I really enjoy finding new blogs, forums and other online resources on Twitter.
One thing that I have really come to hate is the accounts that position themselves as subject matter experts, but are really there just to push their get-(me)-rich-online-quick pyramid scheme. Five tweets that link to possibly relevant resources written by other people, then their scam tweet. Repeat throughout the day. Maybe the whole day if they are automated enough.
That’s annoying enough, but how about the quality, or lack of same, of the actual links? Those possibly relevant resource links are obviously generated by some kind of automatic search. Irrelevant links are just an annoyance, but how about the ones that are just plain wrong? It’s obvious that the tweeter is not monitoring the links in any way.
Example: subject is dogs. Some of the links are stories about sports teams with “dog” nicknames. Annoying, yet harmless. One of the links is to the website of a trainer who has been charged with dog abuse (final outcome still being determined to my knowledge). Annoying and possibly very harmful.
I don’t follow this type of account for long, but I still wonder about what damage they are doing, and I doubt any response I’ve made was enough to counter any bad link.
There are other subject matter experts who do screen their links, and provide valuable and interesting information in addition to promoting their own business. Those I keep following.
(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 10 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 106 of 274)