That Tool You Use? Twitter Lawsuit Says You're Spamming

3. Expect bewilderment in Twitter's approach to managing its network.
Twitter placed very forceful language in its suit that it has "used a host of human and technological measures to combat spam." I'm sure that's true. But it seems to me that its efforts to manage inappropriate behavior on its network do not match those of other social media giants. Facebook, for example, limits personal accounts to 5,000 friends. Get any bigger and users must have a business account that only has "Likes," not "Friends." And there is no way send a message to a "Like." LinkedIn(LNKD) also limits unsolicited mail strictly by rationing and selling so-called InMail. But on Twitter, there's no distinction between personal or business accounts. And followings stretch into the millions.

Plus, I find there is a terrible opacity about Twitter. Not only have they not responded to queries about this piece, but never once, in all my years of using and reporting on this company, has a Twitter executive ever answered a question I've asked, or granted an interview.

How the perception of the spam problem is managed in this fast-moving company frankly bewilders me. And plan on it bewildering you.

Bottom line
For sure, I'm not using TweetAdder until the suit is settled. That's Twitter's business. But to me, suing TweetAdder for spam is like suing Gmail for spam. And my read is TweetAdder feels that, too. Websites for several of the other named defendants are now offline, but TweetAdder's is not. In fact, it announced an upgrade late last week.

TweetAdder might just be the little idea that forces big changes at Twitter.

Anthony Mowl and Blumsday LLC contributed to this story.