Do Twitter Phishing Scams Herald the End of Microblogs?

An anonymous reader writes "Twitter's been hit by a big phishing scam. Culture Crash blogger Dan Tynan says this is the end of Twitter's innocence. Will tweets become like email, with two out of every three just worthless spam?"

Comments

Let's hope so

[Gothmolly]

terms like "twitterverse" and "microblog" are heralding the end of the sane Internet, so lets hope they get consumed by the vermin of the Internet.

Re:Let's hope so

[_ivy_ivy_]

The sane internet died a decade ago. We're in the death throws of the internet-of-the-corporate-hack. Likely our next stop will be the reincarnation of an AOL like atmosphere where a central application or website insulates you from the internet, and provides you with a limited array of things to do.

Ironically, it was the connection of AOL to the internet that marked the end of sanity in my book.

That would imply that non spam tweets were useful

[Sycraft-fu]

Thus far Twitter seems like a totally useless idea to me. No, you are not so important that everyone cares what you are doing when you are going shopping.

Re:That would imply that non spam tweets were usef

[solios]

Agreed. Much like the "blogosphere," twitter is the kind of thing that is OMFG WORLD CHANGING.... but only to its users.

It's great that the service is there and all, but like facebook, myspace, et al, I really wish people would stop blithering about how INSANELY GREAT it is.

A web gui for the equivalent of an IRC or AIM /away message is about as world-changing as a gui for a MUD. Sure, at least one is successful... but I don't do MUDs or MMOs, so how has it changed my life, aside from a few of my friends disappearing for months whenever a new expansion is released?

That said, a pointless-to-me-anyway service that people I otherwise respect can't shut up about is being crapflooded? Awesome!

Re:That would imply that non spam tweets were usef

[zappepcs]

I'm kind of with you on this one. I remember back in the day, if you spent more than an hour on the phone people thought there was something wrong with you. Back then I thought they were right. If some galactic disaster wiped out electronics on Earth, there would be a lot of people who suddenly lose it because they have nobody to blab to. Twitter gives them this outlet even when they are surrounded by people that really don't want to hear their crap. It's really no different than thinking outloud or talking to walls; an umbilical cord to keep them from having to be alone. They talk about how great it is because they are addicted and cannot function without someone listening to them blabber on about nothing all day. As long as they are talking, they feel somehow important. - Yes, I get the irony

Re:Innocence?

[jbezorg]

The most merciful thing in the internet, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We surf in a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of lol cats, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The networks, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated bytes will open up such terrifying vistas of content, and of the frightful capsuns therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly lulz into the peace and safety of a new gym pass.