We've previously discussed our efforts to defend Twitter against spam. We are making progress—there are bugs while we find our way—but we're making progress too. Recently, we've seen significant impact by introducing limits around how many accounts can be followed on Twitter under certain conditions. These limits are designed to not affect the vast majority of users. However, some people (who are not spammers) have (and will) run into them. We want to shed some light on what we've done and why.

A Work In Progress

First of all, let me note that these limits are still a work in progress. We've had some bugs in them that are still being worked out. And we need to tweak them to adapt to what we learn about our ever-changing system. However, it's clear from our vantage point they've already had a very positive effect in reducing (though not eliminating) the most common type of Twitter abuse: "Follow spam."

What is "Follow Spam?"

Follow spam is the act of following mass numbers of people, not because you're actually interested in their tweets, but simply to gain attention, get views of your profile (and possibly clicks on URLs therein), or (ideally) to get followed back. Many people who are seeking to get attention in this way have even created programs to do the following on their behalf, which enable them to follow thousands of people at the blink of any eye.

As you can imagine, this is a problem. In extreme cases, these automated accounts have followed so many people they've threatened the performance of the entire system. In less-extreme cases, they simply annoy thousands of legitimate users who get an email about this new follower only to find out their interest may not be entirely...sincere. On rare occasions we may see a person who is mass following and actually cares about every tweet—there is an opportunity for us to learn more about this use case and work to provide a better experience.

There Is No Magic Number

So, our challenge is to curb this type of behavior without interfering with non-spammy users—some of whom may just be very enthusiastic followers. What is a reasonable number of people to follow, anyway? Most users may have a hard time finding 500 accounts they are interested in—while others would think a limit of 10,000 is too low.

Also, people approach Twitter in different ways. Some think you should follow everyone who follows you. Personally, I don't because that would render Twitter unusable for me. I "only" follow about 700 accounts—less than 5% of the 16,000 who follow me. (Mr. Obama may have time to keep up with 50,000 people, but I'm a busy guy!)

The point is, there is no right or wrong. And there is no perfect formula. We do our best by taking a multi-dimensional approach. We look at a number of factors—including how many people are following you back—before applying limits. We don't reveal exact limits, because it's somewhat complicated and, more importantly, if you were to tell spammers exactly what the filtering rules are on your email or, say, Google's PageRank, they'd just engineer their way around them much more easily.

Making Progress

Like I said, this is still a work in progress. The good news for most people is that we're taking measures to reduce junk in the system—and it's working. The bad news for some is that it's possible you'll run into a limit and get frustrated. If that happens, please let us know. We want to learn how people want to use Twitter. (Note: We intend to allow you to follow at least as many people as follow you, though there are cases where that might not yet be the case. We will fix that.)

By the way, this is only a small part of our approach to spam in general. We'll be talking more soon about other measures we're taking. Thanks for hanging with us as we figure everything out.

A fun project has emerged out of the Chinese community on Twitter. The idea is to share what you're doing during the opening day of the Olympic Games. To participate, just add #080808 to your tweet and to watch, just visit Twitter Search. If you want to dig a little deeper, you can customize your profile pic by downloading the photoshop kit on this blog.

The show returns from hiatus this week with lots that is new! New artists debuting on the show this week include Lizzie Nunnery from Liverpool and Megan Paige from New Jersey. These ladies will knock your socks off! Three of the Heart of the Night Show favorite artists also released new CDs while the lazy HOTN Show DJ was on vacation, so we hope you enjoy the new releases from crashtv's "Sound Put" CD, The Daniel Iorio Group's "Hike" CD, and The James Clark Institute's "SideShow Unattraction" CD. New Jersey's Headlights on the Coastline round out what we think is a pretty fab show with a the wide variety of Indie and Unsigned music you've come to expect. Visit the IndieHeart site for the full playlist with links to more music by the artists available at http://indieheart.com/podcasts. One click subscription in iTunes!

Roots rock and roll, heavy rock, folk/rock, pop/rock, acoustic screamo...whatever you like - this show has a little something for you. This encore episode showcases Indie music from Germany (Pull A Star Trip), the UK (Tom McKean and the Emperors), Austria (Gustave Berthe), Russia (Puzzlescum), Australia (King Curly), Canada (Number One World), and the good ol' US of A (The Wildlife and Neil Benjamin). It will definitely bring you a planetary tour of some of the best music from the Indie and Unsigned world. Visit the IndieHeart site for the full playlist with links to more music by the artists available at http://indieheart.com/podcasts. One click subscription in iTunes!

This encore episode of the Heart of the Night Show reaches back to August of 2006 to run the gamut with an all out bit of madness from refrag (New Zealand) to a gentle acoustic tune from Misanthropy (UK). In between, tunes from a great gaggle of Canadian musicians, including Melissa McClelland, LoadPuller, Tim Tibbitts, Carly and Mark, and Daniel Iorio. The show ends with Iowa's Circle of Friends and show hostess, jill no jack, taking a turn as vocalist to poke a bit of fun at everyone's favorite "Pop Princess", Britney Spears. (Yeah...that's right - everyone is taking a turn at that these days, eh? It's starting to not even be fun anymore.) One click subscription in iTunes! One Click Subscription!

This last show before the HOTN show goes on hiatus brings you some terrific new songs. England's crashtv has been kind enough to grant the Heart of the Night Show an exclusive track from the upcoming CD, Soundput, and I think you're going to dig it! This show also includes a wonderful acoustic pop tune from Paul Liddell's new EP, New Thing Coming, an out-of-character but beautifully sad acoustic tune from Colorado's Our Funeral Forgotten, and some good old rock 'n roll from New Jersey's Headlights on the Coastline and Wisconsin's Certain Stars. We round out the show with Mr. Sexy Voice from Pakistan himself, Moby.MK.II. (The guys listening to the show may not get it, but we ladies need a treat once in a while, don't we?) One Click Subscription!

Stay warm this week with a nice selection of international Indie and Unsigned music. Two of our bands this week find their way to us from "Down Under" (although I think that may be a matter of perspective - after all, who's to say who's on top, eh?). Two very nicely different styles of music from Australia are offered up by Ginja Roe (Acoustic Rock) and Pointbreak Spy (Guitar-focused instrumental with surf, blues, reggae and electronica influences). We also spend some time in up Canada way this week with performances by Quebec's Daniel Iorio and Ontario's Braintoy. Just to balance things out, we also throw in Tom McKean and the Emperors from the UK and Chicago's Athens. One Click Subscription!