Adam-Jackson

Two weeks ago, I posted this blog post about Twitter and how the API is making it less user friendly and annoying new users. The API is the cause for Twitter’s success and it could serve as the demise of Twitter as well and slow adoption rate. Without revisiting the point I made, let’s move forward and I’ll explain how Twables and FB140 are taking the very forgiving API and really pissing people off.

Last week, @Ev sent this status update to Twitter which was an endorsement of a service that helped you find which of your Facebook friends are on Twitter and it made it easy to follow them. I immediately jumped on board because I was very interested in seeing this in action.

The concept is, visit http://www.twables.com/fb140 and Connect your Facebook Account. Then connect your Twitter account. Both of these use OAuth so I was pretty stoked about that but once you set this up, the pain begins.

The site it self wasn’t designed well and I had some issues getting started and really taking advantage of it for the intended purpose. The issue is with spam and how Twables OR FB140 is leveraging Twitter’s way of handling spammers.

Once I used the service, I removed it from my “authorized apps” on Twitter which usually means, “hey I’m done using you now. go away” but I failed to remove it from Facebook as an authorized app but no problem I’ll do it when it comes to mind and I don’t think it’s hurting anything at this time.

Well, I received a reply on Twitter from @FB140 the next day that “Jad” is a Facebok friend who is now on Twitter. I was lazy and away from my computer so I just blocked the account. That would resolve the issue and I’d never hear from them again. WRONG!

The next day I received another reply, thinking I had somehow made a mistake when blocking the user, I blocked again but since then I have received SEVEN replies from FB140 and here’s how they’re circumventing the blocked feature.

As you can see from this Search.Twitter.com result, they have multiple accounts. At this time I know of 10 so I’ve pre-emptively blocked all of them but I don’t know if that will fix it but what is confusing is how they’re gaming the system.

Does FB140 or Twables know when they’ve been blocked and their software registers a new account and sends a reply using another account automatically? That’s what’s curious to me because if so, that’s a great idea that more app developers will adopt that is sure to piss people off.

I’ve removed FB140 as an authorized app on Facebook and that might be the last link that resolves this once and for all, if not I’ll be calling the company directly and telling them to bug off because this is becoming ridiculous.

There’s a reason Twitter added the block functionality and when someone blocks you, that’s your queue to screw off but FB140 thinks that it’s a mistake because, “if this user still has our FB app authorized, maybe they blocked us by mistake” no because after 7 replies, the last account to reply to me was @FB140_7 so they’re clearly not taking a clue.

Just to prove I’m not pulling the typical social media douche bag crap, Here’s a link to Search.Twitter.com showing some other people are are clearly pissed off. This TWEET shows exactly what I’m going through as well.

[UPDATED]: Clearly removing the app from Twitter and removing the app from Facebook did NOT fix the problem. I just received THIS REPLY from FB140 (copied below).