We’ve been suspended by Twitter :(
Despite our best efforts to reach out to Twitter to clarify what they are asking us to change about Refollow (which went ignored by them), Twitter has decided to suspend Refollow. This means you can no longer use OAuth to login (but for now, basic Twitter authentication still works).
We assume Twitter knows what is best for their overall ecosystem, but we certainly question what exactly that vision is. Without the ability to discover the nature of your relationships with others (or potential new relationships) and take actions, what’s the point?
We will continue to reach out to Twitter support and see if we can get a dialog going, but in case that fails, thank you to all 100,000+ of you that regularly use Refollow! Feel free to keep on Refollowing until Twitter figures out how to block basic authentication as well :) Guess it’s time to start the port to Facebook!
In case anyone is interested, here are the emails we exchanged with Twitter support:
From Twitter Support:
From: sutorius [mailto:notifications-support@twitter.zendesk.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:01 AM
To: Support
Subject: #827777 Twitter Support: update on “Your site Refollow.com”
Support, Jan 19 10:01 am (PST):
Hi,
We’re writing to let you know that your site, Refollow, breaks our Automation Rules and Best Practices (http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/76915). Specifically, it facilitates automated bulk user following and unfollowing, which is not allowed. It’s best for both our users and your users if your application follows the rules, so please make the necessary changes to bring your application into compliance.
We’ll check back in on your application on Monday, February 1st. If these changes aren’t made by then, we may take action against it. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Brian
Twitter API Support
Our reply:
From: Rob Meadows
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 11:33 AM
To: ‘Twitter Support’
Cc: Tyler Buck; Jeremy Miller
Subject: RE: #827777 Twitter Support: update on “Your site Refollow.com”
Hello, Can we please setup a time to discuss the specifics of this request? Refollow does not automate following or unfollowing any more than the Twitter web interface itself. Users must still go through and select other users to take action on, then manually choose to follow/unfollow the selected users. The only enhancement Refollow provides beyond following/unfollowing each user individually is that it optimizes the use of your api calls to follow/unfollow in groups of 20. But users must still select specific users after filtering and examining them. Refollow is designed to help users discover things about their twitter social relationships (such as users who have become inactive, users who are interested in certain things, users who are most influential, etc.) and perform actions on these users such as following/unfollowing/blocking/tweeting. The application is not intended for the purpose of spamming, aggressive following, building followers, etc., nor does the application encourage such actions. Please let us know the next steps. Thanks,
Rob
Rob Meadows
CEO Originate Labs
www.originatelabs.com
Guess not…:
From: sutorius [mailto:notifications-support@twitter.zendesk.com]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 11:18 AM
To: Support
Subject: #845863 Twitter Support: update on “Your site Refollow.com”
Support, Feb 01 11:17 am (PST):
Hi,
This is a second notice that your application, ReFollow, breaks our Automation Rules and Best Practices (http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/76915). Specifically, it facilitates bulk user following and unfollowing, neither of which are allowed. Please remove these features from your application to bring it into compliance with our policies by next Monday, February 8th. If you are unable to meet this deadline, your application may be prohibited from functioning on Twitter.
Thank you in advance,
Brian
Twitter API Support
