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by redmen 1529 days ago
Interestingly, I think login walls are to stop spam. It interests me how many design decisions by youtube, for example, were to stop spam and getting rid of fake views and likes. Not directly for the user's experience.
5 comments

> Interestingly, I think login walls are to stop spam.

I don't think that holds up in general, and especially not in Twitter's case. Logged-out users can barely interact with the site -- all of the important interactions (and, in particular, all of the ones that would be concerning from a spam-prevention standpoint) require the user to be logged in.

I'm not sure it applies to YouTube either. The site has very few login requirements, other than for age-restricted videos.

You've always had to login to post, so I don't see how twitters increasing push to force logins would impact a preexisting spam problem.
Scraping for one.
You don’t push feature like that for tens of millions to prevent some scrapers who bypass it in few minutes by creating account which is not providing anything to Twitter.

They account requirement is simple there for more efficient data collection.

And Twitter's business model is largely based on data collection?
Actually, yes. They sell data products and ads.
It doesn't prevent scraping at all, otherwise nitter wouldn't work either.
???? Firstly nothing prevents scraping. It makes it more expensive.

I ask everyone here to stop telling every word so literal

Preventing scraping is kind of the point of "Twitter is increasing the height of the walls around its garden".
I'd believe that! It's entirely possible and even likely that they're well intentioned. But they just don't work, because the spam is coming from inside the house.
I don't buy it. You always needed an account in order to post - that's nothing new.

What's new is that Twitter now locks you out just for reading tweets without an account.

> I think login walls are to stop spam

You need a login in order to spam. What a stupid theory.

While I agree with your first sentence, I don’t think your second sentence is constructive.
That's exactly what I said LOL. What's the need for your anger?
Twitter has always required account for posting. The problem is that reading requires now as well.
> That's exactly what I said LOL

Well, no, it's exactly the opposite of what you said. It's kind of concerning that you can't tell the difference.

A login requirement can't have any effect on spammers, because -- in order to be spammers -- they must already have satisfied that requirement. The only people a login requirement can exclude are, by definition, not spammers.

Ummmm a spammer is a person who must create many accounts to game the system. If there was no login requirement they could spam in other ways, for example voting, on YouTube: views. Scraping is a huge part of spamming. First you need to identify what you are going to do, which audience you are going to go after.

I'm not sure if you are trolling or just being overly pedantic to argue for the sake of arguing or what but it's tiring.

Spammers scrape data and sell it to other spammers who do other actions.

When you come in with an intent to disprove you're going to be looking for holes in what someone says rather than focusing on the value. That's one of the main problems with the web and the world these days.

> Ummmm a spammer is a person who must create many accounts to game the system.

No, that's not what a spammer is.

> Scraping is a huge part of spamming.

No, it isn't.

Lol you really don't know much about this topic. Sorry if I am sounding rude but you just revealed that with yet another response looking simply to be right and prove me wrong without any actual thought.

In the context in which we are talking, yes indeed a spammer needs to create accounts to dm people, upvote, retweet,.etc etc etc.

You might be thinking of email or something, which is a different type of spam in a different context.

Again, please try to stay positive and look for value rather than just simply trying to win.

A Twitter spammer creates many accounts, scrapes to identify an audience, follows and unfollows to build their audience, DMs, tweets, etc for the purpose of making money.

There, are there any more blanks that you want me to fill? Or can I go back to living in peace and speaking with people who aren't trying to poke holes in everything.

P.S. sorry to anyone having to read this drivel. But I feel the need to defend when people come in here with an intent to argue for the sake of arguing and showing zero intent to listen or understand.

edit: to also stop spam.

I wish people would give you the benefit of the doubt instead of finding a single wrong word and then attacking that point.