Twitter, RT bots, and a lesson on the internet
I haven’t mentioned this in my blog yet but for the last few months I have been operating a few RT bots on twitter. For those of you not on Twitter or don’t know what an RT is I’ll explain. RT stands for retweet. If someone likes a tweet from someone or for some other wants to spread that tweet around they’ll make a post that, usually, is formed as follows
RT @orig_poster_name Text of their tweet
With my bots I am doing the same thing but have an automated way of finding tweets that contain a certain phrase and retweet that. Depending on the phrase this can end up retweeting a lot or just a little. My busiest bot is @shutupmeg who looks for the phrase “shut up” and a few variations of that.
The point? To have fun mainly. I don’t have a solid plan for monetizing this however my accounts have a large number of followers so advertising may work in the future. For now I’m keeping my greed itch at bay.
The profile page of my bots have a link back to a page listing all of my bots, their last few retweets, and a small survey. The results don’t really matter but I do like feedback on what I’m doing.
This is a comment I received recently:
I don’t find these bots entertaining. They’re very annoying and are an invasion of privacy, since they retweet stuff people say.- Anonymous
I really wish they would have left their name so I could give them a link to this post, and the following lesson:
When you post something on the internet, especially on a public website like twitter, that work is no longer private
The internet as we know it is a place where information and ideas can be viewed over and over again, shared, remixed, repackaged, and spit back out on to the internet again where the cycle can continue. This does not happen with every bit of content out there but if something is deemed worthy of this by anyone then it can and will happen.
If something is private to you then maybe sharing that on the internet isn’t the greatest idea you’ve had. I recommend that you write it down on a sheet of paper, look at it, and burn said paper. If you must share something private on the internet don’t come running to mommy because your ex boyfriend, teacher, or some bum in an internet cafe saw it and *ghasp* spread it around.
So, Mr/Mrs Anonymous, do you really want to share something that’s private on Twitter? Make your account private. It’s an option and that way bots like mine can’t view your stuff unless you specifically allow them to. Otherwise, don’t call me a pervert when I look in to your livingroom window while you’re changing your clothes with the drapes fully open.