Spectral Spector Twitterer admits hoax

"even Phil's not that crazy"

For most people such a statement would probably be true, but I fear it's not for Phil.

And I got a bit suspicious when he started questioning whether his mentalistic nature might be due to him being a product of (nearly) incest.

Cause Damage?

If people who read Twitter really are stupid enough that someone posting as <insert celebrity name here> is believed to be that person to the point where damage can be caused then they really are twits.

As for:

"Twitter you need to start doing something to combat fake accounts. If I was a malicious person I could have caused damage."

Bollocks! Just because someone pretends they are someone on the internet doesn't mean they are -- after all, I'm fictional for fuck's sake.

As a long-time user of the internet I don't buy all this Web 2.0 business -- but I'm sure it's fun for those involved. However, users seem to have forgotten the fact you work on the assumption that nobody is who they say they are on the internet unless you know otherwise.

What next, genius?

So, what does Twitter need to start doing to combat fake accounts, Mr. Anonymous-Spector-Impersonator? Visit every new sign up in person, to check they are who they claim to be? What if my name happened to be Gordon Brown (hardly an uncommon moniker) and I signed up before my less fortunate namesake had the chance? Am I then also an imposter, for daring to share a name with the most tediously-appellated politician this century?

It's a shame, I thought Wilson the cockroach was a real nice touch, but I guess this guy isn't quite as clever as he seemed.

Revenue opportunity

Sounds like a revenue opportunity for a savvy web developer who is less lazy than I am and will actually bother to do the implementation. Set up a web service that makes a note of all your user names on all the various social networking sites, so people can check whether a particular site profile actually belongs to you. If there is a profile on a site but you haven't registered it yourself, a quick will reveal that you aren't the owner. There isn't any need for the new service to have any connection with the social sites, but I guess it could have for added value. Needs a way of proving who you say you are to stop the jokers from grabbing your name on the new service, but cleverer people can work out those details themselves.

I think it's a toss up which is nuttier

a) Adopting a cockroach.

or

b) Taking twitter seriously

Most celebrities....

... have an official site and have links to their social networking feeds on there; Robert Llewelyn and Stephen Fry being just two.

Sadly, it's gone now

Twitter does have an anti-impersonation stance, and has been known to nuke impostors before. Sadly, that included the original @TinaFey. The (supposedly) real @tina_fey isn't nearly as funny or insightful.

They really need to...

Stop worrying about what Twatter does, and have the people from the media who actually believed it was genuine taken away by people in white coats.

When it comes to simple facts like where a person's web site is the media should be a trusted source. This means that the media must in turn ensure that it gets its information for whether it is genuine from a trusted source. The twatter feed is not a trusted source.

In summary, the reason this hoax got so big isn't because of Twatter... it's because of the twats at the media who didn't voice any skepticism at all. Even a "flimsy arse covering statement" would give people something to think about.

Small note:

Why haven't I seen anyone calling this certain web 2.0 microblog service Twatter before? Surely it's pretty obvious?