World, Writing, Wealth discussion

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message 1: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Ok, guys, I need a bit of your input here.
Yesterday, I've registered with twitter. Wait a sec, don't hurry with hoorays and congrats-:)
While registering I didn't provide my phone number as it was only an option.
This morning when I tried to log on, I'd received a message that my twitter account had exhibited an automated behavior, subsequently got locked and I need now to provide my cell phone number.
Here is the copy paste:
Hi,

Your account appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules: https://support.twitter.com/articles/...

In order to continue safely using Twitter, please follow these steps:
1. Log in to your account on the web or open your Twitter app (iOS or Android).
2. You’ll see a prompt letting you know your account has been locked. Click or tap “Start”.
3. Select your country/region from the drop down menu, and then enter your phone number.
4. Click “Send code” and Twitter will send you a text message with a confirmation code (note that your standard message rates may apply).
5. Enter the code you received in the “Your code” box and click “Submit”.
6. You will see a confirmation message that your account is unlocked.
Once you confirm your identity, it may take up to a few minutes for your account to be unlocked.

If you’re still experiencing an issue after confirming your identity, please reply to this message and provide us with specific details of the problem you're experiencing. We’ll do our best to help!

Thanks,

Twitter Support

My account? Automatic behavior? In just a few hours that I'm with you? Well, could be.
Forgive me Twitter, for I doubt it. You couldn't have detected my robotic nature that fast -:)
I'm not a privacy freak. At all. And I don't mind providing my cell, however I don't like unfair haggling that much and in this case it looks so far like a corporate phishing in an attempt to gain more details. They have my e-mail, where they can send any unblocking info they want, so why to ask for a phone number?
Why phone numbers are important, I don't know, but some analysts attribute much importance to them in Facebook purchasing Whatsapp for 19B, for example.
Here is an extract from one of Forbes' articles (http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof...
"Not least, Facebook now has a valuable piece of real-world information: millions of people’s phone numbers. “With the acquisition Facebook has gained access to WhatsApp’s large repository of phone numbers, which was a missing link for Facebook’s user information,” Ovum analyst Eden Zoller said in a note. “The access to phone numbers now bridges the offline and online worlds of Facebook users.”
Have you ever encountered something like this with twitter or with any other platforms, networks, etc?
What do you think?
God bless corporate America


Tara Woods Turner | 2063 comments This isn't as malevolent as it seems. Scammers, phishers etc set up multiple email accounts quite quickly and easily for a multitude of reasons. Most of these reasons are designed to separate people from their money - some sort of scam or another - too many to list. It is much more difficult, and costly, however, to clone a string of 'burn' phone numbers. This gives providers like twitter and fb at least half a shot at weeding out real people from scammers who set up dummy accounts. Those dummy accounts end up costing them lots of money. This, of course, costs us more money in the form of more expensive products due to advertising costs.


message 3: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Could be, but why to mention that phone number is optional and after a few hours ask for it? If I knew it was a must, I might've provided it anyway, but why play games (at least that's how it looks to me)?
Talking about dummy accounts. The little I had a chance to explore Twitter, I've noticed it has at least 5-6 'Putins' there with thousands of followers. Didn't notice that much effort in preventing it, for example.
Other networks also keep asking the cell phone #, but don't block accounts if I don't provide it..


Tara Woods Turner | 2063 comments Well, that is odd and more than a bit of an inconvenience. I can't remember if I gave my number when I signed up or not. Social media is the necessary evil of my life lol.


message 5: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Tara wrote: "Well, that is odd and more than a bit of an inconvenience. I can't remember if I gave my number when I signed up or not. Social media is the necessary evil of my life lol."

Yeah, impossible without them these days -:)
Thanks for your input, Tara


Tara Woods Turner | 2063 comments You're welcome. I sound like a heretic but I find twitter to be especially noxious lol. On what planet do we need to inform others of our every move? But I will not litter your great thread with my rantings. have a great day :


message 7: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments -:)


message 8: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Okay, they've unlocked my account after I insisted they should do it without the phone number. Here is the excerpt from their response:

"Unfortunately, it looks like your account got caught up in one of these spam groups by mistake.

Your account is now unlocked, sorry for the inconvenience."

So, I guess I'm back


message 9: by Quantum (new)

Quantum (quantumkatana) doh!

i would've thought it was phishing and started a different account.


message 10: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments The question is whether they do it as a pattern when someone opens an account without leaving a tel # or it's just my luck. Has anyone had similar experience with them?


message 11: by Quantum (new)

Quantum (quantumkatana) I never entered my phone # for two accounts (1 of which I created back in December 2015) & never got hassled. So it's either something new or a true oversight.


message 12: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Hope it's just an oversight then or maybe their software flags ip addresses belonging to certain areas, but if someone encounters the same problem, pls, report back


message 13: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Ok, so now I'm one month old, proud Twitter account owner. I guess my abilities are according to the age: I can tweet, follow and being followed, by unable to like, retweet and answer private messages.
So, if you send me a message and I don't answer, it's not because I'm such a snob, it's because of my handicapped account -:)


message 14: by Mike (new)

Mike Robbins (mikerobbins) | 291 comments Just followed you Nik. Tweet on!

I am getting sick of automated login messages from Google, Yahoo and Facebook saying "please provide us with your cellphone no. in case you get locked out of your account", with a tiny "skip this" button. It does seem like very manipulative behaviour in order to build up a commercially valuable database.


message 15: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Thanks, followed back, but still unable to 'like' anything -:)


message 16: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Two months into having a twitter account. What can I say? I've never encountered such a 'castrated' account. There are more things, which I'm supposed to be able to do, that I can't do than those I can... No answer from tech support.
Unbelievable, yet true...


message 17: by Eva (new)

Eva John | 4 comments that much trouble? I don't go on Twitter nearly as much as they recommend authors to do, knowing it's a perfect avenue for gett Crone A Scarlet St. James Novel by Maria Mayer ing your work out there free of charge!

Now that's frustrated, using a cringe word like "castrated" is pretty severe coming from a guy. I find it stupidly limiting to have such a short allowance for the actual tweets. Jeez, a couple more character spaces please!!!! Hope you get it worked out.

Hope you get your probs resolved bec it really is a great forum.


message 18: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Maria wrote: "that much trouble?
Now that's frustrated, using a cringe word like "castrated" is pretty severe coming from a guy...."


Thanks, not a big deal really, but Twitter is supposed to be BIG, so I'm more surprised than suffering -:)
But judge for yourself:
I can't: update my profile or pic, answer a mssg, retweet unless I add something of my own, like
I can: tweet, follow and be followed


message 19: by M.L. (new)

M.L. I've heard of someone getting locked out of their account and I've seen some accounts deleted--but never heard of the issues you're describing. It sounds like it's permanently corrupted.

You could try setting up a new profile, just to see if you can get one that works, and if it does, switch over. The new one could be for an individual or WWW.


message 20: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments M.L. wrote: "I've heard of someone getting locked out of their account and I've seen some accounts deleted--but never heard of the issues you're describing. It sounds like it's permanently corrupted.

You could..."


During my short affair with them I was locked out right at the beginning, when they demanded I provide my phone number. I insisted I wouldn't, so they removed some restrictions, but apparently not all of them -:)
Yeah, setting up a Twitter acc. for WWW is a good idea even in its own right. Thanks!


message 21: by J.J. (new)

J.J. Mainor | 2440 comments The creator of the Marines-themed comic strip Terminal Lance has been trying to get the verification checkmark for years, but Twitter kept refusing him. Even after he hit 400k followers they still refused. But that stupid kid that built the "clock" in Texas and got arrested when he acted cagey after authorities asked him about it - his Twitter account was verified same day.

The Terminal Lance graphic novel was self-published by the creator and released at the start of the year, and it was picked up by a publisher and re-released a few months ago, hitting the NYT bestsellers list first week. And Twitter finally verified his account the past week or two.

I think all you have to know about Twitter is that once they went public and had to release their financials, it became clear that they could not leverage the platform to generate actual revenue. The new "moments" tab was immediately seen as the act of desperation it is. And their incessant push to get you to pay to "promote" your tweets is really becoming a turn off.


message 22: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Recent news: I was able to update my profile write-up, but mysteriously a photo, which twitter reported was successfully updated, doesn't show on my comp. A mystery...

Some observation: Noticed another wonderful effect on Twitter. Every once in a while a have a new porn-star follower, who eventually drops off, when I don't follow back -:)
I guess, T.K.'s description of Twitter as 'a party' is quite accurate


message 23: by M.L. (new)

M.L. I think it's a first, I've never seen a completely blank profile space, no egg, nothing! Maybe uploading again or using a different picture? Just a guess.


message 24: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments I've probably tried all my pics already. Each time twitter assures me that I've updated the pic perfectly -:)


message 25: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Lost my face on Twitter-:)


message 26: by M.L. (new)

M.L. Maybe upload a background pic with you in it?


message 27: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments M.L. wrote: "Maybe upload a background pic with you in it?"

I'll try or I'll change my handle to an 'invisible man' in the meantime-:)


message 28: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Thanks, Tim. Can't be entirely serious with this stuff -:) I also doubt their promotional might


message 29: by Nik (new)

Nik Krasno | 19865 comments Sure, twitter thanks to hashtags or even without connection is reported by some as a pretty helpful platform, especially if you manage to get your tweet shown to thousands of people.
I was only doubting some of my own tweets as being promotionally potent, not the entire institute.
Ann wanted or has an Audi, maybe we can help her with a couple of tweets. Is the deal on for Canada? -:)


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