23:31 [nick] man nice
23:31 [nick] my twitter account has been suspended
23:31 [nighty-] lol wtf
23:31 [nighty-] why?
23:31 [Durz|lnx] oh noes
23:31 [nick] no idea
23:31 [Durz|lnx] gonna be climbing the walls within a couple of days
23:31 [Durz|lnx] trainspotting style
I’ve been a pretty keen user of Twitter for about 18 months now, but that all stopped last night thanks to my account being suspended due to ‘suspicious activity’:
This happened while I was using the service as per usual; I noticed an authentication failure message from my Twitter client, checked on the site, and saw the above. There isn’t any immediate or obvious reason for this, but according to the relevant section from the Twitter help site, it was one (or more!) of these things:
- Terms of Service Violations
- Technical Abuse
- Spam Investigation
Given that I was using the service via a pretty popular client, doing normal shit such as replying to people, I can’t see how it’s any of the first two. But ah, spam investigation – that rings a very small bell. The only thing I can think of there is that I mentioned Cialis and Viagra when commenting on a spam email I’d received for Tamiflu. But surely Twitter’s spam filtering isn’t so overly zealous to suspend an account for the mere mention of these words, regardless of context?
I logged a ticket in appeal – which was immediately set to resolved, what the fuck – reopened said ticket, and am now awaiting some kind of update. I’m not going to hold my breath though, because apparently “accounts may be suspended for a minimum of 30 days for research.”
All this comes two days before I’m due to jet off to sunnier climes for a couple of weeks, which is a shame as normally Twitter is what I’d used to spam update my friends with what I’ve been up to. The wonders of the modern web eh? I’m almost tempted to do a Fletch and fuck social networking off, although ironically he still uses Twitter. Maybe I’ll update this thing more often instead?! Fancy that!
Update: This has been fixed! I had literally no communication from Twitter themselves – no update on the support website, no emails, nada. Then I woke up Friday morning with an email in my Inbox saying I had a new follower, so I checked my account and it had been reinstated. The new follower was, of course, a spam account.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
See this is what irks me about Twitter.
I like you Nick, but I don’t particularly care what you’re doing this specific second, or what you’ve got planned for the day (unless it involved me and thus merited my cognisance).
I could care less about the sort of micro-events that come and go in most peoples lives. Telling me the train was 10 minutes late when there was no grander consequence is just frivolous.
The only concession I’m prepared to give Twitter is that as a communications medium (along with the fact that many phones have clients now) it enables people exposed to actual meritous world events to give eye-witness accounts quickly. The reactions around the World to the first black President of the United States being elected was interesting. Minute-by-minute commentary on the Iranian post-election protests were likewise quite fascinating.
Unfortunately the 1% of cases where the technology is used to meaningful end is tainted by the 99% of users with delusions of self-importance, with the banal dross they expel for other like-minded cretins “following” them to lap up. It’s a self-perpetuating whirlwind of excrement.
:(
It’s one of those things that you either buy into or you don’t. I understand your points regarding the supercilious and over-bearing nature of large number of Twitter’s userbase, but in general the people I follow post commentary that’s of interest to me in one way or another.
The corollary to this is, of course, that it’s just another great way to waste some time.