If you use Twitter and turn on the proper Twitter settings you can get an email notification when someone starts following you.
The problem is that this notice doesn’t really tell you much:
Hi, TJ.
luomat (luomat) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out luomat's profile here:
http://twitter.com/luomat
You may follow luomat as well by clicking on the "follow" button.
Best,
Twitter
--
Turn off these emails at: http://twitter.com/account/notifications
The problem is that Twitter is starting to get spammers, who will try to get you to click on their Twitter profiles so peddle some MLM or other garbage.
While this doesn’t take much time, it’s one of those moments when having a computer ought to make your life easier.
Rather than getting a mostly useless report and then clicking on their profile page, what if you could get an email message which gave you:
- Their Location, Web page, and Bio (if they have filled them in)
- Their “Stats” (number of followers, followees, favorites, updates)
- Latest “Tweet”
- Latest page of “Tweets”
The “Stats” is usually a dead giveaway: if you see they are following 1500+ people, have a few (if any) updates, and only a few (or one) updates, my guess is that it their only update will be a link to a website.
But that’s not all!
So there are potentially 3 outcomes to seeing this information:
- They’re someone you’d like to follow
- They’re not someone you’d like to follow
- They’re a damn, dirty, spammer
If #1 is true, you can easily click on their Twitter page (it will be shown in the report)
If #2 is true, you can just delete/file the message.
If #3 is true, you want to block them (which hopefully raises some flags at Twitter, Inc.) and (possibly) share the block URL with others. Twitter, Inc. has setup @spam for you to report TwitSpammers, in this format:
@spam @DamnDirtySpammer Reason You Think They are a Spammer
since this shows up in your timeline and many of your followers will also see it, I like to include the “block” URL so they can join in the blocking fun, so I’d do something like:
@spam @DamnDirtySpammer MLM Spammer Block URL: http://twitter.com/block/create/whatever
Disclaimer
The “block URL” is a fascinatingly hack-y piece of trickery on my part. Not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but so far has never been wrong for me. Use at your own peril. May contain nuts. Consult your doctor and/or financial consultant before using.
So How Do I Use It?
Couple of options:
When you get a “New Follower” email (like the one shown above), simply forward it to twitreport @ T N T L uoma dot com (you’ll have to remove the spaces, etc. But you knew that, right?). The only important thing is that you Do Not Change The Subject Line (adding a FWD: or FW: at the beginning is not a problem)
Send a blank email to the above address with the Subject: twitreport foobar (where “foobar” is the Twittername you want to get a report for). This is helpful if you just want to check someone’s information even if they don’t follow you.
Download the script and run it in Terminal.app (on Mac OS X or other Linux/BSD systems). Note: it requires a recent version of lynx which is not installed on OS X by default. I use Lynx Version 2.8.6rel.5 (09 May 2007). Earlier versions may not work. This version will compile and install easily in 10.5 (and probably earlier).
Setup an automatic forwarding rule in your mail program.
That last option is by far the slickest, and it’s what I do.
If you use GMail, all you need to do is setup a filter with the following criteria:
- From: “@postmaster.twitter.com”
- Subject: is now following you on twitter!
which should look like this:
and then click Next Step
- Check “Skip the Inbox (Archive it) [Note: this is recommended but not strictly required. IMO it just makes sense to ignore the official email because the new one should arrive in a minute or two]
- Forward it to (the above address, shown in the image)
- Click “Update Filter”
Note: Gmail will not forward email that you have already received, so don’t ask.
“OMG U R GONNA SEE ALL MAH NEW FOLLOWER EMAILZ!!!?!?!”
Well, yes, I could, if I wanted to.
But, honestly (and don’t take this the wrong way) I really don’t give a rats’ ass about who is following you.
Messages that are sent to the above address are automatically processed by a computer program (procmail, best mail sorting program ever). Currently (as of 2008-09-14) I am keeping a copy of all messages sent to that address, just in case something goes “kablooy” but I doubt I’ll ever look at it. Eventually I’ll probably turn that part off, assuming things are running smoothly.
And it’s not as if your follower list is exactly private anyway.
“But I don’t use Gmail!”
Why not?
If your mail program (Mail.app, Entourage, Outlook, etc) can automatically setup a “filter” or “rule” to forward incoming mail to another address, then use the above instructions and modify to your program.
No, I don’t know how to do it.
No, I don’t plan to learn so I can show you how.
(If you know how and would like to write up instructions for a non-Gmail mail client, I’ll happily either post them here and attribute them appropriately, or link to your explanation. Leave a comment below.)
If you ask me for help, my advice will be “Get a GMail account” even if you only use that account for Twitter. They’re free.
Or manually forward them, as suggested above. I mean, we aren’t talking about thousands of new followers per day, right?
“SHOW ME UR PROCMAIL!”
Be glad to. Just ask.
“I downloaded your script and made it 1,000 times better, it now fits on the head of a pin and runs 10000x faster!”
Awesome. Care to share?
You don’t have to share your improvements. Then again, you don’t have to use toilet paper, but everyone agrees it’s nicer if you do.
“I forwarded a message to the script, but nothing happened.”
You probably did something “creative” but my script is very stupid.
If you don’t give it exactly what it wants, it will silently throw everything away. Poof.
Try again.
If, after three tries and waiting 30 minutes, you don’t get anything back, email me to let me know.
“Should I send you thoughts, comments, additions, corrections, complaints, Viagra offers at that TnTLuoma address?”
Nope. All it does it process these messages. If you want to email me, try
tj from twitter AT gmail (remove the spaces, add the dotcom)
One More Thing…..
Make sure that you go to http://twitter.com/account/notifications and verify that there is a checkbox next to “New Follower Emails”:
otherwise the rest of this is pretty much useless!
on 15 Sep 2008 at 12:12 am # david nicol
it’s the beginning of publicly accessible twitter-based reputation! “Your FICO score is onlt 300, but you have over four hundred followers on twitter, so we will be glad to finance your new boat, provided you agree to this book deal”