The new Twitter Mafia is True Twit Validation Service. If you follow people on Twitter, you have no doubt received the following message in a Direct Message or DM:
“Xxx uses TrueTwit validation service. Please follow this link so Xxx can be sure you are a legitimate follower: http://truetwit.com/…”
Usually the person who sends this message to you doesn’t even follow you, so there is no way to reply to them! Here is a person who does not follow you, asking you to prove to them that you are a real person and not a bot! Are we a little carried away with this notion? There are far too many applications built to exploit and take advantage of this fear, including the TwitBlock.org site. (Please see my story on that fiasco!) After all, some bots are useful, too, but aside from that, this mobster tactic plays out just like in real life.
How to be Gangsta Spammy
Create fear: Fear that there is nothing but bots on Twitter and you must defend yourself from them.
Do something big or take advantage of a situation and use it for PR buzz: The recent denial of service attacks on Twitter has served as fodder for these sites.
Offer False Protection: Come into the Twitter community offering protection against bots and spam while really only creating MORE bots and spam!
Create Outsiders: Declare that anyone who does not use your product or service is spammy or a bot and not deserving of a follow!
Shake ‘em Down to reinforce fear: Collect a fee or sign in information, such as Twitter credentials and email addresses.
Create more problems to “protect” people from – next service from True Twit will be how to block True Twit DMs – you see?
True Twit has to go! This is a ridiculous service that offers NO PROTECTION and really no service whatsoever! If you want to do something for your Twitter community, sign up with @Jesse’s SocialToo.com and use that service to stop auto DMs and list Twitter Ids you suspect are auto-Dming you and contributing to the REAL spam.
Don’t fall prey to this “mob or herd mentality” ~! You don’t need a bot to tell you who is a real person and who is a bot! If you are seriously in doubt, look at the page of the person, and see where their tweets originate. It says right on Twitter’s page “from web” or “from TweetDeck” or “from API”. There are a variety of services people can use to tweet. I use TweetVisor myself, and also an auto-feed for my blog “Twitter Feed” Sometimes I employ “HooteSuite” for a timed tweet. Occasionally, I have a lot of information to share and will use timed tweeting to keep me out of Twitter Jail~! (Twitter Jail is when you exceed the TPH or Tweet per hour, now set at a generous 150 up from 100 to accommodate applications.)
The use of these services does not necessarily mean someone is a bot! It may mean they are not at their computer at that time. If this truly offends you, you decide. Simply unfollow. Really, those are kind of nice, in my opinion, since if no one else is tweeting while you are standing in line at the drugstore reading Twitter, one of those feeds may say something just right, perhaps a joke or a quote to make your day. On the other hand, if you look at someone and all they do is tweet from an API or feed service and you do not like the content for reading and retweeting, then you may well unfollow based on that determining for yourself that this is a fully automated account that does not fit your needs.
Do you honestly believe any bot, like True Twit Validation can better gauge these things for you than you can for yourself? How automated is a person that needs to have a bot discern whether an account is worth following? Do you really believe that you are following a higher quality person because they were led into a mob mentality by this gangsta spammy service? I do not fault anyone who is using the service. It sounds like a good thing: reduce spam on Twitter, but the second you realize it is doing the exact opposite and CREATING spam on Twitter, please GET RID OF IT~! Drive it out of town as if it is running through the streets dumping paper everywhere! Thank you, Follow-Friends!
by Anita Nelson
More Articles from Anita Nelson at ModelSupplies
Help! I Don’t Show Up In Twitter Search!
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TwitBlocking – Shocking New Twitter Trend Brings Me To My Knees
What It’s Like To Be #TwitterSuspended
5 “Get Followed Fast” Finds!
My Twitter Mosaic – Fabulous Tweeps!
Careful What You Tweet
How to Become Instantly RT-able (A Twitter Guide)
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Modelsupplies 
TrueTwit writes you when YOU follow someone. They follow you back AFTER you prove yourself. Unfollow them if you don’t want to prove that you are a human.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect service, but opt-in is a pretty standard web methodology.
I don’t see what difference that makes. A DM is a very personal way to contact someone. I believe it is extremely rude to DM someone who cannot reply back in confidence. They are forced to send an @reply if they wish to converse. If you wouldn’t follow someone back, do NOT send them a DM unless you’re a huge celebrity and they are your huge fan. Opt-in is standard, but that site doesn’t need your email address. Unfollowed is by and LARGE what they ARE getting, if you’ve read the streams about this. How would one know someone has this awful service beforehand? Someone has to follow first, right?
Curious why @Twitter_Tips would support this awful thing. Are you affiliated with Twitter? My guess is no.
TrueTwit is a great way to NOT get followers and therefore one need not worry about spam. I’ll bet that at least half of those wanting to follow won’t be bothered to go thru the process and the other half will be turned off.
Just sayin’
It oversteps boundaries in every way. Thanks so much for your comment!
x0x
Anita @ModelSupplies
Anita: As usual, a first class work, great humor, great approach, and such truth…I should have such grace in my feeble attempts at authoring.
drd4u
I am humbled by your comment! Thank you =)
Anita @ModelSupplies
I am not qualified to speak on these issues but content and participation are great. Very gracious hostess and guests …all.
I don’t quite understand the outrage. If you don’t like TrueTwit, don’t sign up. If someone you follow likes TrueTwit and uses it, ignore the DM. How is it SPAM? The user that you chose to follow isn’t trying to sell you something. I’m not following the SPAM logic. Has TrueTwit ever sent anything to you when you didn’t follow someone who is using TrueTwit?
True Twit is Spam because it sends an unwanted Auto DM.
True Twit is Spam because it sends an unwanted Auto DM by a BOT to check to see whether real people are bots. It’s spam, no? I DO delete them, LOTS!
True Twhttps://modelsupplies.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-formit is Spam because it sends an unwanted Auto DM by a BOT to check to see whether real people are bots. It’s spam, no? I do delete them, LOTS!
I got one from someone who had fewer followers than I did and who’d been on Twitter for less time and yet they wanted to know whether I’m a real person? You follow people in hopes that they will follow you back and perhaps engage you. The way to determine whether someone is human is to read their Twitter stream, not send them some insulting validation. If a person’s sooo busy, that he/she doesn’t have time to click and see the other person’s profile, and yet that person is not say, Oprah, then why bother with them? You’ll never hear from them anyway whether you validate or not. Didn’t know what True Twit is, found your site via Google after I got my True Twit message. Thanks.
Have just thrown them out of my twit-apps. Thanks fo your comment.