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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

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

Jodo Kast — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:45:46 +0100

The only thing you see is "#moonfruit" in the Trending Topics.

It doesn't seem very intrusive. Only your own curiosity will drive you to find out what it is (if you don't), and only your own clicking on the link to try to figure out what it is.

But if you know what #moonfruit is, then just ignore the trending topic. Feel free to unfollow anyone that you do not want messages from. It could be they are hungry for a new notebook computer. I personally just ignore it if someone mentions it.

Problem here is people like Phil Bradley are spending 3 paragraphs to complain about instead of just ignoring the Trending Topic.

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

Web Laureate — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:20:59 +0100

loved this contest. wished it could have co-existed with the less commercial trends, but i c no harm in this fun. (if only i had won ;) )

and thank you for taking us on a journey most poetic - http://web-poet.com/2009/07/06/moon...

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

rydangel — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:06:27 +0100

i had fun with the contest. i picked up some new followers, and followed some new tweeters. i also made a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNV... as far as spamming, i personally sent out a warning when i joined the #moonfruit bandwagon, so my followers had the option of censoring my tweets for the duration or unfollow me if they choose. i don't think it was malicious spam because it was coming from fellow tweeters and neither they nor moonfruit were actively trying to sell me something. plus i have the tweetdeck so i used that to tell me if my incoming tweets were moonfruit tags or normal tweets. everyone in the twitterverse had the option of blocking the moonfruit tweets, those who didn't and were upset with the moonfruiters, have only themselves to blame. that is was the setting tools are for, they should have used them. now i would be upset at regular commercials from people i didn't choose to follow showed up on my page.

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

Phil Bradley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:42:30 +0100

Is it 'censoring' if my ISP deletes all the 'make money fast' rubbish emails that I get sent? No, of course it's not, because they're SPAM. And that's ALL you people have been doing, is spamming Twitter. It's not censorship, it's self defence. I'm sick of seeing your rubbish spam, and yes, if any of the people I follow spout the gibberish they get unfollowed, and I dropped about half a dozen as a result.

Plenty of marketeers are using Twitter, but they're using it sensibly and thoughtfully, and Twitter and most other people don't have a problem with them. It's just idiots like you who are attempting to wreck the place that cause the problems.

Your cheap nasty little campaign has one good thing going for it however; it's alerted me to the existence of your product, and I will make every effort to ensure that neither I, or anyone I know will *ever* use your products. Spammer.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - rei.yano

rei.yano — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:29:04 +0100

yeah so I am bawwwing a bit. whatever. it wasn't wasted time. I'm pretty proud of what I finished. why I am allowing myself to be trolled? the world will never know...

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

floyd — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:37:57 +0100

BOO HOO, who really cares anyway? all that time and effort wasted. congratulations!

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - rei.yano

rei.yano — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:31:59 +0100

I wish they would mention MY entry.... but I guess they just don't like it very much.... well FINE then.... =P but in all seriousness even if I do not win I would just really like to see my entry in one of ur tweets eventually.

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

Wendy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:35:35 +0100

Thanks all, good to have all views.

Christine it's a good question. This campaign has gone far beyond our expectations and we certainly don't want to ruin the Twitterverse! However, our concern with the removal of #moonfruit from the trending topics is more about the precedent Twitter is setting and the implication on the future of Twitter.

There are thousands of marketing/pr/branding campaigns running on Twitter, run by companies, freelancers, marketers, journalists, celebrities and individuals. Many are viral in nature and therefore it's a spam 'grey' area mostly defined as whether followers like them or not. The joy of twitter is you can 'unfollow' as well as 'follow'. By removing our hashtag they're basically saying it's OK to do these campaigns as long as you're not too successful. I think they were right to do it but should have done so openly. Twitter is walking a fine line between needing these campaigns to eventually commercialise and not scaring off consumers. I think Twitter's reached the point where it needs to address this openly as campaigns will be on the increase.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - @yoga_mama, aka LaSara Firefox

@yoga_mama, aka LaSara Firefox — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:30:47 +0100

I feel the whole of the #moonfruit phenomena has been a great amount of fun, and have gotten great response from some of my friends on my #moonfruit contributions - a tribute to Goodnight Moon one night, a few haiku, poems, etc.

Also, it's been a win/win, because @moontweet (you guys) RTed on of my haiku, and you have more followers than I do, and I got RTed in turn by others who have varying #s of followers.

I know that the tweeters who are RTing my haiku are alos getting a chance to win, on MY creativity, but hey, they're sharing my creativity, and my @yoga_mama profile.

So, I've gained followers, exposure, and some RT love and pride.

Thanks for the opportunity to join in a creative enterprise, make new friends, and have some fun.

And, I hope you'll check out #GRATITUDE Gathering next Sunday, if you can be up in the middle of the night - UK time. That's the hashtag I generated lo-these many months ago, and in addition to being a daily practice for many, the monthly Gathering is a great experience by all accounts.

Back when the Twitterverse was a smaller place, we trended in the top four for the first three months. I'd love to see that happen again, so any help we get in spreading #GRATITUDE by any and all who read this, THNX!

More info on #GRATITUDE Gathering:
http://lasarafirefox.com/twitter_gr...

-LaSara, aka @yoga_mama
http://www.lasarafirefox.com

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

Joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:02:16 +0100

The content is irrelevant and repetition for the sake of advertising, but at least it does not end up unsolicited (you have to search for the hashtag). Let's face it, it's spam.

However, it's certainly not as bad as some household tat store jumping on the Iran elections bandwagon and pumping their adverts into a feed, and it is not self-referencing, self-following zombies that will dilute the regular users and content.

It's only a matter of time until Twitter descends into a mound of spam, and campaigns like these will be the thin end of the wedge.

Oh well :s

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

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:14:02 +0100

I hope my entries are getting counted in the contest ! Here's a poem I wrote inspired by the word 'moonfruit'.

http://tinyurl.com/nt6slj

-b

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

Trecoolius — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:35:46 +0100

Guys, Twitter didn't censor you, it's just that people grows bored of the needless tweeting, especially when it seems that all the winners come from the US and UK. Personally, I stopped tweeting in the third day. Good luck to all US and UK tweeters. And no, I don't care/believe winners are draw in a random basis. I don't feel like advertising a brand when I won't get any benefit.

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

sèén — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:22:04 +0100

Excellent marketing skills. I love that people hate on companies that beat them to the punch, had they come up with this great idea I highly doubt they'd be all that concerned about Twitter being exploited. Kudos Moonfruit on a job well done!

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - fleming77

fleming77 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:19:40 +0100

I have enjoyed all of this enterprising Twitting. It is a revenue idea for Twitter so I expect there will be monetised schemes following. The creative specials have been amusing, the first I saw was the boy talking to camera, the most professional the child voice over of your tutorial with two paws.
I am interested in the timing of the take up. I usually tweet when I am not actively engaged in gardening/clearing/dog walks/rural pursuits. Filling time while the thunder storm goes over. Many thanks

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

Akhil Sasidharan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:03:24 +0100

"Does this mean I won't win?" ;) #moonfruit

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

seth — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:56:40 +0100

It was a brilliant campaign -- a clever exploitation of a communications platform. Well done. Of course, it was always spam, right from the start, like most paid advertising is.

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

joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:24:51 +0100

Hi Christine,

Good comments. We're not that upset at being removed, you're right that we had our moment. It's more that this may be a shift in policy as these kind of activities become more common, which is probably healthy. But Twitter should probably make it clear what the new rules of the game are - when does something become spam? Twitter is full of marketing messages, but clearly it only becomes a problem when they reach a certain level. Which eventually defeats the point. Twitter will need marketing companies in order to eventually make money. But more importantly they need to keep their users happy otherwise there will be no one to market to. So it is a difficult balancing act. I hope that makes sense,

Joe

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

naesk — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:18:47 +0100

I've had a h00t of a time thinking of phrases to mash #moonfruit into them, and I'm sure my followers did too as I didn't receive any tweets to the contrary.

My favourites of which were;

http://twitter.com/naesk/status/243...

http://twitter.com/naesk/status/246...

and of course not forgetting the Femputer pointing device which is the highest rating Bit.ly link in my account :)

http://twitter.com/moontweet/status...

To some degree I can understand Twitters perspective, however at the same time I do believe they have failwhaled. Firstly for not opening a dialogue with yourselves which wouldn't have hurt, and secondly for not truly representing the trending topics.

Hopefully, the Twitter team will read some of these comments and learn from the #moonfruit phenomenon.

Thanks for the fun :)

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

Bograma — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:15:50 +0100

I hope they ban you from Twitter,your campaign is spam.

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

Christine Lu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:13:09 +0100

i think you guys had your fun with it and it achieved the desired effect so you should be happy and declare a little mini victory and pat yourself on the back for a nice case study.

i think it's being a bit presumptuous to think Twitter owes you a reason for why they yanked your hashtag off trending topics. they're a private company. it's in their right to do so if they felt you were becoming spammy ...and you were. 10 days is a bit old. it starts to backfire on your brand after a while don't you think?

why do you guys care anyways? is it that no one nicely told you to back off their platform or is it because you really do want to keep seeing your cute #moonfruit tag on the trending topics?

isn't it enough that you can keep the contest going knowing that folks who have actually become loyal to your brand (did that happen?) are still using your hashtag and its being seen by their followers?

just curious.

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

Elvis of Dallas — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:12:40 +0100

This bodes badly for twitter. Youtube freezes video counts without regards to reason and now twitter blocks the true trends. Bummer.

Welcome to the New World Order gang.

:-(

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

Mark — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:06:18 +0100

you sound like a genuinely nice guy/person, and to think that I was (just starting to) make fun of #moonfruit. damn.

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

Matt Stigliano — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:25:23 +0100

I'm glad someone passed me this link as I had been thinking about this for awhile now. I noticed when #squarespace did a competition for the iPhone, it trended for a day or two and then just fell off the face of the earth. Although I didn't care if it was a trending topic or not, it did make me curious why suddenly it stopped being one, despite the mentions of #squarespace seemingly doubled overnight. They also changed their rules towards the end, making one tweet good for the rest of the contest period, so I have a feeling they may have found much the same from their work.

I did notice a certain backlash as #squarespace became more and more popular. I wonder if you're facing similar problems. I do see some comments here that make me think there might be those that would rather keep Twitter contest/marketing/product free.

As for me, I don't care for trending topics much anyway. I'm not here to see what everyone is talking about, I'm here to talk about everything with everyone I know.

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

Dave Diamond — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:52:46 +0100

The evidence does appear to indicate that Twitter took some action, but it's right to allow them to explain. If they were making decisions about what people could and could not tweet about, that would be horrific. If they are making decisions that affect how people learn about what is going on in the world, that is merely extremely frightening. But it's their application and they have every right to do with it as they wish, even if such action, whatever that might be, brings about their own untimely end.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - hey.hey.its.reiyano

hey.hey.its.reiyano — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:46:10 +0100

well I enjoyed it. I usually take a long time to release any new music and this contest pushed me to actually finish something (15 hours of work in 2 days is a huge record for me... =) proud of that). I plan on using moonfruit to build a site for releasing music. For a while I thought you guys were ignoring me but I forget how many people there are probably flooding you with msgs. thanks for everything guys (especially joe who made me feel a lot more appreciated). Hope you like my moonfruit song I made for you.
http://bit.ly/yyXOe (shameless plug yeah I know)

take care Joe

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

joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:41:05 +0100

Yes, Twitter is indeed a massive innovator. And they are bound to be faced with difficult choices along the way. Hopefully this will lead to clearer guidelines for use in the future. Thanks,

Joe

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

Rick — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:37:29 +0100

One of the things that Twitter has done is open many-to-many communication; uncharted territory. Twitter has gone places that could never have been imagined and it's impact truly extraordinary. But this was because it was left to the users to find new and creative ways to use it, uncensored. By censoring its use, Twitter is putting a cap on creativity and trying to direct how it is used, hardly an atmosphere for innovation. But this is also part of the learning curve, maybe Twitter can reexamine their acceptable use policies and make those available, add some transparency to their process.

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

Diane — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:35:11 +0100

Count me among those who love the campaign, and typically this is not my thing at all. It's been fun, and I'll keep tweeting 'til the last winner is announced. For those who are crabby about it, trust me, there are more important things to get your knickers in a knot over.

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

Bram Ketting — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:34:22 +0100

It seems indeed that you were kicked out of the trending topics. It might be a good idea for Twitter to start a commercial trending topic list.

But being creative is always more risky then being conventional, but check the exposure, visitors on your website and activity on Twitter… The result of this campaign is a straight flush!

To say some words about the campaign; I really liked it that you also started to reward creative submits, in the beginning is was more a lottery.
I was (still) really eager to win (I am the creator of the Bird-napping story, thx btw for mentioning me)

So hands down guys! Keep up the good work and I am looking forward to your next campaign ;)

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

joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:23:37 +0100

Hi Lance,

I said that we were using the Twitter search and not the alpha release Twitter stream which had fewer results than the Search. So the Twitter search is the best way to get results out. Thanks,

Joe

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

Patrick Boegel — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:13:19 +0100

Loved it, good stuff. Frankly the trending topics as important has been broken for sometime now and needs some functionality to make it worthwhile. I am more juiced to see something like the hashtag you set for the promotion randomly show up in some people I follow's tweets than as a trending topic, that peaks my interest and gets me to see what it is about.

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

Lance Brown — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:12:48 +0100

I find it hilarious that you are bashing Twitter for being untransparent when you knowingly deceived people into thinking all #moonfruit tweets would be considered as entries. Joe White's claims indicate that you knew in advance there were discrepancies in the database you were relying on to choose your winner from. (http://bit.ly/175Dbw) And even if you didn't know in advance, when it was made inescapably clear to you you chose not to disclose that to the contest entrants on your page or via your Twitter account.

I wonder how glowing people would be if they found out that their entries never stood a chance of being chosen, and they were pimping #moonfruit for no possible gain. I find mass fraud to be much more annoying than the mere sight of a commercial name in the trending topics.

Here is my moonfruit haiku:

they are not counting
all entries, but they don't tell
the Twitterverse tweeps

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

Chloe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:11:44 +0100

I never heard of Moon Fuirt before, and now I plan on using it to create a portfolio for my clothing designs. It would be great to have a new macbook pro to create that webpage with. Twas a fun game while it lasted!

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

squeakie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:05:54 +0100

This has been fun. I've been saying #moonfruit in my sleep. I hope Twitter responds to you, they should have contacted you before pulling you off trending topics. I hope this campaign will give your business a big boost. Very clever idea.

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

Mreurope — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:03:39 +0100

Well I've enjoyed the #moonfruit - although I am still mac less - all I have been doing is sending the occasiona moon or fruit themed joke - no harm in that.

If you cant use the tools provided to run a campaign like this then what do you use twitter for - its the first bit of harmless fun I've had since I joined - no need for bad kudos

And for all my followers, sorry but there will be a few more ~moonfruits hanging around until its done!

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

Rolf — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:02:27 +0100

I think this was a brilliant marketing campain. Totally opt-in, no obnoxious unwanted direct messages or replies. Just a lottery with free tickets, and free participation. The added iPod touch for creativity made it even more loveable.

There is a big difference in pushing marketing onto people, and asking them to participate politely and giving something in return. For now, it was very original and fun.

I am 100% sure that big companies will take this idea and will execute it very poorly, making it into an obnoxious and arrogant marketing campain. Too bad for them, becausefor #moonfruit it has worked like a charm I think.

Keep up the good work, looking forward to your next brilliant idea.

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

joe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:01:40 +0100

Thanks guys. We're glad you enjoyed the ride. It's been great fun, but very tiring! I'm sure we'll miss it when it's gone ;-)

Joe

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

Sharkey — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:58:35 +0100

Where you are on the trend list doesn't really impact too much on Twitter usage or cause irritation (it's just a stat). But you tweeted way too much, and that is one of main reasons that people get 'unfollowed'. It saturated my Twitter page. That was irritating. You learn a lot from a campaign and you seem savvy and sensitive enough to build positively on what you've achieved. All in all, great campaign. Well done.

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

Bob Jones — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:55:45 +0100

I think your pointing machine is broken anyway :)

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

Sanjay — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:54:13 +0100

Its been a really sad to hear this, for any social platform. They should have notified to you. Any way, what started as fun should end as fun .....

So I am not going to stop over here.... keep tweeting the #moonfriut .....

Sanjay

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

Erin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:53:59 +0100

I thought the promo was an exceptional idea and great way to use social media for marketing. You now have a vast audience with knowledge of your product all over the world. What an advertising feat! I agree that Twitter needs to be forthcoming if they are going to change the rules. Keep us updated. I would like to know what their stance is on the subject. Oh yes, and I too am now quite fond of tweeting about #moonfruit.

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

keento — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:46:41 +0100

#moonfruit has been deliciously keeping so many of us tweeting, we've even been forgeting to get some sleep in. Thanks for the fun, It's been a blast.

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

cdfinder — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:46:40 +0100

Kudos to an incredible marketing campaign. I had never heard of Moonfruit before, and I do software development and deployment for 20 years now.

And you are right, Twitter will need to repsond to this, definitely. I hope they use this as a helpful happening to bring them forward as well.

Now back to hoping to win a MacBook, LOL #moonfruit

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

@morningsung — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:44:52 +0100

Heey now, It is obvious that it got so popular because there were such awesome prizes being offered--but look what came out of it? They made a good point, TONS of creativity has been produced due to this promotion. They even started rewarding FOR creativity. I'm feeling it.

I mean, shoot. I never would have made my moonfruit dedication song ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxiO...

haha thanks guys.

Twitter censors Moonfruit? What does it mean for the future of Twitocracy? - Philip M. Hofer (Frumph)

Philip M. Hofer (Frumph) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:42:43 +0100

I had fun with it.

Of course it made 'regular' tweet's concerning other people's tweets or my own .. seem .. rather off. It sure made things interesting for a bit.

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

sf — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:41:16 +0100

what an attitude you guys have! it's truly obnoxious!
you turned a contest into a trend because people wanted to win something. has nothing to do with you. at all. you guys are pigs.

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

Kristian Rodgers — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:39:25 +0100

It's been a ride!

I'm just wondering if I will ever be able to type anything normally without typing #moonfruit at the end.

"Sorry to hear your dog died, Nan #moonfruit."