Brandice.net Blog

Don’t randomly spam me on LinkedIn when I’m crankily hopped up on Vicodin for my bruised tailbone. Let this be a lesson to you all. ;)

(Click to view full image)

*happy sigh*

I love an excuse to snark someone in the face.

Ohhhhhhhh… *Internetiquette wrath abounds*

No you FREAKIN’ didn’t. You did NOT even follow-spam me and then protect your Twitters to try and ENTICE me into following you back so that I show up as one of your followers and will then see that you are a spammer.

I have to REQUEST to be spammed? Really? Really?!

That’s a whole kind of new low is spammage. I’m pretty sure that spam of this nature will get you a one-way ticket to the fiery depths of hell for being just a straight up douchebag. I hope whoever was smart enough to get the nuances of Twitter and douche enough to use it for evil gets really itchy crabs.

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This has been your Internetiquette rant for today. Stay tuned for further ranting as more netiquette n00bs incur my wrath.

New policy instituted by myself, on behalf of anyone who’s tired of being followed by the following (henceforth named “follow-spammer”):

• Some loser who’s following 43,476 people and has 53 followers in a desperate attempt to be popular or get people to look at .
• Someone who repeatedly unfollows and refollows you over and over again like bratty kid in the candy aisle.

1. When someone follows you, click to view their Twitter profile.

2. If person is obviously a follow-spammer (but not a bot – just block the bots), Twitter the following to your own followers (feel free to personalize) as a heads up (the tiny url is to this entry):

Follow-spammer #BUSTED: @suchandsuch (insert multiple usernames here if you have a few) [http://tinyurl.com/69re28]

3. Rinse and repeat. Give those follow-spammers a bit of shame, and help your own followers to block them before they strike.

4. Don’t spam your own Twitter feed with follow-spammer busts. Spread the busts out, so you don’t annoy your own followers. I’ve been sticking to one per day.

5. NEW TIP/ADDITION: Don’t bother with accounts that are obvious bots, because your exposure of them will do little to nothing. Simply block bot users as you find them and if you see a user that seems to be a real live person follow-spamming, those are the people to bust. :)

*This has been updated as of 7/14/08 to reflect the recommendation of others (take care of multiple usernames per Tweet, only use this once per day, don’t bother exploiting the obvious bots, hashtag for #BUSTED).
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Internetiquette is an ongoing series of writing that contain my thoughts on internet etiquette and how to reduce your jerk footprint on the web.