Comments on: @THE_REAL_SHAQ This Pepsi is delicious

@THE_REAL_SHAQ This Pepsi is delicious

Pants! — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:33:49 -0800

Magpie wants to roost in your twitter feed. (via Jon Lebkowsky , who has an opinion)

By: educatedslacker

educatedslacker — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:39:40 -0800

No sir, I don't like it.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:42:33 -0800

Ads on weblogs? Never happen.

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:47:40 -0800

This sounds great! I can't wait to start placing ads in my Twitter feed about how great George W. Bush is for kicking kittens! Everybody agrees with me, right? I'm not foreseeing any backlash or negative feelings about any of the things I mentioned.

By: Lucubrator

Lucubrator — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:49:42 -0800

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam

By: mannequito

mannequito — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:52:58 -0800

Wait, are you saying this isn't the real Shaq posting?

By: DiscourseMarker

DiscourseMarker — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:55:48 -0800

Um, why does Magpie think that people will continue to follow Twitter feeds that turn into a series of ads? Am I missing something here?

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:56:12 -0800

I'm seeing anyone who uses this getting unfollowed and/or blocked. So it manages to accomplish little more than ensuring you become a Twitter of One. GJ!

By: immlass

immlass — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:56:24 -0800

I unfollowed a woman I know for using Magpie a while ago. Because she makes a lot of @replies to people I don't follow, it got to the point where every other tweet I saw from her seemed like an ad even though the ads were supposed to be spaced out so you didn't see them very often. The ads all showed up from one of the feed-generating applications instead of her phone or the web site or a desktop application when I looked at them on her twitter page, too. Looking at her page right now, she seems to have dropped using them, probably because a lot of people unfollowed her over it.

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:00:23 -0800

Eight comments and no peep from the get-off-my-lawn brigade. Is twitter finally being accepted or is there a Rod Stewart concert tonight?

By: Lentrohamsanin

Lentrohamsanin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:01:37 -0800

Given that something like this will be the eventual revenue stream for Twitter, Magpie is visionary.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:07:10 -0800

Eight comments and no peep from the get-off-my-lawn brigade. Twitter is the lawn.

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:07:49 -0800

Eight comments and no peep from the get-off-my-lawn brigade. Is twitter finally being accepted or is there a Rod Stewart concert tonight? Not so fast, sonny-boy. "Oh God, how I wish Twitter would die already and never resurrect."

By: dydecker

dydecker — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:11:51 -0800

Just got back from my Rod Srewart concert and there's more bullshit about twitter on Metafilter. Have you people no standards

By: cashman

cashman — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:14:56 -0800

Magpie is annoying. I saw it a while back and thought it was old news. Guess not. The real Twitter issue of today is what the hell is this StalkDaily madness. People are freaking the fuck out. It's like "don't click on their website", then it's "don't click on their profile." Then "don't click on anybody's profile who has been infected." Then it's "don't even type the name!" And on and on.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:15:03 -0800

I totally loved it when he did Every Picture Tells a Story. I wasn't expecting that.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:15:23 -0800

It's bad enough that since I signed up to Twitter I've had to block three of four "followers" a week with names like @loseweightnow without this. (I am perfectly happy to admit that I like Twitter a whole lot for one reason: I get to eavesdrop on some musicians [Ed Droste, Nico Muhly, Colin Meloy, Robin Pecknold] I admire. The end.)

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:19:27 -0800

I remember when I saw the first ad on a search engine (yahoo, webcrawler?) and thought "NO! This is wrong!"... it's all about the money, it always will be....

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:20:04 -0800

The real Twitter issue of today is what the hell is this StalkDaily madness. Looks like word got back to the site creator.

For everyone wondering, I did NOT promote and/or was involved with the spamming ON Twitter. All bad things you are hearing about this site is not true. Please reconsider as I am not the person who did this.

It's bad enough that since I signed up to Twitter I've had to block three of four "followers" a week with names like @loseweightnow without this. One of the things I like about Twitter is that when someone follows you, you see it immediately. Then you can check their profile and see, "Oh, he's selling diet pills" and hit the "block" button. It's really not a very conducive site for spam. I don't know what's the thinking behind Magpie. Destroy Twitter from within?

By: scottreynen

scottreynen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:59:50 -0800

Given that something like this will be the eventual revenue stream for Twitter It's not even given Twitter will find a revenue stream, much less that this is what it will be.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:07:00 -0800

Why does Magpie think that people will continue to follow Twitter feeds that turn into a series of ads? Because we put up with them on everything else. Remember how awful it was at first when they started popping up on websites? Now we accept ads along with our e-mail, even. We're conditioned.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:15:03 -0800

Because we put up with them on everything else. Remember how awful it was at first when they started popping up on websites? Now we accept ads along with our e-mail, even. We're conditioned. The difference with twitter and other content is that twitter is all in small bites, and other internet communication comes in larger pieces. It's as if every few FPPs on MetaFilter were spam, instead of inserted banner and text ads for those who aren't logged in (and blocking everything they can). People ignore ads that are on the sidelines, or in the middle of articles. But when the articles are ads, people generally stop reading.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:15:28 -0800

And I still don't like twitter

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:35:33 -0800

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: "One of the things I like about Twitter is that when someone follows you, you see it immediately. Then you can check their profile and see, "Oh, he's selling diet pills" and hit the "block" button. It's really not a very conducive site for spam. I don't know what's the thinking behind Magpie. Destroy Twitter from within?" One of the things I like about ~~Twitter~~ e-mail is that when someone ~~follows you~~ sends you a message, you see it immediately. Then you can ~~check their profile~~ read their message and see, "Oh, he's selling diet pills" and ~~hit the "block" button~~ add him to your killfilter. It's really not a very conducive ~~site~~ methodology for spam. I don't know what's the thinking behind ~~Magpie~~ spam e-mail. One of the things I like about ~~Twitter~~ most blog software is that when someone ~~follows you~~ responds to a post, you see it immediately. Then you can ~~check their profile~~ read their comment and see, "Oh, he's selling diet pills" and hit the "block" button. It's really not a very conducive ~~site~~ methodology for spam. I don't know what's the thinking behind ~~Magpie~~ spam comments. Put your message in front of enough eyeballs, it doesn't matter if you piss off the majority of those eyeballs and only a small minority responds: if the total number's large enough, that minority will be enough to make a living off of.

By: We had a deal, Kyle

We had a deal, Kyle — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:37:24 -0800

Eight comments and no peep from the get-off-my-lawn brigade. Why would we care? There's no unwanted fliers being tweeted onto our lawns. ReadWriteWeb has some collected examples of Magpie ads, if any other crabby nontwitterers are interested. It seems to me that part of what makes these ads so objectionable is their fake informality.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:50:34 -0800

It's not even given Twitter will find a revenue stream, much less that this is what it will be. I really don't understand what their problem is. They should just charge people for a premium service. $15 a year for unlimited. If you don't join the premium service, you are limited to, say, 100 tweets a month, no archive of your tweets beyong 6 months, that kind of thing. It worked brilliantly for Flickr. Why are they so fucking opposed to just charging people for the service they provide?

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:57:29 -0800

Fucking hell the concert was tonight?

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:22:51 -0800

Twitter silver: We won't lose your posts. Twitter gold: This time, we mean it.

By: Songdog

Songdog — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:24:45 -0800

I don't think that's a very good analogy, WCityMike. If you don't follow another Twitter user, you don't see any noise they may be posting. Whereas anyone on the Internet can email you any time they like. Strangers can't message you on Twitter, and they can't inject themselves into your feed*. All they can do is follow you and hope that you follow them back. If you do, of course, then it's open season. *Unless people you follow are infected by Magpie or something like it, which is what's so unpleasant about this idea.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:21:51 -0800

At home.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:21:54 -0800

Twitter silver: We won't lose your posts. Twitter gold: This time, we mean it. Twitter Platinum: Fail Rainbow-Farting Unicorn being carried by Comet-Puking Albatrosses! Image used under Creative Commons License

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:58:04 -0800

Well, now StalkDaily says I have came clean and have accepted the responsibility for the worm....

By: harriet vane

harriet vane — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:43:19 -0800

Aw, damn, box.net is one of the companies using Magpie to advertise. I use their service and like it, why do they have to go and do stupid spammy shit like this? Makes me embarrassed to mention them legitimately now.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:36:30 -0800

This Space For Sale.

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:34:19 -0800

Regardless of any of the sort of moral concerns, tt's hard to imagine you could make enough money to twittering ads to make it worthwhile as an individual.

By: liza

liza — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:40:05 -0800

it's not Apple or box.net using Magpie. it seems like affiliates are using Magpie in a way that totally tarnishes the brands they're trying to make money from. they're impersonating Apple, Cisco and other but the links go to websites that are just about affiliate ads. totally not cool.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:50:25 -0800

I remember following the twitters for The Brits live using search on #Brits and somebody started spamming ads with the same #. The was insanely annoying.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:02:00 -0800

rokusan: Now we accept ads along with our e-mail, even. "We" do???

By: [user was fined for this post]

[user was fined for this post] — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:09:00 -0800

they're impersonating Apple, Cisco and other but the links go to websites that are just about affiliate ads. This is not the case with Apple, at least for the topmost two examples in the RRW post. The links go: is.gd redirector --> be-a-magpie.com redirector --> affiliate redirector --> the Apple Store's page for refurb iTVs (affiliate ID included in the URL, of course). The impression given to the follower who clicks the link is that the poster simply provided a link to a good deal on the Apple Store (via is.gd, a URL shortener commonly used for entirely non-commercial purposes) out of goodwill toward their followers. The whole affiliate-redirect thing is obscured entirely from users who aren't carefully watching for it; you can see in the RRW examples that some tweets omit the #magpie tag, leaving no clue that the tweet was paid for. Given how protective Apple is of its image, and that this has been going on for at least a month now, you'd think Apple would have told its affiliate "cut that shit out" by now, if this were being done without Apple's approval.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:42:14 -0800

rokusan: Now we accept ads along with our e-mail, even. "We" do??? -- posted by Greg_Ace "We" being that portion of the Internet who uses at least a little HotMail, GMail or Yahoo, or receive mail from someone who uses Yahoo or Hotmail. I don't think it's possible to use the internet without seeing some e-mail ads now. What do you do, block Hotmail users from sending you anything? (Hmm.... now there's an idea.)

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:00:16 -0800

rokusan - I won't get into an involved tutorial; there's plenty of advice available on minimizing spam and advertising. But in short, it's not hard to implement a few utilities, add-ons, and settings to avoid the vast majority of that kind of thing (a good firewall and antivirus software kinda goes without saying). Gmail, for instance, will let me block auto-display of images in the bodies of emails - that plus setting spam filters to high sensitivity and using whitelisting works well for me (I'll admit I don't have a huge number of friends who use free email services...YMMV); and using Firefox with Adblock, NoScript, and Flashblock solves the bulk of the non-email issues. Yes, there's a bit of work up front, and I won't pretend those add-ons are perfectly seamless or unobtrusive or free of the need of occasional tweaking, but I'd rather deal with a bit of that than submit to the incessant onslaught of advertising that some people seem to feel is an inevitable part of the online experience.