It turns out the fact I am “invisible” on Twitter, has nothing to do with what I tweet.  It appears to be a much larger problem also experienced by many other people.  Twitter has created a support issue called Missing From Find People Search.  To see if you are invisible, go to Find People on Twitter and try searching for both your real name and Twitter name.  If you are not found in either search, leave a comment on the support page.  Now, let’s see how long it takes for this issue to be resolved.

Twitter recently announced new Terms of Service.  In their blog post, Twitter’s New Terms of Service (September 10, 2009) they address four key areas: advertising, ownership, APIs, and SPAM.  The one that interested me the most, of course, was SPAM.

SPAM—Abusive behavior and spam is also outlined in these terms according to the rules we’ve been operating under for some time.

Twitter talks about many points, but here is what they have to say about SPAM:

*Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:

• If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
• If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);
• If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
• If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following;
• If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
• If a large number of people are blocking you;
• The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;
• If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic
• If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
• If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
• If you repost other user’s content without attribution.
• If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.

Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true; accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.

As I stated in my first post, Twitter Thinks Contests Are Spam, most of my tweets have links, and so do most of the people I follow.  Will all of our accounts be suspended because we are breaking the 5^th point?

I took the time and wrote Biz Stone (@biz) a letter, yes a real on paper, addressed, stamped letter addressing my concerns and how Twitter must find a balance between people marketing their business, having fun on Twitter entering contests and weeding out the rotten apples.  (I felt a real letter would get more attention in this electronic world than an email or a tweet.)  I am waiting to here how my letter and points will be addressed.  I will post any news or updates I receive.

I found a great blog post by Jonathan Ezor (@ProfJonathan) titled, Twitter-based Prize Promotions: Tweeting For Trouble that I thought you may enjoy, since it ties in so well with this topic.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!