Ian's dashboard

A comment on the question "Help getting an inactive Twitter username?" in Twitter:

Go to http://twitter.com/account/settings and change your username. It looks like "NASCARNUT" already exists. I suggest changing that account name, and then changing your old account name to "NASCARNUT". If you don't own the existing "NASCARNUT" account then you can't change it. Read my reply from six days ago.

Oh and it is widely known that using CAPITALS is a sign of aggression and disrespect online, you might like to press stop that. – Ian, on November 20, 2009 19:47

A comment on the question "Help getting an inactive Twitter username?" in Twitter:

You created it so you'll know the registered email address, so go here:
http://twitter.com/account/resend_pas... – Ian, on November 20, 2009 14:29

Ian reported a problem in cookstr on November 17, 2009 16:25:

Invalid Validation Link

Just signed up to Cookstr, validation link resulted in a 404 error but did log me in. I logged out and then attempted to login again to save the details in my password manager, but found it won't let me login. It's not a good start.

Ian replied on November 15, 2009 15:53 to the question "Help getting an inactive Twitter username?" in Twitter:

You can't and you're not the only one wanting the username of a long-time inactive account. We just have to wait until Twitter get round to it, if they ever do.

Ian replied on November 14, 2009 14:05 to the question "How do I edit/delete auto DMs?" in Twitter:

Sign up to socialtoo.com, socialoomph.com and fun140.com. At each one make sure you check in the settings that you wish to opt out of receiving auto-DMs from those services.

SocialToo and Fun140 do not require registration, just Twitter approval, so make sure you're logged in to Twitter at the time. For SocialOomph, I think you can just do as instructed here: http://twitter.com/optmeout

It won't stop all DMs but will massively reduce them, though recently fun140 has started sending me them again, though I think it's because I changed my username since opting out a while ago. It's a pain, why can't they just be opt-in? After a warning, I may just block anyone who sends a fun140 DM (note they are usually a quiz and do not include the name Fun140).

Those same services let you auto-DM new followers - an activity which will promptly lose you some of your new followers as people do not want unsolicited updates from people who are not close friends, especially if they are getting DMs texted to their phones. That activity may also get you blocked and consequently investigate pending possible account suspension.

If you want to follow me, you can at at http://www.twitter.com/mayman but misuse auto-DM at your own risk.

Ian replied on November 14, 2009 14:00 to the question "Help getting an inactive Twitter username?" in Twitter:

No they do not. We just have to wait... one day Twitter will release inactive and unused accounts, but nobody knows when that will be. In the mean time, link your phone to Twitter and get updates texted you from the inactive account, then you'll at least know if it does become active.

Ian replied on November 03, 2009 09:24 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

It's available to receive messages for free in America, Canada and the UK. In the UK, it is available only to people on O2 or Vodaphone.

Ian asked a question in Twitter on November 03, 2009 08:54:

SPAM: Limit replies for non-followers.

In an effort to stop spam, a limit should be imposed on the number of replies that can be sent to people who are not followed by the recipient. Then spammers that I do not follow will send far less generic message that show in my replies feed for days - and cannot be deleted.

I think there should also be a limit to the number of mentions per tweet as many of my replies are like this:
"Thanks for RT. #followfriday @username1 @username2 @username3 @username4 @username5 @username6 @username7 @username8 @username9 @username10 @username11 @username12 @username13 @username14 @username15 @username16 @username17 @username18".

Great, someone noticed for a moment that I exist, but there is no content in a message like this. It would also put a stop to the overuse of the #followfriday hashtag which means nothing to me because so many users do it that they can't truly know that many people well enough to recommend them, and there is less to read due to lists of names in my Twitter stream, like the example tweet above.

Ian asked a question in Twitter on November 03, 2009 08:48:

Make direct messages opt-out per followed

Make direct messages opt-out per followed, then only those friends and companies I select from those I follow can send me Direct Messages, each of which are texted to me. I have 3,400+ followers and currently I get an unwanted DM perhaps every other day. This is effectively spam, the unwanted DM is texted to me which has to then be deleted from my phone and from my Twitter account. Just because I follow someone does not mean I want a DM sent to hundreds of people, my interest may only be 'casual'.
Opt-in means people will use DMs more responsibly and be more considerate but will still give them at least one opportunity to send a DM. Some people have linked a mobile and request DMs to be sent as text messages, which costs money, so lets not waste it.

Ian reported a problem in happier.com on September 09, 2009 23:58:

Alternative Payment Methods

I do not live in America, I live in Europe and my preferred method of payment is Maestro which is the most widely accepted debit card in Europe and which is accepted in other continents too, so naturally I am curious to know why you - just like two other American services I've tried to buy membership with - are not accepting Maestro? I can't get a credit card, so your suggested payment methods are not available to me without incurring charges. I would have just bought a six month membership just now were it not for this problem.

If you're unwilling or unable to accept a payment method not widely accepted in America, then you should accept Paypal as a payment method, not just for some security reason, why can't I just pay with Paypal which offers a lot more payment options?

Thanks for your help.

Ian started following the idea "Using twitter for recording diary entries" in happier.com.

Ian replied on September 09, 2009 18:21 to the question "Why can't Twitter username contain the word "admin"?" in Twitter:

Crystal, I have long wanted a username containing two words one of which is "admin". There is it seems no existing user with the name I want and yet I am told it is unavailable.

For another company I need a username which has long been abandoned by someone, can't get that either. It's not very good treating users this way, especially if they may become paying customers when the premium accounts are announced.

Ian replied on September 08, 2009 16:59 to the idea "Down with Registration" in happier.com:

I see more than half the features of the basic paid for account are with the free account. It annoys me that people are unwilling to give two minutes of their time for the time, investment and expertise that Happier.com puts into developing this.

The lack of gratitude from some people expecting everything for nothing and on their terms amazes me, then they still complain in my experience. I earn less than most unemployed people and I want to pay.

I am happy to register because I know it adds value to your business and shows prospective partners that others value your work and therefore help you develop feature to increase customers value for money, some of those features being given away for free.

Ian started following the question "Issue with HUD on Pokercopilot2" in Poker Copilot.

Ian started following the idea "How come I can't look at a list of my followers/following?" in Thing Labs.

Ian asked a question in Twitter on August 29, 2009 16:55:

How Twitter can just about stop spam dead.

In an effort to stop spam Twitter needs to improve it's privacy options. Every day I get replies/mentions from people I don't follow and who don't follow me, all they are doing is spamming and I'm tired of blocking them.

The best solution is for updates to be protected as they are now, but with the option of still being visible to users and bots, add to that the option of reply only being available to approved people. Companies can then get see tweets about them with a right to reply, but users are able to control who can reply.

Mere protect or unprotect is about as colorful (or helpful) as mere black or white, yes or no, there is no middle ground, no customization - just lots of spam.

There would still be the problem of who to accept as a friend or not but this can be improved significantly with a user rating system; spammers would get a low rating by people and when a minimum number of votes is reached they get automatically blocked or add to the list of "friend requests" depending on the blocked/followed ratio.

Users should also be able to whitelist others should they actually want to follow a spammer, though this should not influence the above mentioned ratio as spammers will just approve themselves with multiple accounts.
Doing the above will significantly increase the value of Twitter Inc. and allow the many other improvements users have been wanting literally for years.

Ian started following the question "Can an inactive Twitter page/username be removed by request? Or even a request be sent to the current inactive owner?" in Twitter.

Ian started following the question "Why does Search.Twitter.com hate me?" in Twitter.

Ian started following the question "Is there a desktop application for ping.fm?" in Ping.fm.

Ian asked a question in Twitter on July 03, 2009 18:02:

Improving Auto-Following via Twitter API

There are two issues here:

I get emails everyday about people following me, that's great and it really helps me to follow only those that add value, i.e. not selling me something I don't want. However most of those "new follower" emails are from people trying to sell me something. Can I one day block auto-following, perhaps with conditions for example, if the new follower has been blocked by others? That would help a lot in spam prevention.

Secondly, if I choose to auto-follow people and have been trying out a number of third party apps to do this, how can I then find out which is best? The only way is for Twitter to reveal which app initiated the new "follow". Recently I did find myself following new people, but I could not find out how as I forgot which service I set it up with. I did eventually find the service and am no longer auto-following due to the sheer number of network marketers.