TrueTwit Validation…Seriously?
Are you one of those who use TrueTwit Validation service? How’s that going for you? TrueTwit is, IMHO, the most annoying twitter service available. I understand the premise, stop or reduce the amount of Spam in your time line. Does it do this? No, it really doesn’t. What it does do is annoy your possible followers. One of the reasons for this service is the auto-follow feature. Now, if I am going through the process of filling out the captcha, then I basically expect a follow from you. Eight out of ten times I don’t see that. So now I have basically paid for the privilege of following you. That’s kind of arrogant, don’t you think?
- What kind of trust do we instill if we are automatically distrustful of those who follow us?
- TrueTwit is time consuming. One isn’t a problem but when you must validate five or six in a row, that gets rather expensive.
- Twitter is about communication, while TrueTwit shuts that line down before it even has a chance.
- It will protect you from Spambots, but many spammers are humans. Therefore the captcha process here is useless, to an extent.
- @CommonSenseAds summed it up nicely stating, “Validation services don’t stop spammers, just people too busy to bother, which are normally the ones you want to know.
“
Are you worried about a cluttered feed? Consider using clients like Tweetdeck or Seesmic. You can control your feeds by using groups and lists. Again, I completely understand what TrueTwit is trying to do, but is it really worth annoying a few hundred or a few thousand people with auto-DMs just to stop a couple of spambots? Come on, let’s do our due diligence and keep the lines of communication open. Look into your new followers and decide for yourself if they are worth the follow. Don’t leave it up to yet another bot. That’s my soapbox for the week. I’m done, but I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on TrueTwit
12 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Tweets that mention TrueTwit Validation...Seriously? | Anocial -- Topsy.com - [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JustUsLeeg. JustUsLeeg said: What kind of trust do we instill if we ...
- Are We Too Worried About How Others Are Using Twitter? | Anocial - [...] last post was about the use of TrueTwit Validation Service, and should you really be using it or any ...
Humm good argument but I have to disagree – Here is why. I used TrueTwit for about 3 months just to test it out and see if I really noticed less spam. I did, get less spam but what I also noticed was that people would not follow me as readily as they would have without it. Did I regret using it? No, it was a great basis for an article and unlike most users I did follow the people who took the time to fill out the captcha. After all they took the time to fill it out.
Funny thing I did have a lot of flack about it, I eventually stopped using it for no other reason than trying to explain it was a “testing” phase in order to look at actual data of new followers vrs no followers. Have I seen a big difference, no… have I learned anything from this experience, sure I even wrote a post about it
http://level343.com/article_archive/2009/03/19/my-rules-for-following-on-twitter/ – Thanks for sharing another point of view.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
2
You are the first pro-TrueTwit person I have found. You do make part of my point in that you found that people tended not to follow you as readily, although your overall experience was a positive one. I think that a main point in your positive experience was that you followed back those who took the time to validate.
Thanks for your input!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
Strikes me as a sound a reasonable argument for not using truetwit authentication.
Marjorie
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
Yeah, yeah whilst it’s slightly annoying to simply enter a captcha code if it’s truly someone you want to follow it’s hardly a big deal!
People are increasingly sophisticated with twitter bots, relentless adverts … etc TrueTwit.com gives you a heads-up on it. Makes for less trash / noise tweets in your timeline.
Now let me post this after I’ve entered *the CAPTCHA Code*
lol
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
@encoderX3G
Very true. People are getting much more sophisticated, but I found very little decrease in how much spam I encountered. In fact, the majority of the spam I receive now are @ replies from accounts I am not following and the aren’t following me. True Twit won’t guard against that.
There are those who find value in it. More power to them. I simply did not.
Thanks for taking the time to weigh in.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
4 
0
It really is an inconvenience to have to go fill it out. Plus, most people don’t trust random links. Directing your followers to a third-party site to fill out an activation field just seems silly.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
I wasn’t able to see the Capchas in Opera. I had to switch to IE every time I needed to validate. Even then, their Capchas were so tough I had to reload 2-3 times to get one I could read. Way too much hassle.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
4 
0
My biggest complaint against TrueTwit is that the captchas are almost impossible to read. I usually have to refresh 4-5 times before I get one I can decipher. That makes it a HUGE pain in the ass, so I’m officially on strike against it.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
For me the whole thing is a giant pain in the ass, and then it doesn’t even deliver what it promises. Thanks for adding your thoughts.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
For two years I’ve just let my Twitter account (thequotemaster) grow based on RTs and the hashtag (#quote or #quotes), but I decided that I’d rather have 10,000 followers than 1,000, so I’m on a pretty aggressive campaign to build up my list. (Using TweetBig at the moment.)
As a result, I’ve seen my first TrueTwit challenge in the last week and am now getting a half dozen a day. As a long-time e-mail publisher I’m used to this sort of thing, Boxbee being the current plague, so I just go deal with the Captcha. No big deal, I’m actively working on gaining followers and that’s part of the price.
I don’t have any problem with their images, I’m probably hitting 95% of them as long as I don’t try them when I’m tired.
But if I were just Joe Schmo bopping along with a low-volume personal Twitter account? I doubt that I’d waste my time.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
If you’ve ever tried to sign-up or validate your identity from a mobile device, the last thing you need is Captcha codes – that usually delete your password BEFORE you enter the code. It usually takes ten friggen minutes to do it. There has tio be a beter way to protect yourself and your followers.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
And when it comes down to it, TrueTwit doesn’t actually stop anything. It is unable to keep you from following anyone. If you ignore the request to validate or even fail it, you still follow the account. Completely useless.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0