UPDATE: Twitter are in contact with SpamCop to resolve this issue. Meanwhile we whitelisted their servers on ours. Please make sure that you email address wasn’t flagged as inactive (and if it was, please follow the instructions below).
UPDATE 2: We updated the instructions on how to fix this, if your account was affected.
Today some of Twitter mail servers were marked as sending spam by SpamCop:
128.121.146.153 listed in bl.spamcop.net (127.0.0.2)
If there are no reports of ongoing objectionable email from this system it will be delisted automatically in approximately 14 hours.
Causes of listing
- System has sent mail to SpamCop spam traps in the past week (spam traps are secret, no reports or evidence are provided by SpamCop)
- SpamCop users have reported system as a source of spam about 10 times in the past week
I’m not sure how this happened, but it is. This causes our servers to filter messages sent from the marked servers. We notified Twitter of this situation and we hope that they will address it soon.
But the problem is that besides that some messages will be lost, because of how Twitter mail system works, if it can’t deliver message to an address for a few times it marks it as non working and gives the user the following message:
If you received this message on your account, please do the following to make Twitter send you notifications again:
- Don’t panic :)
- Click on the link that says “click here to try sending messages to your email address again”.
- If this doesn’t help, please contact us by email - <help@topify.com>.
If SpamCop doesn’t whitelist Twitter soon, we will do it ourselves. But we keep this as a last resort option, so we won’t expose you to spam.
To keep updated on how this resolves, please follow us on Twitter - @topify, if you haven’t done so yet.
1 hour ago Twitter made their new spam reporting method available to us developers as part of their API. As of 15 minutes ago, when you report someone for spam from Topify, it’s the same as reporting from Twitter’s UI. So in case you were wondering - you continue doing the same action you’ve been doing until now from Topify, and we take care for the details.
We also changed the text on our notifications from “Block & Report” to “Report For Spam”, to be consistent with Twitter.
Hopefully this is one step closer to cleaning Twitter from spam.
It seems that a new Twitter worm is using hijacked accounts to send to the friends of the affected account a link to a phishing site.
We advise not to visit the URL and for those who were affected, we advise to update immediately their Twitter password. If you only received this DM, but haven’t visited it - you probably have nothing to worry about. We do suggest that you delete it (just in case).
UPDATE: Mashable reports the same and Twitter staff just posted a warning on their @spam account: “A bit o’phishing going on — if you get a weird direct message, don’t click on it and certainly don’t give your login creds!”
Safe surfing and tweeting. :)
Fred Wilson wrote a great post about email few days ago -
In this day and age of social media and an ever expanding set of communication tools (SMS, IM, Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc) it is easy to forget about email. But that would be a big mistake.
[…]
If you are building a web service, you should most certainly build regular email communication with your users/members as one of the key features of your service.
Fred Wilson, “Don’t Forget About Email”
We couldn’t agree more with Fred, because email is the core of Topify. But having a regular email communication with your users isn’t just enough. You need to make your email communication effective and useful to the users.
We started Topify because most web services while having email communication with their users, have very un-useful emails, which are more burden to the user than use. The first use case that we decided to try out and improve was Twitter’s email notifications.
Some of the non-usefulness of the emails web services send this days, comes from their intent to use the emails to bring traffic to the website. But it’s a mistake, because too shallow emails are being left unread in the inbox and become a burden to the user. Instead of that, good (useful) emails while don’t generate traffic to the website (coming directly from the email) can increase the overall interaction with the site. And after all, interaction with the service is the goal.
That’s our $0.2 on the topic. Would love to hear your opinion on that too.
A few weeks ago we introduced a very simple way to block or mark a user as spam from Topify notifications. We realized we could save you a few more clicks and that’s why today we introduce a new dead simple way to do that.
You just need to press 1 click.
You read well. 1 click
At the end of any email notifications you’ll find the option to do that. By clicking “click here” we automatically process the blocking/Spam marking process. And a follow up email confirmation will be sent.
For mobile users it will still be probably more convenient to keep forwarding the notifications to our unique emails adress block@topify.com and spam@topify.com [we recommend you add those adresses to your contact book], instead of pressing those 1-click links that actually open a browser page to confirm your action (unless you have a super fast iphone/mobile browser)
So check your topify notifications now
So there you go. A few less clicks a a little more time for you.
This is what Topify is all about
China can block whatever they want. The beauty of the web is that because it is becoming a distributed service, you need to really try very very hard to really block something.
Try Twitter for example. Thanks to its API we created Topify which enables you to receive improved email notifications on followers request and manage smartly your Direct Messages.
China Blocked twitter. But twitter is still working via Topify, since email is not blocked (not yet…)
So if you are a chinese user you can jump on Topify and keep enjoying the service, in its basic form.
if you want to create an account get an invite here http://bit.ly/gotopify
A lot of users started to complain recently about the wave of unsollicited Direct Messages generated by SpyMaster. And we thought we would come up with a solution until twitter does.
SpyMaster seems to be a great game using Twitter messaging system to alert/notify your friends. But like all great games, it isn’t for eveyrone. You might end up being annoyed by Direct Messages inviting you to join the party, even by people you really want to follow, but still don’t want to block. A SpyMaster is not necessarily a SpamMaster, but you need more control.
Today, we introduce a way to filter those Direct Messages. Simply. When you receive a Direct Message notification from Topify referring to Spymaster, simply forwarded it to
StopSpymaster@topify.com
We automatically will filter any Direct Message related to the game and will notify the sender not to send you more messages related to the game:
We hesitated to include in the process a mechanism to delete totally the direct message from Twitter, so that you don’t receive it at all in other clients and twitter readers. If this is something that you want let us know in comments.
Of course, like with other Topify features, we let you in control. If you change your mind and want to receive Direct Messages related to SpyMaster one day, just go to your dashboard and change the settings.
Actually we are thinking about enabling this feature more more generic terms. So now you have another good reason to register a Topify account.
Not a Topify user? While Topify is in private beta, you can use the following link to register: http://topify.com/invite/gotopify
There you go!
update: TechCrunch has spotted the news. They mention and rightly so that SpyMaster has an optout feature. But if you are on the go or don’t have the time to open your browser, or simply have no clue what SpyMaster is, it is just much much much simpler to block any incoming DM right from your inbox. And in addition you ll have an opportunity to notify back the sender right away
Topify provides you with super powers to deal with your twitter email notifications. We love our users and we will from time to time share the stories of some Topify heroes who enjoy those super powers. Today @lrobiner who is also a super promoter of Topify
Your 140 character Bio?
marketing consultant, business developer, social media addict, writer, storyteller, husband, father, wonderer, procrastinator, ever mindful
What do you tweet about? And how long have you been on Twitter ? How do you tweet?
I’ve been using Twitter since 8/8/08. I usually use TweetDeck or TinyTwitter. I tweet about ideas, questions or experiences that I think are interesting, amusing or enlightening. Subjects include my profession (marketing) and personal interests, such as creative writing. I continue to be amazed and delighted by the range of thoughtful and helpful tweeps out there.
When and how did you discover Topify and how do you use it ?
I discovered Topify about a month ago. Like many users, I found the standard Twitter new follower notifications very lacking. I tried another twitter notification tool that did not live up to its promise. Of course, the Twitter community turned out to be a great crowdsourcing tool for recommendations for alternatives, and that’s how I found Topify.
The new follower notifications I get via Topify are so much more useful. They not only include the user’s follower, following and update count, but also their bio and recent tweets. Best of all, I can follow back by replying to the email or DM by replying if I am already following. I can easily manage my new twitter followers as I manage my inbox.
I have tried to “pay it forward” by introducing other twitter users to topify.
What is the main benefit for you of using Topify?
Simplicity.
What would you add to topify to improve it?
I am interested to know why twitter followers choose to follow me. It would be cool to have Topify’s notification emails reference my most recent tweet (or someone else’s reply or retweet to something I tweeted) prior to the new follow.
Why do you think Topify is the best option out there to manage followers by email?
Topify gets it. They provide a free, full-featured solution to follower management by email that works as advertised. Simple and effective.
What are your favourite twitter apps (after Topify of course…)?
TweetDeck for the desktop and TinyTwitter for blackberry are my favorite clients. I’ve also recently discovered UberTwitter, which is a very powerful client for the blackberry. DoesFollow.com is a great little utility that lets you see if one person is following another.
What other networks do you use?
LinkedIn and Facebook.
If topify was a bird it would be ?
A hummingbird. Small, fast, fun to watch.
