Twitter Blacklist Bites Thumb At Obnoxious People

A public service or draconian narc network? You be the judge. It didn't take long for a few things to happen with Twitter: for so-called spammers to seek out a "marketing" advantage; for Twitterers to fight back against said spammers; and for a moral authority to form.

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News of the Twitter Blacklist come via Twitterer Michael Gray, also known as Graywolf, whose invective against said moral authority is relayed in several succinct tweets,
Meanwhile
Randy J. Ray, the brains behind the blacklist, say they have identified two kinds of commercial Twitter spam: "the kind that follow lots of people, and the 'stealth' type that set up interlocking networks of fake accounts. You can see these on the list with a 'follow factor' of zero."

Martin and Ray, with help from

1:5 = twittercaster, 1:2 = notable, 1:1 socially healthy, 2:1 newbie or social climber, 5:1 twitter spammer

My own Twitter account holds about a 1:2 ratio of followees to followers, making me, according to their calculations, a "newbie or social climber." The truth is I'm more of a self-secure-voyeuristic-talk-when-I-feel-a-need-to type Twitterer. That means I use it to watch this corner of the world more than to talk to it, that I'm choosey about whom I follow, and couldn't care less if others follow me back. But Amazon_Kindle seems blatantly promotional, and the tweets center around books available on Kindle. Is that spam or just smart marketing? A Twitterer called WebmasterRadio, with 1,110 followers is there, too along with its 4:1 ratio and an announcement there'll be no live Daily Search Cast today. I've been a special guest on WebmasterRadio, which obviously makes it legit :-D. Aside from that, a good number of the tweets are decidedly un-spammy. Guess WebmasterRadio falls into the "obnoxious people" category. Suppose I might be next.

It might be fair to say the human aspect could be as unfair as the ratio-approach. But let's, as we began, let

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