Moonfruit Lounge - Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Comments

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - commenter

commenter — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:18:30 +0100

"could then twitter pull the plug on any other #tr. topic like an Iran?"

Twitter could do anything they felt like.

A more relevant question would be:
is a company employing airheaded twitterers for effectively miniscule amounts of money to spam twitter with the 'Iran' hashtag?

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - River Valley

River Valley — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:06:25 +0100

could then twitter pull the plug on any other #tr. topic like an Iran?
and
i'm an old serious fart who has enough new Mac gear, i DIDN"T care about winning, i just enjoyed participating in silly nonsense. If i was 'unfollowed' by others who didn't see things my way, well and good. saved me the time culling them out

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Flowersbyfarha

Flowersbyfarha — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:34:46 +0100

If #moonfruit was an advertising/marketing campaign it was not wholly successful for some of us remain clueless about what "moonfruit" is. (Obviously some of us are not Mac's.)

As an example of "power of the people" to take something and run with it how glorious!

It is also an example of unintended consequences, for the present it seems to also restrict other topics of legitimate interest to twppl from not only hitting the trending topics list, but also from even being searchable.

Difficult issues to sort through particularly in the effort to foil spammers* while affording users open communications. *(I'm thinking specifically of spammers who tweet their link with every current trending topic as their content.)

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Keller

Keller — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:05:47 +0100

Hey guys at MF - do you know that news of your Twitter campaign made it into the News Digest sections of New Media Age Magazine (9th July)?

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - patriotaxe

patriotaxe — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:45:55 +0100

While I enjoyed playing the #moonfruit game I did miss tracking other world events. You ended up pushing all other discussion to the bottom of the page just a MJ's death pushed all other news - critical news - out of the way. Yes, I guess there does have to be some kind of guidelines. We'll see what develope ...

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Trecoolius

Trecoolius — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:13:21 +0100

I'm sorry, but I have to give up this contest. I don't feel like spamming all my friends when clearly US/UK have the advantage. This might be random, but it's unfair. maybe you should have raffled 2 mbp per continent?

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:58:11 +0100

Hi AJC

We're not disagreeing with you. I am sorry you're being followed by anti-social spam.

The two points we are making is that there have been and still are thousands of marketing campaigns already running on twitter from companies, celebs, freelancers, marketers and individuals. Twitter knows that. By censoring the #trends they are saying it's OK for you to do that as long as you don't get too big, That's fine, they should do that, we love twitter but they should communicate the rules are moving. Twitter are not naive, they walk a fine line between needing marketing on their site as they will need to commercialise and not annoying consumers. I'm sure they have plans in the pipeline. Ultimately Twitter is democratic. If you don't want to be followed you can block people, if you don't like someone's tweets you can unfollow.

And secondly we are touched and appreciate people's creativity. Yes people want macbooks but they've also been playing with the name and what we do and personally I thank you all for that and having a little fun.

We hope some people will ultimately stay and enjoy Moonfruit and if you move on we totally respect that too.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - @babydad

@babydad — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:49:20 +0100

Do you remember way back when the internet was just another broadcast channel? I would say about, oh, 10 years ago... I remember happily trying to spew sales messages to the world and then the moonfruit idea surfaced with the thinking, "you know what the internet needs? communities!"

Moonfruit was a system based on, among the other, more commercial hopes, a hope to create a community, nay communities of like-minded people, allowing them to connect for free, in a space where prejudice couldn't function.

Tracing the path of the internet and it's usage over the past 10 years, and continuing to work in the industry, I've seen the inexorable creep towards the internet BEING a community with the internet itself being the common interest, culminating in this latest delightful toy called Twitter.

I think it's entirely fitting that the humble beginnings of Moonfruit and it's 10th anniversary are honoured using the latest online community technology, and it's that kind of savvy and forward thinking that's kept the 'fruit flying.

Ride the Tiger. ;)

Paul x

And to Mr Brown (that's you Lance, not Gordon) I've been thinking about your mewling all day and I can't let go of my burning annoyance at your attempts to "blow the whistle on this sham", your indignation is as transparent as your argument and to assert that you aren't interested in the prize begs just one question? Why were you scanning the search results so hard for your own name, if not to make sure you stood a chance of winning the prize? Perhaps, you've been cleverly putting yourself forward for a creativity award, most creative outpouring of childish, impotent rage?

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - AJC

AJC — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:03:39 +0100

To be honest I am glad you have stopped using twitter for the competion which as you know twitter is a free social website (Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?) you were not putting the advert out there yourself but you were getting thousands to spam on your behalf about your website and what I objected to is you compare to michael jackson and tennis to your trend they were not spamming they were and are real events that are happing here and now and in no way are telling people to buy or sell anything it was not a competion but a real event were yours was a simple market ploy

the object of you was to make moonfruit appealing to attract new customers bye offering free websites no doubt hoping they would upgrade.. why I admire the campaign I objected in the way it was handled and to now have a go at twitter for taking you off top trends is also childish after all if you offered to help twitter make even a donation or even pre warn them of your campaign or intentions then it would of helped also you were in the top ten trends for quite sometime and remember the resources twitter used for free on your behalf what have they got out of it ?

there is no point in crying over spilt milk it was right to end the campaign you have the resources yourself you could of done it on the moonfruit website itself and friends and followers could if they wanted to have followed however you involved another website without even telling them and it cost you nothing to have sent a email

I questioned before why you are using twitter your reply was "as it is a free instant quick responce" it made more sence

It also sends out the wrong message for other companys to now bombard spam and un solicte there companys I am on your twitter I also have helped advertise moonfruit and tried to enter the competion but as a result of that i now have over 200 new people following me now which most are selling everything from bra's panties to make your penis bigger god knows why lol

If you had gone to twitter in advance or even offered to pay for your spamming (ups advertising) then it would of been polite and good manners..

If you have now obtained new members and those who have upgraded as a result of twitter it is only fair to help twitter out who after all were at the for front of your campaign...

Sorry I am not licking your behind to get a free mac computer but I want Moonfruit to do well in all of the correct ways...

Finally we can get back to normal and all those who entered the competion can get back to being creative with there own websites good day

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:28:44 +0100

Chapel Records we love you guys! Thanks for for sticking with Moonfruit through the years. Good to hear from our long term customers too, and that you're hooking up with the new.

http://www.chapelrecords.co.uk/

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - ChapelRecords

ChapelRecords — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:59:58 +0100

I enjoyed it while it lasted and yep- I feel that it has been a case of censorship.

BUT perhaps I do not understand the "dangers" of an overly popular trend... I know that Michael Jackson's untimely passing caused the net to suffer from freeze-ups as the news hit and perhaps that IS "dangerous", who knows?

Ultimately I have always enjoyed Moonfruit (I cannot believe that anyone involved in website construction in the early 90's was NOT aware of it!!) and now, thanks to THIS campaign (yep- I would LOVE a MacBook Pro to use for our recording facility @ http://www.chapelrecords.co.uk!) have rediscovered it.

Even built a new site, well the beginnings of one (http://fivepartharmony.moonfruit.co...) at just the right time for myself- a soon to be student of film. Welcome back Moonfruit - you shine as brightly (if not brighter) as before!

And you made Twitter a WHOLE lot of fun as I have met a lot of interesting people who share my interest in Macs and creativity (I was campaigning for @sutuma and see a prize was won!). For me that is the beauty of free speech- the ability to follow those you find interesting... And sorry- I do not find the marketeers who promise you that watching a video or listening to their advice will make you millions, remotely interesting. Nor those who are on Twitter to promote adult sites, following who ever they get in their computer monitors' sights.

And as for tweeting about it too much- ahem. I am following someone who tweets once every 20/40 seconds for 20 or so minutes at a time, several times a day. ;) Now THAT is "spamming". ;)

Peace and Moonfruit to all.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - joe

joe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:42:39 +0100

@Trecoolius and Bram - thanks guys for your comments. The draw is random and we do have entrants from all over the world. Roughly 60% have been US based, 30% UK and 10% rest of the world. So the volume of entrants from different countries will determine the probability of them winner. We have no reason to fix this, we're having a great time and love the responses. I hope that helps,

Joe

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Bram

Bram — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:23:35 +0100

@Trecoolius: Stop the bashing about only UK and USA winners...

I won one of the creativity awards. I am from The Netherlands and my mother language is off course Dutch, but like most people I communicate online in English. But that's nothing more then reasonable, the Internet is mainly based on English and you can't expect that an UK firm is also translating all kind of entries.

So there is no reason to ignore this contest if you are not from UK or USA! The Apple store is world wide and as you can see with my winning, there is no discrimination on the contest!

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Paul Wooding

Paul Wooding — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:04:00 +0100

Completely genius idea by Moonfruit. Captured the imagination of Twitter users by appealing to multiple desires: 1) to get something for nothing 2) the peacock effective of showing off our own creativity 3) belonging to a select band of people that are onto something cool.

Yes, it's exposed the flaws in Twitter that leave it open to marketing abuses, but look at the creativity, energy and engagement that took place around this. When was the last time you heard of someone creating a picture, poem or song to get some free Viagra or for a ex-Nigerian president who needs to borrow your bank account for a while?

Things will never be the same again. We clearly need hashtag filters or blockers. But this was opt-in marketing at its very best and anyone that feels it was a misuse of the Internet or Twitter completely misses the point of the whole exercise.

Well done.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - River Valley

River Valley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:36:40 +0100

Its quite possible they decided to test your successful campaign to see if it could continue once it reached "critical mass", and did so without any bad vibe at all. However i do agree opening lines of communication is better than not doing so.

You did a number of things that set you apart from other companies that could use it as a destructive precedent - (1) you immediately changed the playing field at the risk of your own credibility, and "out of respect to the twitterverse" - (2) you are quite graciously opening a channel of discussion for the benefit of twitters own cred. - (3) your decision to judge on creativity lifted it out of mediocrity.

You guys have set the bar high for future marketers. Productive foolishness like I haven't had for a long time. i don't mind if twitter gets to be the place where this happens with many other marketers, but they need to communicate their concerns. maybe they are still choosing their words wisely.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - ruby Q

ruby Q — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:18:49 +0100

yeah i was about to same as Dave Diamond, but it's been real fun. would love it if you can share more info as the campaign comes to a close - i've been using it as a good case study of how to make twitter spin. well done all involved, it's nice to see things work out

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Dave Diamond

Dave Diamond — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:13:49 +0100

did Twitter ever get back to you guys and tell you what's up with the censorship or whatever it was?

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - infradead

infradead — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:26:04 +0100

i've been seeing my friend throwing #moonfruit on his blogs for a couple of days now. i finally got around to googling it to see what the deal is. imagine my surprise and disappointment when i found out that moonfruit is not some type of tasty and delicious candy bar.

on the other hand it does resolve my confusion about why a candy bar company is giving away a bunch of computers via twitter

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Trecoolius

Trecoolius — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:46:07 +0100

Oh, and another thing: Why open the contest to the whole world when only English-Speaking folks are the winners? Could you be so ignorant that you only choose winners those that speak the only language you know? I've yet to see the first Spanish, French, German or Chinese winner. That reminds me, I have big doubts about the randomness of your "automated" program.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Trecoolius

Trecoolius — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:46:06 +0100