Twitter Censorship: Choosing Half a Loaf?

"Twitter Switches on the Censors"
Alyssa Danigelis, Tech News, Discovery News (January 28, 2011)

"The social networking site Twitter finds itself between a rock and a hard place in foreign countries where speech isn't always free. On the one hand, Twitter's leadership doesn't want the whole site banned in those countries. On the other, what's a dictatorial government going to do with a social networking site that helps stir up civil dissent? The answer: Ban it. But that's not good for business.

"So the site that helped fuel the Arab Spring last year and briefly brought Iranian protests to the fore in 2009 just announced that it's going to start dancing with the censorship devil. In the past, if a tweet had to be removed from the site for legal reasons -- usually copyright infringement -- it was taken down universally. Now, the tweet can be taken down from one country and still seen by tweeters in other countries...."

'It can't happen here?' America has a pretty good track record for allowing citizens to voice opinions. McCarthyism and the heyday of political correctness are, in the Lemming's opinion, not examples of 'business as usual' in this country.

On the other hand, Congress almost took control of the comics industry. That was the early 1950s:

• "The Horror! Monster Comics that Scared Congress"
  (October 31, 2010)

'Public morals' might still work as an excuse to muzzle dissent: although the Lemming thinks that sort of censorship would now be packaged as 'saving the children.' We had a close call about a year ago, when controlling search engine results was marketed as "search neutrality."

This year, the line was "piracy." So far, Congress seems to have decided to wait until folks forget about SOPA and PIPA. Maybe the Lemming's being unfair.

"Different Ideas About ... Freedom"

"...'As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,' the announcement from Twitter says.

"Any time a tweet is censored, the company says it will notify the person who tweeted it and describe the removal on a Twitter-specific section of ChillingEffects.org...."

There's a joke that was old when the Soviet Union turned into Russia, and a lot of smaller countries. Several, actually, but this one almost applies to Twitter and censorship:

An American and a Russian were comparing their countries. The American said his was better, because Americans have freedom of speech. "I could stand in front of the White House and say, 'the president is stupid!' "

"Ha," replied the Russian. "We also have freedom of speech! I could stand in front of the Kremlin and say, 'the American president is stupid!' "

Like Twitter said, some countries "have different ideas about ... freedom of expression."

Half a Loaf?

Ideally, no country's government would try to keep its citizens from voicing their opinions. But we don't live in an ideal world.

The Lemming thinks that the "half a loaf is better than none" principle applies here. Twitter is probably taking a sensible approach: allowing people in tightly-managed countries access to some service.

In the Lemming's opinion, folks are pretty good at communicating: even when their 'betters' don't want them to. 'Songs of the underground railroad' and spirituals may or may not have been a case in point. The lack of written evidence may be connected to the reason that "composer of jazz" is pretty close to being an oxymoron. And that's another topic.

Songs

Somewhere, some time since folks started working the bugs out using fire without killing themselves, there may have been a culture without music. If so, the Lemming suspects that they didn't last long: and left precious few traces. But that's just an opinion.

A fair number of folks have valued songs for over two dozen centuries:

"Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards."
Homer, The Odyssey (Greek epic poet (800 BC - 700 BC))

"Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable."
Samuel Johnson (English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784))

Not everybody sees music quite the same way:

"The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.' "
Aaron Copland (US composer (1900 - 1990))

"A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it."
Sir Thomas Beecham (English conductor (1879 - 1961))

Wrenching himself back on-topic, the Lemming offers:

Freedom and Other Inconveniences

"The basis of a democratic state is liberty."
Aristotle, Politics (Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC))

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 (US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790))

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791 (3rd president of US (1743 - 1826))

"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other."
Carl Schurz (US (German-born) general & politician (1829 - 1906))

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
G. K. Chesterton (English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936))

"The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech."
Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155 (US jurist (1936 - ))

And that's yet another topic.

Related posts:

• "SOPA, PIPA, and a Disapproving Rabbit"
  (January 18, 2012)
• "Lemming Tracks: Internet Freedom; or 'Be Careful What You Wish For' "
  (April 19, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Freedom: Precious, and Easily Lost
• "Lemming Tracks: Egypt, Google Exec Wael Ghonim, and Freedom of Speech"
  (February 6, 2011)
• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  (January 22, 2011)
• "COICA: A Federal Official Deciding Who Gets to Stay Online"
  (November 19, 2010)

Google, Twitter Launch Workaround for Egypt's People

"Google launches Twitter workaround for Egypt"
Edition: U.S., Reuters (January 31, 2011)

"Google Inc launched a special service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail, as Internet access continues to be cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.

" 'Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground,' read a post on Google's official corporate blog on Monday.

"The service, which Google said was developed with engineers from Twitter, allows people to dial a telephone number and leave a voicemail. The voicemail is automatically translated into a message that is sent on Twitter using the identifying tag #egypt, Google said.

"Google said in the blog post, titled 'Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard,' that no Internet connection is required to use the service. Google listed three phone numbers for people to call to use the service...."

Good for Google, in the Lemming's opinion. Although now the Lemming thinks it's possible that the Egyptian government will shut down phone service for its subjects, too. Daft and self-destructive as such an act would be. ('And if you don't stop, I'll shoot myself in the other foot!?')

This isn't Politics: It's Common Sense

This isn't, as the Lemming has been saying fairly often of late, a political blog. Still, it seems to the Lemming that Egypt's President Mubarak might have been able to avoid the mess his country's in - if he'd bothered to listen to what his subjects had to say. It's not like he's a tyro at the job - he's been Egypt's president since 1981.

As the Lemming wrote elsewhere elsewhere, criticism hurts. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 30, 2011)) But, in the Lemming's opinion, it's a good idea to listen anyway. Sometimes the criticism is just someone blowing off steam. Sometimes the other guy's right.

Related posts:

• "Divisiveness, Cultural Chaos, and the Monkey's Paw"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 30, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: Egypt Government Shuts Down Internet: It Can't Happen Here?"
  (January 29, 2011)
• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  (January 22, 2011)
• "Tunisia: Goodbye Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hello Information Age"
  (January 15, 2011)
• "COICA: A Federal Official Deciding Who Gets to Stay Online"
  (November 19, 2010)

Fretting About Twitter

"Social networking under fresh attack as tide of cyber-scepticism sweeps US"
Paul Harris in New York, guardian.co.uk/The Observer (Saturday 22 January 2011)

"Twitter and Facebook don't connect people – they isolate them from reality, say a rising number of academics.

"The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist.

" 'A behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological,' MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in her new book, Alone Together, which is leading an attack on the information age.

"The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist...."

The Lemming might take the notion that Twitter and Facebook make 'those kids' crazy a little more seriously: If the Lemming hadn't heard it before.

There was a time when television was - we were told - destroying the minds of America's youth. And serious folks were worried that the telephone was bad for the soul. The Lemming sympathizes, a little, with folks with that sort of worry. Change can hurt. But change happens: and it's best, in the Lemming's opinion, to deal with it. Not fret.

The Lemming is - in a sense - 'apathetic.' Back in the '60s and '70s, "cultural pressure to care - deeply, passionately, hysterically" about the right (or left) things didn't take. To this day, the Lemming does not think that telephones make teenagers anti-social, or that MP3 technology will bring Western civilization to its knees.

Maybe the Lemming really is 'apathetic:' or maybe new technologies aren't as dangerous as slow adapters feel they are.

There are other reasons for fearing the Internet, but the Lemming's already written about that - earlier today.

Related posts:

• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  (January 22, 2011)
• "Tunisia: Goodbye Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hello Information Age"
  (January 15, 2011)
• "Mirrors, Television, and MP3 Players"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 6, 2010)
• "Diapers and the End of Civilization"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 10, 2010)
• "Growing Your Online Presence and Balancing Your Life"
  (August 13, 2010)

Twitter Bug or XSS Attack: Seems to be Getting have Gotten Fixed

"Twitter under attack by 'mouseover bug' "
Yahoo! News (September 21, 2010)

"Twitter came under attack on Tuesday as hackers exploited a security flaw to wreak havoc on the microblogging service.

"Computer security firms said thousands of users, or more, were affected by the bug, which appears to send out or 're-tweet' messages simply by rolling over an infected link with the computer mouse.

"Those hit by the bug included Sarah Brown, the wife of the former British prime minister who has over one million followers on Twitter, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

" 'My Twitter went haywire - absolutely no clue why it sent that message or even what it is... paging the tech guys,' Gibbs wrote on @presssec.

"Twitter said it had identified the attack and was working on a solution...."

Here's what the Lemming read on the Twitter website.

"XSS attack identified and patched. 1 hour ago

"We've identified and are patching a XSS attack; as always, please message @safety if you have info regarding such an exploit.

"We expect the patch to be fully rolled out shortly and will update again when it is.

"Update (6:50 PDT, 13:50 UTC): The exploit is fully patched."

In the meantime, the Lemming will be careful about rolling over links in Tweets. Particularly blank ones.

Back to the Yahoo! article:

"...Cluley said the bug was allowing messages to pop-up and third-party websites to open in a Web browser including links to pornography sites.

"He said that in Sarah Brown's case her 'Twitter page has been messed with in an attempt to redirect visitors to a hardcore porn site based in Japan.'..."

The "bug" sounds more like malware to the Lemming, but - well, as I've explained before, I'm "apathetic" only in a certain sense of the term.

Twitter Redesign: An Op-Ed, Micro-Reviewed

"Twitter's Redesign is a Giant Leap Forward"
PCWorld (September 15, 2010)

"The redesign fundamentally changes the service's interface, with a roomy, context-sensitive right panel that reminds me of Twitter for iPad.

"I can't remember many - any? - examples of a popular service or piece of software changing so much all at once as Twitter is doing with its new redesign. (If you don't have it yet, hold on: The company says it'll be a few weeks until it completely replaces Old Twitter.) It brings elements other than words onto Twitter for the first time-photos, videos, and maps. It fundamentally changes the service's interface, with a roomy, context-sensitive right panel that reminds me of Twitter for iPad. It displays threaded conversations. It includes a bunch of subtleties, like keyboard shortcuts. (TechCrunch's MG Siegler has a good roundup of some of the revamping's less obvious improvements.)

"In short, it moves in the direction that Twitter was clearly going in anyhow -- but it's one big leap rather than a series of baby steps over months or years. And it still feels like Twitter...."

Even without the first-person-singular pronoun, this PCWorld op-ed would obviously be a just that - opinion-editorial content. Which is okay.

Looks like Twitter is going to expand the width of its content - leaving less room for folks to see the wallpaper. The writer doesn't like that, and the Lemming sees the point. On the other hand, the Lemming didn't design wallpaper with vital information on it.

As it is, I can't see much of the wording on some Twitter user's accounts - my preferred screen resolution isn't at the high end of the scale. (It's 1024 x 768 pixels.)

With personal preferences for screen resolution being all over the map, I designed my Twitter wallpaper to be non-boring; representative of what I do, more or less; and relatively unimportant.

Not everybody works that way, of course.

Twitter's got a quite entertaining, artsy - and comparatively uninformative - video about it's new, cool format: "Meet the new Twitter.com." It does get around to showing some of the features, which look cool. My guess - and hope is that what they do and how they work will become apparent when Twitter launches their new-and-improved service.

Now, if they can do this and keep the 'Fail Whale' from appearing at comparatively regular intervals, the Lemming will be a happy camper.

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and Here We Go Again"
  (July 2, 2010)
• "Twitter's Password Plight(s)"
  (June 26, 2010)
• "Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and AOL's Reality Check"
  (June 15, 2010)

Twitter Safety Tips: You Probably Know This Already

"10 Twitter Safety Tips To Protect Your Account & Identity"
makeuseof.com (December 16, 2009)

"While Twitter is a fun place to hang out, it has associated risks just like any other social network. As examples of the risks involved with Twitter, there are phishing scams, government security lapses, and people getting fired because of tweeting.

"Here are 10 solid Twitter safety tips you can make use of to enjoy Twitter and protect yourself.

"#1: Never Share Personal Information...."

They're talking about "email, personal or business address, telephone numbers" and pieces of information that someone could misuse.

It's all common sense, right down to the tenth item: always use a firewall and anti-virus software. The latter had better be the newer 'anti-malware' package - although they're still referred to as "anti-virus" software.

Still, like the subject of my last post, it's a fast read and good review.

---

A tip of the hat to TweetSmarter, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

What Not to Do on Twitter

"Twitter faux pas (10 Twitter no-no's)"
Info Carnivore (July 4, 2010)

"I've now published two articles on twitter etiquette (twitterquette) and they've been well received. What about twitter no-no's. What NOT to do or tweet on twitter? Here are ten that I've come up with. What are your suggested twitter no-no's?

"1. One word tweets. At least put a few words together and have something make sense. Single word tweets mean nothing to pretty much everyone. This includes mentions that are nothing but a user name.

"2. Old, old, news. Re-tweeting your discovery of a video that went viral four years ago is top notch lame! Everyone else on the internet has already seen it. Be happy you finally did and move on, no need to remind everyone...."

And so it goes: it's a fast read, all the way to:

"...10. Personal tweets. That's what facebooks for, don't you think?"

Some of the points are simple common sense: Don't tell everybody on Twitter that you're going to be gone for a week. You may as well add that you left the key under the doormat and hang out a sign reading 'please rob me' while you're at it.

Others - particularly, in my opinion, #10 - are a bit more subjective. I'd have to know what the author means by "personal tweets." If it's the sort of 'I'm flossing my teeth now' thing: yes, that's too much information that online friends and acquaintances can probably live without.

In my case, though, I'm on Twitter to meet and communicate with people, not just plug my [Excellent! Stupendous! Brilliant!] blog posts. If I don't share personal information now and then, I'll come across like one of those spambots.

Bottom line, though: this is a short read. And a good review, even if you figure you already know about how not to lose friends and alienate people online.

---

A tip of the hat to danielsnyder1, on Twitter, for the heads-up on his post.

Blog Readers: Survey Results on Updating, Twitter, More

"What blog readers really want - Survey results, Aug 2010"
the COMMS corner (August 5, 2010)

"The ideal blog architecture revealed?

"I've been running a survey on my blog this week, attempting to get a clearer picture of what people want from it going forward.

"Thanks to a really solid response, I not only have that insight, but some really interesting feedback about the general DNA of an ideal blog.

"Below are the key findings from the survey as well as the raw data, I think you'll find it pretty useful...."

The first two items weren't, I think, much of a surprise:

• "Nearly 70% or respondents feel that 2-3 new posts per week is the ideal amount (only 4% were hungry for new content daily)
• 70% of new blogs are discovered via Twitter / Facebook, with only 1% discovered via active subject searches

Still, it's nice to see the numbers: and see that more than 2/3 of readers polled like daily updates or better.

I think the author has business and related blogs in mind, judging from these points, later in the post:

• "Practical, evidenced-based content is the most desired with nearly 50% of people stating that the level of usefulness and practicality is what makes a PR / comm blogs stand out from the crowd
• "This is backed up by 20% of people saying that case studies are hugely valuable (second only to tools and tips posts which came in at 25%[)]

Still, I think anybody who's serious about blogging can take something away from these poll results. It's a short read, by the way, so you won't be using much of your time - and the author includes some charts which, for me, sped up the process a bit.

That bit about "blog architecture" in the opening sentence seems a bit of a misnomer: the post's more about content and interaction, than how a blog's information is organized.

---

A tip of the hat to Steveology, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

Why Online Profiles Matter

"Why you must keep track of your online profile"
Dan Griliopoulos, Internet News, techradar.com (August 14, 2010, probably. Some Saturday, at any rate)

"You might not realise it yet, but you're a brand. All this time you've been walking and talking and posting on the internet, thinking you were a person, when you've been a brand all along. Who'd have thought it?

All of your activities have been contributing to the brand, building a profile for it and even advertising it.

Why is it important to think of yourself as a brand? Because as information about individuals becomes increasingly available online, you want to make sure that information is not only accurate but also positive and succinct...."

The last part of the article is a review of several services someone could use to track their online presence. I'm not likely to use them: my budget is 'way too tight for anything along those lines that's not free.

Besides, My name, Brian Gill, isn't all that uncommon. I don't see a point in being the very first "Brian Gill" you find in a Google search. Particularly since the odds are that whoever's doing the search is looking for Brian Gill the tenor at New York University, or Brian Gill the acoustic singer-songwriter, or Brian Gill the surgeon.

I'm the only Brian Gill who lives in a small town in Central Minnesota - and the odds are pretty good that you'll find me if you use my name and the name of one of my blogs. Or put "Minnesota" in the search.

Just the same, I updated my Google profile (Brian Gill), and added a link to it in the sidebars of my blogs.

---

A tip of the hat to , on Twitter, for the heads-up on this article.

Think, Then Tweet: Pretty Good Advice

"Tweet Wisely or Forever Hold Your Peace"
The Blog of Frances Cole Jones (August 4, 2010)

"One measure of the popularity of Twitter is the proliferation of Twitter debacles due to inappropriate tweets—with one Scottish politician committing political death when he referred to his elderly constituents as 'coffin dodgers.'

"And politicians aren't the only offenders: while many people have a morbid fascination with celebrities, is there anyone who doesn't have Lindsay-Lohan-tweet-fatigue? I'm about to buy that family a washer/dryer so they can stop airing their dirty laundry in public...."

It's a four-point list of common-sense advice. Starting with "Tweets are forever: Don't tweet anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the New York Times."

Another, related, post:

"5 Myths Believed by Those on the Social Media Sidelines"
Paul Steinbrueck, Online Mission (August 4, 2010)

"A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with some people about a matter. Some of the people were already aware of the situation because I had posted about it on Facebook. Others, who were out of the loop, proceeded to mock Facebook rather than recognize it was Facebook that enabled some of us to be better informed and better connected than they were.

"Social media is having a huge impact on the way people and organizations communicate and relate to each other. Facebook now has more than 500 million users and has surpassed Google as the most popular site in the world.

"Yet some organizations remain on the social media sidelines. I believe it’s because they’ve bought into some myths about social media, myths I’d like to put an end to right now...."

The points, each one discussed in the article, are:

1. Social media is a fad.
2. Social media is only for young people.
3. Social media is narcissistic.
4. Social media is a waste of time.
5. Social media is irrelevant to organizations like mine.

Related posts:

• "Social Media and - Old Web Habits?!"
  (August 2, 2010)
• "The Web Rewires Your Brain: Ain't That Great?"
  (July 2, 2010)

---

A tip of the hat to TweetSmarter and Steveology, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post, and the article.

Twitter, Hashtags, and Boring Stuff Like That

"How and Why to Use Twitter Hashtags"
CompuKol Connection (July 3, 2010)

"You have gotten used to using Twitter for your business. You have many followers by now and many people whom you follow in return. You must have noticed some tweets with a word and a # symbol attached.

"Those words and symbols are Twitter hashtags. Hashtags are basically an easy way to catalog and join tweets together on a certain topic. Hashtags make it easier for you to find other tweets on the same topic, while at the same time, you are able to eliminate other tweets that are not relevant.

"Organizers of events and conferences also commonly use hashtags for business. They use them as a way to keep all of the tweets about a specific event in one stream. The organizers may also use hashtags to organize and coordinate updates about events during emergencies...."

There's a pretty good chance that you have a Twitter account - or will in the near future. If you don't, the Lemming should have another post published in a little over an hour.

Still with me?

Okay. The article is a little long for an online publication, but it's a fairly fast read: with headings, which helps.

• How to use hashtags effectively
• Hashtag etiquette
  • Be
    • Short
    • Simple
    • Useful
• Spam
  • Don't
• Choosing the proper hashtags
  • Consider your readers
• Starting your own hashtags
  • Keep it
    • Short
    • Simple
    • Easy to remember
    • Useful
• Monitoring your hashtags
  • This isn't a come-on for some service
• Conclusion
  • Hashtags are cool

There's more, of course, in the article. I plan to re-read it later: I've used hashtags a little, but could (should?) do so more. (On Twitter, I'm Aluwir.)

---

A tip of the hat to TweetSmarter, on Twitter, for the heads-up on that article.

Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and Here We Go Again

---

Update 12:38 p.m. (July 2, 2010)
I've logged on to Twitter, which has been 'over capacity' only once in over a dozen clicks.

---

The Lemming's been trying to log on to Twitter for - maybe a half-hour?

Twitter's Fail Whale shows up each time I visit twitter.com - not the first thing you want to see there.

On the bright side, Twitter's 'status' page does work. And reports this:

"Investigating Elevated Error Rates 16 minutes ago

"We’ve received reports of elevated error rates for users; we’re currently investigating."

Well, at least it looks like someone is in the office.

Maybe it will take a while for the Twitter folks to discover that Twitter is over capacity with too many Tweets is "isolated areas." Like Dallas, Texas. And Japan. (June 7, 2010)

Related post:

• "Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and AOL's Reality Check"
  (June 15, 2010)

Twitter's Password Plight(s)

"FTC Forces Twitter to Safeguard User Information"
PCMag.com (June 24, 2010)

"Twitter on Thursday reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it failed to adequately safeguard user information, which led to two high-profile hacker attacks in early 2009.

"The case is the first that the FTC has brought against a social networking site, it said.

"Under the terms of the deal, Twitter is banned for the next 20 years from misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security and privacy of non-public information, the FTC said. Twitter must also establish a comprehensive information security program, which will be assessed by an independent third party every other year for the next 10 years...."

Somebody's hacked into Twitter's administrative accounts more than once - it looks like the Lemming posted about the first one, back on January 6, 2010. Back to the PCMag.com article:

"...In the first case, which happened in January 2009, a hacker used an automated password-guessing tool to gain administrative control of Twitter. Twitter's system did not automatically lock people out after they failed to guess the correct password after several tries, so the hacker was able to submit thousands of guesses before gaining access.

" 'The administrative password was a weak, lower case, common dictionary word,' according to the FTC...."

Two (rookie?) mistakes: letting a bot try a large number of times to guess the password; and using a "common dictionary word." I looked it up: the password was "happiness." Well, it could have been worse. The admin might have chosen password as the password.

What impressed me was that Twitter didn't clamp down on security after that January 2009 caper.

I use Twitter myself (where I'm Aluwir), but I'm not too concerned about "privacy" of my account information - I've followed the same rule there that I do elsewhere online: I never give more information than I would put on the back of a postcard. With the exception of a few financial accounts, where I'm pretty sure the company is playing with a full bag of marbles.

Of course, I'd hate to lose my account because my password got broadcast to the world.

Bottom line, I think, is that Twitter needs to accept the fact - fast - that it's no longer a little circle of like-minded people in a San Francisco neighborhood. Twitter is a huge online community: and folks who use Twitter need to be able to trust the system.

Related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and AOL's Reality Check"
  (June 15, 2010)
• "3,300,000 People's Student Loan Data Stolen: That's a Lot of Zeroes"
  (March 27, 2010)
• "If Your Password is "Password1" - CHANGE IT"
  (November 24, 2009)
• "Twitter Trouble: It Could Have Been Worse - The Adminstrator's Password Could Have Been 'Password' "
  (January 6, 2009)

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A tip of the hat to TweetSmarter (formerly Twitter_Tips), on Twitter, for the heads-up on the article.

"Machine Gun Twittering:" Probably Not Cool

"Machine Gun Twittering"
Damien at the Speed of Life (June 22, 2010)

"Twitter is both a fun way to network and also a promotion tool for my online writing. In the past 2-3 months I have really applied myself to seeing what it does. I learned how to mass add followers and after that learned I wasn't really compatible with most of them so … mass adding is not cool. Something else is not cool either, which is what I'm getting to in this post..."

"...The other night I shared with my wife how annoying it is when someone I follow 'tweets' in rapid succession. I had some people on my list I dropped because their successive tweets were annoying....."

It's not a long post - and that "machine gun Twittering" could be annoying. Which concerns me, since I do it myself. So, as Damien Riley's wife pointed out, does he.

Maybe you do, too. Like I said, it's a short read - and could be a useful one. I've reminded myself to watch how fast I Tweet tomorrow. We'll see if I listened.

---

A tip of the hat to rileycentral, on Twitter, for the heads-up on his post.

Lemming Tracks: Twitter, Capacity, and AOL's Reality Check

The Lemming remembers, 'long ago,' when AOL (America Online - remember when that was the latest Big Deal?) took its service down for several hours. They had perfectly good reasons, as I recall: maintenance, putting in new equipment, something like that.

Problem was, they hadn't told anyone about it beforehand.

And AOL was down. For hours, as I recall.

But hey, that's no problem, right? It's a free service: and besides one could imagine AOL's brass thinking, the users are just kids and people with nothing better to do. It'll do them good, getting outside for a while.

Then the complaints started coming in. The business owners who used AOL as part of their business didn't appreciate being cut off from their customers. Particularly since there was no way to tell those customers what was going on.

AOL's executives had a wake-up call that day. They realized that 'those kids' and the stoners who used AOL weren't all kids or stoners. Quite a few were people who ran businesses - and had found out how to use AOL services.

That was then.

"Can Twitter handle being the hub of social media?"
The Next Web Social Media (June 15, 2010)

"In case you've missed it, over the past few months, Twitter has been positioning itself into a more professional tool. Between buying out the best API-driven applications, implementing a host of new features and breaking news about plans for new ones, the once-ignored blue bird of happiness is truly coming into its own.

"But is it prepared?

"Over the past week, and nearly every week before that, we've seen outages. For a company that is as well-funded as what Twitter is, it just doesn't make any sense. The resources are there, what with Twitter being so ingrained with Amazon's cloud hosting you'd think it would be an easy flip of the switch to throw more resources at a site that's growing at an amazing rate....

"Sure, we understand maintenance issues. We understand that sometimes we have unforeseen things happen because of them. But the reality of it is that if you're going to have people and businesses relying on you, then you owe it to them to make it work...."

The Lemming has been through something like this before: except that, if my memory serves, AOL caught on a whole lot faster.

Twitter and "Too Many Tweets"

Ah, for the good old days, when Twitter was a nice little neighborhood messaging service in San Francisco, California. If it went down for a few hours it wasn't much of a problem. All a Twitterer had to do was put on the recyclable bike helmet and pedal to the nearest Starbucks. Some of the crowd would probably be there.

Then Twitter went global, sometimes adding 5,000,000 users a month.

That's more than you can run out of a garage.

To be fair, even during the last week Twitter was, on the whole, functional more often than it was not.

But I think that whoever is running Twitter should talk to someone who knows about running a large operation - and also knows about information technology. I'd prefer to keep on using Twitter, and I like getting together (virtually) with the folks I've met there. But if service gets worse: well, there are other online communities.

Related post, in another blog:

• "Twitter is Over Capacity: Again; Still"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind (June 15, 2010)

Twitter's New @anywhere Service Isn't Stupendous, Colossal: This is a 'Trouble?'

"The Trouble With Twitter's @anywhere Service"
(March 15, 2010)

"Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced Monday that the company plans to introduce a new platform called '@anywhere.' The new service will allow Twitter users to connect to their Twitter accounts through third-party Websites such as The New York Times and eBay -- similar to the way Facebook Connect allows Facebook users to sign into other Websites using their Facebook accounts.

"The announcement was made at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The @anywhere platform will allow Twitter users to interact with Twitter even when they are not on the Twitter Website -- they'll be able to, say, follow their favorite columnist from The New York Times, or Tweet about a particularly great deal on eBay, without ever having to leave the third-party's site...."

"...A Twitter blog post notes that the primary purpose of @anywhere is so that 'Website owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.' It does seem a lot like Facebook Connect, although Twitter will have to work hard to displace Facebook's grasp on the Web -- after all, one of the biggest draws of Facebook Connect is that users can log into sites using their Facebook accounts instead of going through a lengthy registration process. By contrast, Twitter's @anywhere looks like it will only make one's Twitter account more interactive -- and not replace any login screens. Of course, more details are yet to come, so it may be more (or less) like Facebook Connect than it sounds...."

After that title, "The Trouble With Twitter's @anywhere Service", I expected to read about some sort of issue: potential or otherwise. Possibly involving privacy or security concerns.

The "trouble," as nearly as I could tell, was that the new Twitter @anywhere Service was quite a bit like Facebook Connect: a service that apparently has been used by Facebook members. And, that it's a service that "will only make one's Twitter account more interactive -- and not replace any login screens".

Maybe I missed something. Or maybe "trouble" means "sort of like an existing service" in some subcultures. Sort of like a new French restaurant having the "trouble" of serving escargot, just like the another French restaurant. Or maybe "trouble" means "not quite what I thought the company would come up with next."

Like I said, maybe I missed something.

If this post seems familiar, there's a reason. I've written about Twitter before, fairly recently.

Sort-of-related post:

• "Safety Advice for Twitter Users: Or Anybody Else"
  (February 27, 2010)

Safety Advice for Twitter Users: Or Anybody Else

"Top 10 Tips for Staying Safe on Twitter"
impulsegamer.com (February 24, 2010)

"Say what you want on Twitter but be careful about it, warns AVG (AU/NZ)

"Melbourne, 24 February 2010. Last weekend, there was another Twitter security breach — a phishing attack. As the Twitter micro blogging service comes into its fourth year of existence, it is more popular than ever, which makes it a perfect target for cyber criminals. The nature of Twitter has always meant to be very open, so what are the best ways to protect yourself?..."

It's the usual 10-point numbered list format of common-sense advice.

Twitter's in the title, but people in any online community should be paying attention.

Twitter's been in the news quite a bit, lately - I don't think it's a particularly vulnerable network, but it's big, so anything that goes wrong is going to be on a large scale.

The article doesn't put it this way, maybe because many people don't know about postcards these days(?), but the best & shortest 'sound bite' advice I've run into for anything online is - if you wouldn't write it on a postcard, don't post it online.

Pretty good advice, I think.

---

A tip of the hat to Twitter_Tips, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this article.

What Not to do On Twitter (Or Any Social Media)

"Things You Do On Twitter That I Hate"
Acidgalore (January 29, 2010)

"Oh yes, I really like twitter. I love looking at my stream updating with new tweets, I love clicking on links, I love tweeting about things most people don’t care about, I love sharing photos and news. Sometimes I catch myself oversharing or tweeting something extremely lame like 'I'm having lunch at Joey's Diner', and then I hate myself for that, but overall I would call my relationship with twitter 'a sizzling hot love affair with a time waster'.

"Enough though with the love. There are things on twitter that annoy the crap out of me. Now, if you know me, you know that this is not very difficult to achieve; nonetheless, allow me to share the things I don't like on twitter:

"- Twitter is full of social media experts: sorry to break it you, but having a twitter account, a facebook account and 300 followers doesn't really make you a social media expert. I mean that's like 80% of twitterverse...."

In the spirit of transparency, as the term is used these days, on Twitter I'm Aluwir. I follow 229 accounts, I have 307 followers, and am listed by 20 of the Twitter lists. Which, according to Acidgalore, puts me pretty close to 80% of Twitterdom: in terms of followers, anyway.

And I don't consider myself a "social media expert" - let's put it this way: I read posts like this, I don't write them. Of course, I think quite a few 'experts' could benefit by reading books they didn't write themselves - but that's another topic.

This post is a fairly fast read, entertainingly written, and makes some good points.

Finally, although some of the advice addresses specific Twitter features, like hashtags: the advice can, in spirit, be applied to most social media. My opinion.

Related post:

• "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People on Facebook"
  (January 30, 2010)

---

A tip of the hat to Twitter_Tips, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

Write Better Tweets: Pretty Good Advice for Any Online Community

"How To Write Better Tweets"
Lisa Barone, Social Media, Small Business Trends (January 27, 2010)

"As silly as it sounds, there's an art to Twitter. Combining a call to action with useful information all inside 140 characters is something that takes practice. The same way journalists had to learn to use the new medium of blogging, tweeting is a new skill that must be mastered. It's more personal, it's more succinct and it's real-time. But just because the information passes more quickly and in fewer characters doesn't mean it's less important. In fact, incorrectly tweeting can be a recipe for total brand disaster and each word counts.

Below are some tips on how to write better tweets to help reach your audience and also to keep your foot out of your mouth...."

It's a short article, with some quite good advice. And what I'll call micro-case-studies to back up the shoulds and shouldn'ts.

Like letting people know who - and what - you are:

"Own your account: If you're tweeting on behalf of a company, make sure you disclose that both in your tweets and in your profile. If you try to hide it, it will be found out. If you're a marketing assistant for Dell tweeting about how much you love Dell computers…and then someone puts together that you actually work for Dell, that's going to be an online reputation management nightmare...."

On Twitter, I'm Aluwir, and I try to be pretty up-front about who I am and why I do what I do. (Check out A Small World of Websites™ for my blogs and websites: shameless self-promotion, or disclosure? You decide)

You've probably run into product reviews - and then found out the reviewer works for the manufacturer. Or, worse, that the magazine is owned by the same firm that owns the manufacturer. If that magazine doesn't have good cartoons, you may never buy it again.

The "Watch your grammar" section was good advice, too. I'm a recovering English teacher, but that's not what I think so. I've also been an advertising copywriter - and the last thing you want to do in marketing is make the reader work to figure out what you're trying to say.

"Leave room for retweets" is the advice I'm taking home with me, so to speak. I tend to fill the available space when writing - and this section explains why that's not a good idea on Twitter. Not if you want folks to retweet what you wrote.

'Criticism is Terrorism:' Chavez and Twitter 'Terrorists'

" 'Terrorist' Twitter Threatens Hugo Chavez's Stranglehold on Media"
FOXNews (January 29, 2010)

"The greatest threat to Hugo Chavez's future just might be the World Wide Web.

"Fierce and growing protests over media freedom have left at least two students dead in Venezuela, and graphic images depicting violent tactics employed by the police there have started to flood the Internet.

"Police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets have left students bloodied and battered in Caracas and other cities during a week of protests over President Hugo Chavez's tightening gag on the opposition press.

"On Sunday, Chavez ordered five cable stations shut down for refusing to broadcast his frequent speeches, setting off nationwide demonstrations in a country already wracked by water shortages, electricity rationing, alarming crime rates and the plummeting value of its currency, the Bolivar...."

Before writing anything else, a sort of disclaimer: The Lemming isn't particularly apathetic. I just don't care, intensely, profoundly, irrationally, about the right things. Or, more accurately, left things.

The Venezuelan president's difficulty is, I think, one example of what's happening around the world. Traditional information gatekeepers no longer hold a monopoly on distributing facts and opinions.

Information Gatekeeper?

Quoting myself:

According to Princeton's WordNet, an gatekeeper is literally a doorkeeper or doorman: someone who guards an entrance. "Gatekeeper" may also be used as a metaphor:

"gatekeeper (someone who controls access to something) 'there are too many gatekeepers between the field officers and the chief' "
(Princeton's WordNet)

So, an "information gatekeeper" is someone who controls access to information.
(Another War-on-Terror Blog (August 14, 2009))

Back in the 'good old days,' information gatekeepers in western nations included newspaper and magazine publishers, book publishers, educators, and more recently movie producers and radio and television broadcasters.

That was then.

President Chavez has pretty good control over many, if not most, of the traditional information gatekeepers. That's "control," not "cooperation." Some broadcasters wouldn't give the President air time, remember.

But he's finding that it's not the 'good old days' any more.

"...Elsewhere online, more than 80,000 people have joined a Facebook group, 'Chavez estas PONCHAO!' taunting the increasingly unpopular president with a slang term meaning 'Chavez, you struck out.'

"Chavez has fought back by declaring that 'using Twitter, the Internet (and) text messaging' to criticize or oppose his increasingly authoritarian regime 'is terrorism,' a comment that recalls the looming threats of his allies in Iran, whose bloody crackdown on physical and electronic dissent may be blazing a trail for the Latin strongman...."

I'm pretty sure that the quoted words of the Venezuelan president are a translation: but you get the point.

It Can't Happen Here?

I live in America, the land of the free and home of the brave, so nobody's going to brand opposition to federal policies or leaders as terrorism here? Right?

What can I say? Americans are human beings, just like everybody else. But that's another topic, for another blog. "Pro-Life? You May be a Dangerous Domestic Terrorist! MIAC Says So," A Catholic Citizen in America (March 23, 2009)

The Lemming is "apathetic," remember.

Related posts:

• "Data-Driven Art: For an 'Overwhelmed' 'Hive Mind???' "
  (January 27, 2010)
• "Twitter, Haiti and a Global Community"
  (January 14, 2010)
• "Net Neutrality, Comcast, the FCC, Censorship and Freedom"
  (January 9, 2010)
• "What is an Information Gatekeeper?"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (August 14, 2009)
• "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 27, 2008)
• "Writers, Editors, Publishers, and the Marketplace of Ideas"
  (August 17, 2007)