back to article Coming soon to Twitter: Inboxes BULGING with DMs from world+dog

Twitter has handed spammers the ability to bombard anyone they choose to follow with direct messages. Previously, anyone wishing to communicate away from world+dog on the microblogging website had to go through the rather embarrassing rigmarole of begging someone to follow them first, because direct (non-public) messages were …

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  1. Tom 35

    An optional check box

    Oh my god, think of the children!

    Too much caffeine maybe? It's not like you have to check it, or can't uncheck it later if you find it's a pain.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. lansalot

    so...

    So it's opt-in then? No big deal.. can't see myself rushing to tick that box.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ha....

    ..If you check this option, any Twitter user that follows you will be able to send you a DM, regardless of whether you decide to follow them back."

    .

    And in 6 months when no-one selects it, it will be changed to:

    .

    ..If you do not check this option, any Twitter user that follows you will be able to send you a DM, regardless of whether you decide to follow them back.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Ha....

      And then everyone will simply un-tick it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Geneva Convention...

    Aargh. I've just clicked on a link to the Daily Mail site. Surely there's something in the Geneva Convention requiring you to warn innocent bystanders beforehand??

    1. Rob
      Go

      Re: Geneva Convention...

      Indeed, a Not Suitable For Reasonable People (NSFRP) tag needs applying (or something similar).

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, according to this article, the feature is completely opt-in.

    My God. This is scandalous.

    1. Graham Marsden

      @AC

      "The feature is completely opt-in"...

      ... at present!

      1. Wize

        Re: @AC

        No doubt companies, after paying a wad of cash to twitter, will be able to override this setting and DM you anyway.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I bet the idea's come from various company PR bods...

    Many companies now avoid giving a straightforward email address for queries/complaints, and are pointing complainants towards facebroke and twatter, which are not suited for that role.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I bet the idea's come from various company PR bods...

      ... But do have the serendipitous effect (for the 'brand' weasels at least) of looking ostentatiously like you're doing something and 'daan wiv da kidz', while actually doing sweet FA.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The amount of coverage is Maddiening

    "Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007 after her parents left the three-year-old and her siblings in their holiday apartment while they dined in a nearby tapas bar."

    Thanks for that. Up until now I had never heard of her.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have no sympathy for people who leave very young children alone while they go out to enjoy themselves.

    If it had happened in the UK social services would have taken all their children away. And rightly so.

    1. James Cooke
      Thumb Down

      They went to a restaurant in the same hotel complex for a couple of hours. At what age are you allowed to leave kids alone or must they be watched 24/7 until the age of majority?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I don't know what the legal situation is in the UK, I think it might require you to have someone older than 16 with them but I can't point to any statute. Interesting how the age of criminal responsibility is 10 but a child is not supposed to be left alone when they are much older.

        As a parent, I would hesistate to leave a 3 year old (and two younger children) alone when I was 100m away, but if I were 15m it would be a different consideration. I don't know the exact details of what was between the tapas bar and the apartment, it looks like fairly open space but there may be obstructed sightlines. I would want to have my eyes on the place where they were.

        Whatever we say here it won't make the McCanns feel any better, and after 6 years I doubt that this exercise is going to reveal much more of what happened to the little girl.

        1. JP19

          not supposed to be left alone

          "Interesting how the age of criminal responsibility is 10 but a child is not supposed to be left alone when they are much older."

          At the age of 6 I, my mother, and younger sister went on holiday for a week at Butlins in Bognor. My mother needed to get home a day early but I wanted to stay for the last day and was allowed to. I managed to enjoy myself that day, put myself to bed, got some breakfast. Packed. Got a taxi to the railway station and gave the driver a sixpence tip. Got on a train to London, crossed London on the tube, got on a train back to Yorkshire and then a bus home.

          I remember it was a bit scary and a bit of an adventure. My god how pathetic are we nowadays? If I had needed help from a stranger I would have got it, today strangers would likely run a mile for fear of peedyfile accusation and my mother would be prosecuted.

        2. Wize

          The kids were checked on every half hour or so.

          Think what can happen in half an hour with a stray match.

          And you are not in shouting distance.

          As much as I dislike what happened to their kid, as much as I think they are publicity whores, the other side of the coin is that many more kids who would have been left alone like this, have not been. Maybe the constant press coverage has helped prevent several other families suffering the same way.

    2. Gav

      Sympathy

      Absolutely, they deserve everything they got and more. They should be dragged through the streets and stoned to death in the village square. Then we can all dance the dance of the self-righteous on their graves.

      Because there's nothing that'll resolve this horrible affair quicker than vilification of those who have had to suffered more than any parent could possibly suffer. They need taught a proper lesson!

      I can't be doing with giving away sympathy needlessly. I might run out one day.

  10. knarf

    Eh....No!!

    The parents of missing British schoolgirl Madeleine McCann

    She was 3 when she went missing so that is pre-school. Keep up at the back.

    1. Natalie Gritpants

      Re: Eh....No!!

      Keep up yourself, if she's alive she would be nine which is school age. If she's dead she's not missing.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just desserts

    IMHO if you are the sort of twit that uses Twatter then you deserve trolling.

  12. Phil Atkin

    Cue vast celebrity twitter exit

    Hmm. I think they've cocked up here.

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Cue vast celebrity twitter exit

      You don't really think any of those celebrities that sad nobodies follow actually use Twitter, do you? They pay staff to do that, to keep the fool^H^H^Hans happy, while they're partying with real people. No doubt they'll love this new feature, they'll just hire more PR staff to delete every DM.

  13. Joseph Haig

    And the problem is?

    If it is opt-in then by default there is no change for anyone. If an account is the public face of a company, however, then they will be able to let people DM them without having to go through the hassle of getting pinged in public, replying in public and then following each other. I'm sure that my mobile phone company doesn't really want to follow me as well as 37,500+ of their other customers but currently there is no other way for them to communicate privately.

    1. M Gale

      Re: And the problem is?

      but currently there is no other way for them to communicate privately.

      Email?

      Or if you're not in a massive hurry, you could get the old pen and paper out. Envelope. First class stamp. Done.

      1. Joseph Haig

        Re: And the problem is?

        OK, I was not clear. Sorry. By 'them' I meant specifically the Twitter account rather than the company as a whole. Other forms of communication are available.

  14. The Axe

    And it's a problem why?

    If you don't like the DM's you can still block the person sending them.

  15. Joseph Haig
    IT Angle

    ... and regarding Madeline McCann

    The Daily Mail article doesn't mention anything about the change of the DM settings (as far as I can see) and so is not really relevant here. Can you please give us all a break and not turn this comment section into yet another McCann hate-fest?

  16. Bill Gould

    This will just add some overhead to the folks managing Celeb twitter accounts. As it is they generally ignore replies, now they'll have to parse DM's.

    Re: The Kid: They did leave her with her siblings as well. No idea how old they were.

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  18. Tom Chiverton 1

    The title is too long.

    "One group of people who will be delighted about the changes are trolls, who will now be able to privately bombard their targets with abuse."

    Or not, because the target has to opt in to the abuse...

  19. Eugene Goodrich

    Premium rate number for TXT!

    I've no problem receiving messages from random sources if I'm compensated appropriately.

    1. rcorrect

      Re: Premium rate number for TXT!

      At one point if your name was Mark Zuckerberg I think the rate was $100.00 per message.

  20. Dave W
    IT Angle

    SEO whoring?

    And the relevance of the McCann affair to this story is?

    Is our Reg Hack fumbling to include a tenuous link to a trending topic in order to artificially inflate their stories popularity?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only if...

    ...you are a TWIT.

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