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

By: Richard Hyland

Richard Hyland — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:32:35 +0000

Some developers really need to read the Twitter TOS more carefully...

"Get users' permission before:

o sending Tweets or other messages on their behalf. A user authenticating through your application does not constitute consent to send a message."

http://dev.twitter.com/pages/api_terms

By: Brandon Soucie

Brandon Soucie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:26:33 +0000

They are the product…meaning they get to choose how they want it to work. You don't have to police what they do, but you should know at least something about what the product is and how it works before you use it. You gave your blind faith and trust, it's YOUR fault. You didn't read the ToS, it's YOUR fault. All the information is there and easy to work with. You want everything turned off, then turn it off. But the people who CREATED and OWN the application wanted it on by default…and they have every right to.

By: Suzan Jonson

Suzan Jonson — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:48:21 +0000

I read this article. This will help in handling Account on twitter & facebook. thanks for haring this information.
<http://gozoop.com>gozoop>

By: Tye

Tye — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:20:45 +0000

I am about 2 Ice Ages behind you guys and trying to figure this stuff out without brain power like Robert or as fahrni states- where is the frickin “off' button first and not the always 'like” always on/

Keeping up with you folks is like riding a horse to catch up to the bullet train – When you folks state the “wild west' i feel OK on my pony. If this happens to Robert imagine what happens to neophytes like me?

I got the “On' button thing down now – now I have to find the Off button

By: bobfet1

bobfet1 — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:49:10 +0000

I think that Twitter should police this more heavily or else they risk the Facebook problem of having a bunch of apps like Farmville spamming your stream to get users.

By: MacSmiley

MacSmiley — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:49:58 +0000

Glad I tickled your funny bone. But I agree with your point of view about Listorious's practice here.

The problem you've had with Listorious is the very same problem Facebook users (who prefer to be less public than you prefer) have had with the company. Yes, it's our responsibility to make wise choices as to what we share online and what's done with our data, be it as small as a tweet or an entire Facebook profile.

BUT... and it is a big but... it is still the responsibility of the service to have a clear and simple UI to enable those choices to be executed by the user. There's no reason that Reply and Tweet should have been combined into one button. Surprises like the one you had today should always be few and far between.