Sometimes you wonder if the big players on Silicon Valley exist in a parallel universe. Google, of course, is a firm that makes little sense to me: one that usually says one thing and does another, in almost every encounter I have had with it. And you know they can’t be that smart if, […]
Tag: spam
Even on Instagram, they prefer bots to legitimate users
Instagram bans are like Facebook blackouts or Google blacklists: no matter what the company says your time-out is, it’s considerably longer. Day 1 was Sunday, when I noticed that the likes I made via Ink 361 didn’t stick. I went back to Iconosquare (Statigram) and this message flashed up: The wisdom online is […]
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Found a Facebook bot? Facebook wants you to leave it as reporting option vanishes
PS.: As of 11.28 a.m. GMT, eight hours after the post below, Facebook has put its normal reporting options back.—JY Facebook appears to be giving up on the bot fight. As of today, you can no longer mark an account as a fake one: the closest option is to say that it is using a […]
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How many Facebook bots do you see in an evening? I count over 250
Last month, I Tweeted Facebook, asking them to raise the reporting limit for bots. Right now, you can report around 40 bot accounts before a warning box comes up asking you to slow down. If you do another 10, you are barred from reporting any more for 24 hours—even though you are trying to help […]
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Facebook blocks you from reporting bots, fails to provide rationale
It appears Facebook doesn’t want bot reports after you hit a limit. In fact, I’ve been banned for a day for reporting them. This makes no sense. Facebook gives you a warning to slow down when you hit the 40s. But you can’t get any slower. The fact is Facebook has made the reporting […]
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Facebook loves spammers
Can Facebook please explain why these obvious bot accounts, all of which have been reported, are allowed to remain on their website? (I have asked Facebook this directly already on Twitter and Facebook.) Some were reported in 2013. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007203668633&fref=pb_other https://www.facebook.com/sluchevskiya?fref=pb_other https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003332425523&fref=nf_fr https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001139762163 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007774961452&fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003723657320 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007526100670&fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007575222133&fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/kyoko.fukada.902266?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/cindy.weaver.7311?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/patricia.lima.393950/ https://www.facebook.com/thomas.lawler.756?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/kolthoff.danuta?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/kaj.werner.50?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/qkquddy?fref=tl_fr_box https://www.facebook.com/iwssr?fref=tl_fr_box […]
Could Facebook follow Vox into the void?
Originally posted to the Vox Neighbourhood on Facebook, without links Key to the 2009 calendar. Yellow: days when Vox worked normally. Pink: days when the compose screen took minutes or hours to load. Red: days when Vox would not allow me to compose at all. I gave up on December 13, 2009, and consolidated all […]
Facebook reaches its limits again: ‘Sorry, something went wrong’
Mea culpa: OK, I was wrong. Facebook got things back up in about 20 minutes for some users, who are Tweeting about it. However, as of 8.37 a.m. GMT, I am still seeing Tweeters whose Facebooks remain down. Looks like some people do work there after hours. What a surprise! However, I reckon […]
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In praise of Zoho Mail
Now that all of our email, bar a handful of client accounts, are going through the paid version of Zoho Mail, I couldn’t be happier. When we shifted things over, my friend and web development expert, Nigel Dunn, suggested either Google or Zoho. He’s a big fan of Google, and I can see […]
Instaspam: has Instagram jumped the shark?
The tipping-point has been reached: on some of my photos, fake Instagram account likers outnumber human beings. In terms of comments, spam outnumbers real ones. Of my last ten likers, nine were fake accounts. And we know that when some sites get to this point, they begin dying. Yet it’s frightfully easy to spot […]