com/zeidel Richard Zeidel

    viral spread is determined by satisfied users/subscribers not driven by applications looking to push their message. Forcing users is a strategy that will ultimately backfire.

  • http://twitter.com/LarryOrtiz Larry Ortiz

    it's common enough that I always check. If you've entered your twitter info then you need to check when it's set to post. and when posting I read before I click. Example. I believe it's 4square were if you check-in, by default there is a switch set to post to twitter or facebook. But it's not hidden and I haven't encountered a case were it was. Even this case, you can to have provided twitter information AND you were clicking on a “post and tweet” button. there was no subterfuge.

  • http://twitter.com/smadison smadison

    Really? The settings look pretty obvious to me. YOU set up your own foursquare setting–
    Send a tweet when:
    * I check-in
    * I become mayor
    * I unlock a badge

    facebook
    Linked to: <your fb acct>
    Update my stream when:
    * I check-in
    * I become mayor
    * I unlock a badge

    And on the Android app, you get to choose whenever you check in. The default is only to spam your foursquare friends, but allows you to add tweets and fb updates.

    I agree that the nature of social sharing is inherently spammy, but if you really want totally control over your social stream stick to a single point of entry and update entirely manually. It would seem that the intent of web3.0 is to become even more information saturated. Keeping this in check will be key.

  • http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/ Mike Lee

    I thought opt-in means you aren't included in the functionality, unless you explicitly click on some button (hence opting into it). Or, did I have too much coffee and am totally out of my mind?

  • http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/ Mike Lee

    Just to play devil's advocate, isn't that like saying people who don't know how to operate the remote controls for VCRs at fault for not reading the instructions?

    Regardless of who's “fault” it is, a great product is one that doesn't need instructions, IMHO.

  • http://blog.jeffharbert.com/ Jeff Harbert

    'Default' it the key word here. If it's opt-in by default, it opts you in automatically, like Foursquare does with Twitter updates.

  • JohanVanRooyen

    “Also, sometimes you set stuff without really understanding the consequences.”

    If your'e going to play with fire you ought to expect get burned from time to time – especially if you don't take the trouble to try and understand the consequences of your actions.

  • http://jalada.co.uk Jalada

    OK, this sounded like a good idea, so I just added it as a feature to Twitterfall: http://bit.ly/aB0syq

  • michelletackabery

    OMG all developers who are commenting need to SHUT UP now. Developers rarely listen to users when they make something and this comment thread is proof. Scoble said TWICE he's not using the web to get to the app — are you paying attention? In another year no one will go to your web site to do anything, they'll be doing it from a gadget in their hand and the web will be everywhere connected to everything. Whatever your app does, it should be transparent to the user all the time. Don't hide behind caveat emptor.

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