Twitter kills a Twitter-based business
Twitter is all the rage since the publicity that followed both the Kutcher/CNN race for followers, and Oprah’s first twitter that was all capital letters – a big no-no on the Web. Even before that though one of the most popular thing to do was to create some business based on or around Twitter. Such is the case with StatTweets which used the Twitter service to provide stats of everything from college hoops games to just plain interesting stats.
In the intervening months from when the first StatTweets account was created until now the main account has gained 63,000 followers. This isn’t taking into account all the sports team oriented accounts it also used to keep folks informed about their favorite teams. All was good up until two weeks ago when all of a sudden Robbie, the gentleman behind StatSheets.com, found that all but two of the accounts on Twitter used by StatTweets had been suspended.
In the response to his enquiry to Twitter support as to the what was wrong he got a reply that said the accounts had been suspended for the following reasons
1. Copyright infringement
2. Mass account creation
3. Squatting
In his post today Robbie addresses each of the points raised by Twitter and acknowledges that while they might be right about the second, but questioned why his services were centered out when others like BuzzTap wasn’t, but as far as the other two reasons were just ridiculous. He ends his post with a general warning to anyone thinking of trying to build anything around Twitter
I waited semi-patiently for 2 weeks in the hopes that Twitter would come around, but @Caroline and @Crystal (Twitter Support) have been unresponsive other than a couple of form responses. I’m sure now that Twitter is post-Oprah, my request is at the bottom of the priority queue. But aren’t they biting the hand that feeds them? I’m providing a unique information service on Twitter and they shut me down without so much as a warning. To make it worse, they haven’t even responded to my repeated inquiries. This doesn’t bode well for other businesses that are trying to use Twitter. We are all at the whim of a Twitter Support person’s interpretation of how you are using your accounts and how that complies with their TOS.
I’ve been saying much the same thing for sometime both here at The Inquisitr as well as my own personal blog. By depending on the whims of a business that itself has no publically announced business model you are leaving yourself open to situations your business could be working one day and then gone the next. Not a good way to do business no matter how you look at it.
