I think a decent analogy can be made to email. If I give someone my email address, someone that I want to personally communicate with, not business-related, and that person then sends me a bunch of marketing messages... that's spam. That's not what I gave you my email address for. Same with Twitter. If I'm following you, it's because I want to connect with you personally. I don't follow any accounts that are pure - or even mostly - advertising.

I think another decent analogy can be made to conversations. If we're at an event and we're just talking, I don't want to hear about random business offers. To apply this concept to Jim, let's say I'm talking to Jim at Summit. I want to hear about what he's doing in his life - him personally, and how his business is doing. What I don't expect is that Jim will pause the conversation mid-stream and give me a blatant, unrelated advertisement.

That's how I see Twitter. I know a certain amount of marketing comes into play - I have no qualms about using affiliate links when talking about a product on Twitter. I don't mind the occasional "hey check this product out" tweet. Sponsored Tweets, to my mind, cross a line - for me. This is how I use Twitter.

But, in the end, I have no problem with these Sponsored Tweets because I don't think that Twitter should be limited to how *I* use it. Jim's got a point about just unfollowing people.

But Sam's got a point, too. We shouldn't have to completely unfollow someone. The fact that Twitter is all-or-nothing when it comes to incoming messages is a flaw in the system. It shouldn't be like that.

Great points.

You are writing a post about how Sponsored Tweets is spam right? Jim has more words in this post than you, and he's endorsing it.

And your point is...?

My point is it appears you don't like it because you don't like it. And I'm totally using this theme for my new blog.

It is a great theme.

But no, I don't feel like I have to explain why (I think) SponsoredTweets is spam. That horse has been beaten way too many times by me and others. Ted and Jim are both great guys, but I have fundamental differences with them over how to use this stuff we're still developing.

Nice. Is this the 5th or 6th time you've unfollowed me? I can't keep track, and you can't quit me.

How is it spamming if you, or anyone else, manually clicked the follow button? I think you have the wrong word.

Nope, spamming your friends is still spam.

Consider this one permanent, tho. I'm creating a "Kukral Spam Filter" in
Yahoo Pipes that will take out your sponsored tweets that I'll post up here
for all of your affected friends.

Nope, spamming your friends is still spam.

Consider this one permanent, tho. I'm creating a "Kukral Spam Filter" in Yahoo Pipes that will take out your sponsored tweets that I'll post up here for all of your affected friends.

Jim is nothing but a fantastic guy. Your loss.

No doubt there. Jim is the only decent person from Ohio that I know. Except for when he spams me.

@Sam

Is Messr Porter considered 'incent'?

Meh.