Fed up with Twitter DM Spam? How about making your own Spam Filter?
http://iag.me/socialmedia/how-to-build-a-twitter-dm-spam-filter/
It’s pretty obvious direct messages on Twitter is broken. The amount of spam I receive on a daily basis is depressing! So much so, I just don’t bother looking any more. There is the occasional legitimate message but they got lost in a pile of spam. Most people realise that and contact me by email, or perhaps send a follow up mention to say that they’ve sent me a DM.
Here is an example of my recent Twitter DMs:
– Thanks for the follow. Hope you enjoy our tweets 🙂
– Ian, thanks for the follow!
– Hello, I GET 513 FOLLOWERS by removed URL … TRY IT NOW ! See you
– Thanks! Would be great to connect on FB as well removed URL
– Thank you so much for following me and I look forward to your Tweets. Let’s also conect via LinkedIn removed URL
It just goes to show that automated DMs don’t work. I am all for selective automation, but I am still to be convinced that automating direct messages works.
It would be great if Twitter upgraded their message system, banned automated DMs or perhaps even build a spam filter for DMs. But instead of waiting, I decided to make my own.
If you run a WordPress website or just any website with PHP, then you can use this bit of custom code. Please beware, it will delete your direct messages! Also, it does require you registering a Twitter app.
It’s far from perfect and it is a bit rough and ready but it works for me. I have it running every 30mins every day and my Twitter inbox is looking a bit more healthy. Of course, I still get spam, but I can add a few more rules every week or so.
Let me know what you think. If you have any thoughts on how to improve it, I am interested. I’d love to add an improved version to my Twitter app, Twools.
#Twitter  #Spam  #DM #DirectMessages #SocialMedia #PHP #WebDev Â
#TLÂ
