Twitter suspended Feed Ze Birds application

[bearbones]

When it rains it pours.

I just got back online, and received a notice that Twitter has suspended the Feed Ze Birds application. Don't know why yet, but until further notice, I've taken the site down.

Wish I could say more, but the totality of their message was:

This is a notice that your OAuth token for Feed Ze Birds has been suspended from interacting with the Twitter API.

Please make sure that your application follows Twitter's API Terms of Service

To request for your token to be re-enabled, please write to api@twitter.com

Will post here as more information becomes available.

[edit]New information on the suspension:[/edit]

Hello,

Your application was suspended for violating our Automation Rules (http://support.twitter.com/articles/76915 ). Specifically, Tweets with sponsored content must be manually written and/or approved by the posting user and may not be scheduled in advance. Furthermore, these sponsored Tweets must be disclosed as sponsored within the Tweet and repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited. Please make the necessary changes to bring your application into compliance with our Automation Rules as well as our API Terms of Service ( https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms ).

It's best for both our users and your users if your application's behavior does not cause them to break our Twitter Rules ( http://support.twitter.com/articles/18311 ). Please let us know when changes have been deployed to bring it into compliance with our Terms. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,
Twitter API Policy

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[BitPay Business Solutions]

How can we login to request a refund for the campaigns?

[ineededausername]

total BS... all the powers of the centralized internet have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise the specter of Bitcoin.

[Herodes]

Why not make a bittwitter or rather change the name to something totally unrelated.

Twitter started small at one point too. Personally I think feedze birds was a good idea.


Good luck in the future.

[Steve]

I figured they would eventually want to buy you guys out…not shut you down.

[bearbones]

No need to jump to conclusions. They're not shutting us down just yet. For all I know (still haven't heard any specifics), they just thought we pinged them too often.

In regards to refunding campaigns, I'm working on it. First thing was to lock the site down so no one tried to retweet. Letting people log in, but not retweet isn't something I'd anticipated doing.

[evoorhees]

Yeah FYI to everyone thanks for your patience... we'll figure out what Twitter's beef is and get this resolved ASAP.

Maybe they saw The Good Wife

[Bitcoin Oz]

I thought it was because I just started using it from the bitcoinmedia account and sent too much traffic lol.

[Serge]

perhaps twitter's spamming policies kicked in?

[Xenland]

Awe bummer i hope twitter can bring it back online soon i make more money on feed ze birds then i do mining on my 6990 (after electricity costs)

[ripper234]

OP - do you know that you are not violating their TOS?

[apetersson]

i must say i expected this. when discussing the app with other Bitcoin-interested people we came to the conclusion they are violating the twitter TOS and will be shut down like other likewise services once they become noticed by twitter.

[bearbones]

OP - do you know that you are not violating their TOS?

We've reviewed the Twitter TOS pretty carefully, and do not believe that our business model violates it. Obviously, they feel we violated it in some way, or they wouldn't have suspended our application. The most likely thing, however, is that it is a minor infraction which we can address.

i must say i expected this. when discussion your application with other Bitcoin-interested people we came to the conclusion they are violating the twitter TOS and will be shut down like other likewise services once they become noticed by twitter.

In what way do you think Feed Ze Birds violates the Twitter TOS?

[gregwtmtno]

That's too bad...I felt like it was just starting to take off.

[bearbones]

Finally got a response from Twitter. They clarified their reasoning, and it looks like something we can address. Will have to think carefully about it, as I believe we were already compliant. Regardless, the important thing is that Feed Ze Birds will be back soon!

Hello,

Your application was suspended for violating our Automation Rules (http://support.twitter.com/articles/76915 ). Specifically, Tweets with sponsored content must be manually written and/or approved by the posting user and may not be scheduled in advance. Furthermore, these sponsored Tweets must be disclosed as sponsored within the Tweet and repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited. Please make the necessary changes to bring your application into compliance with our Automation Rules as well as our API Terms of Service ( https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms ).

It's best for both our users and your users if your application's behavior does not cause them to break our Twitter Rules ( http://support.twitter.com/articles/18311 ). Please let us know when changes have been deployed to bring it into compliance with our Terms. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,
Twitter API Policy

[ripper234]

Finally got a response from Twitter. They clarified their reasoning, and it looks like something we can address. Will have to think carefully about it, as I believe we were already compliant. Regardless, the important thing is that Feed Ze Birds will be back soon!

Hello,

Your application was suspended for violating our Automation Rules (http://support.twitter.com/articles/76915 ). Specifically, Tweets with sponsored content must be manually written and/or approved by the posting user and may not be scheduled in advance. Furthermore, these sponsored Tweets must be disclosed as sponsored within the Tweet and repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited. Please make the necessary changes to bring your application into compliance with our Automation Rules as well as our API Terms of Service ( https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms ).

It's best for both our users and your users if your application's behavior does not cause them to break our Twitter Rules ( http://support.twitter.com/articles/18311 ). Please let us know when changes have been deployed to bring it into compliance with our Terms. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,
Twitter API Policy

Nice responsiveness, much better than Facebook / Apple.

Ideally this letter would have been sent simultaneously (or even before) shutting you down, but it's not too bad at this stage.

[drakahn]

Specifically, Tweets with sponsored content must be manually written and/or approved by the posting user and may not be scheduled in advance.
Furthermore, these sponsored Tweets must be disclosed as sponsored within the Tweet and repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited.

i did manually approve all tweets and they were not scheduled
all the tweets disclose that they are #retweetforbitcoin right?

so, whats the problem?

[matonis]

Specifically, Tweets with sponsored content must be manually written and/or approved by the posting user and may not be scheduled in advance.
Furthermore, these sponsored Tweets must be disclosed as sponsored within the Tweet and repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited.

i did manually approve all tweets and they were not scheduled
all the tweets disclose that they are #retweetforbitcoin right?

so, whats the problem?

Maybe it's because "repeat posts of the same advertisement are also prohibited." I like the idea of FeedZe Birds but I always did receive repeat posts in my timeline. That's probably the language that Twitter needs to clarify in their TOS.

[a63ntsm1th]

To be honest, in my opinion your program was just generating spam.  And it sounds like twitter is trying to stop spam.

Thank you twitter.

[genjix]

Agree with guy above.

The spam was terribly ugly looking, annoying to people interested in bitcoin news and counter-productive to the cause of bitcoin making it look like a scam because of spammy adds.

Twitter did the right thing. That spam made Twitter unusable for me, and I haven't been using it.