The best way to avoid running afoul of Twitter's spam policies as an API developer is to follow a golden rule: "don't surprise users." Automating an @mention because your algorithm determined something interesting about the user (as opposed to another user of your service deliberately triggering the mention) to a user who has no awareness of your service, especially if the @mention's purpose is primarily to drive awareness of your service, could likely be perceived as spam by many users. I know I certainly would hit the block & report for spam button.
I usually recommend in this case that you either send @mentions because the @mentioned user explicitly indicated interest in your service (say by allowing your client application access to it's account), if the @mentioned interacted with your bot in the past, or if another user of your service explicitly triggered the @mention. In this last case, you're better off making the @mention come directly from the user utilizing your service, rather than having it be authored by the bot itself. Taylor On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:34 AM, Tim Haines <tmhai...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > I have a bot that does something similar to this. If you do 100 spread out > over the course of a day you'll be fine. If you did 100 in the course of an > hour, Twitter would (very likely) suspend your account. > They have monitoring in place for when certain thresholds are crossed, but > they don't disclosed the threshold in the interest of it not being abused. > Cheers, > Tim. > > On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Goran Popovic <goranpopo...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> They are notified once and that's it ;) >> >> Well I got an idea to notify users lets say each 10 minutes ( ie. 100 >> users found today..and instead of notifying them immediately when they >> are found ..they would be added in a database..and then notified one >> by one every few minutes). I think that would be the best solution. >> >> On Sep 21, 11:11 am, Tom van der Woerdt <i...@tvdw.eu> wrote: >> > As far as I know, that's no problem - a lot of services do that. Just >> > don't make it spammy (sending more than 1 tweet per week to one user >> > without first getting his/her permission, etc) and allow users to >> > opt-out (better even would be opt-in but that wouldn't be good for your >> > service, right?). >> > >> > Tom >> > >> > On 9/21/10 8:44 AM, Goran Popovic wrote: >> > >> > > Hello! >> > > I have a delicate question about status updates. >> > > Is it against the Twitter TOS to send tweet every time script finds >> > > another candidate? >> > >> > > Let me explain more.. >> > > Few days ago I've created a website called hottwittz.com. >> > > Script finds users who said that they are hot / sexy, and allows users >> > > to to vote. >> > >> > > Every few minutes script checks for new candidates and then adds them >> > > to database.. >> > > Until yesterday, when script found new user, new tweet was written to >> > > notify the user that he's been added.. >> > > Something like " @username you have been added ...." >> > >> > > Currently there are 50 - 100 users found each day...and i'm not sure >> > > if sending lets say 100 "similar" tweets each day would be considered >> > > spam.. >> > >> > > So is this considered spam? Is this against rules or is maybe some >> > > better way to notify users? >> > >> > > This is needed because users have option to write to me and be >> > > deleted... >> > > First impressions are great and in most cases people are flattered and >> > > call their friends to vote for them. >> > >> > > This is just an example to describe my problem. >> > >> > > Thank You >> > >> > > Goran Popovic >> >> -- >> Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc >> API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi >> Issues/Enhancements Tracker: >> http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list >> Change your membership to this group: >> http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk?hl=en > > -- > Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc > API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi > Issues/Enhancements Tracker: > http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list > Change your membership to this group: > http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk?hl=en > -- Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi Issues/Enhancements Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list Change your membership to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk?hl=en
