Third party application suspension procedure needs to be fixed

GrabInbox · 2011-11-24T20:37:01.000Z

We’ve been working hard on our product from the last 9 months. Twitter is an integral part of our app and our life depends on it.

Today our app was suspended. There was no warning whatsoever.

IMO, a warning email should be sent to apps before suspending them. Unless twitter thinks that all the apps are “hobby” apps, sending a warning email makes sense. Just suspending an app without any warnings tends to show that twitter does not really care about the amount of hard work third party developers put into their apps. If an app can be suspended just like that without any warning, how can someone think of developing a business which involves the twitter API?

If you are a developer building on top of the twitter API, think about it. You work hard on your app and one fine day, you wake up and realize twitter has suspended your app. All the hard work is all wiped out in that moment. Would you really like to build a business with such uncertainity?

I just believe it is twitter’s responsibility to warn and give a period of at least 2 to 3 days for an app to confirm to twitter’s guidelines. We deserve at least that much as developers who use the twitter API which in turn contributes towards twitter’s growth.

Can someone from twitter explain why a warning email is not sent to third party apps before suspending them?

truebe · 2011-11-24T20:54:13.000Z

Hello,

Unfortunately, we cannot publicly discuss the reasons behind an API Key’s suspension, as such we cannot provide any further information regarding your key’s suspension here. We do automatically send an email out to the registrant of the API key on suspension, but these emails sometimes end up getting caught in spam filters.

If you could please follow the instructions provided here: http://support.twitter.com/articles/72585-api-developers-how-to-appeal-application-suspension, and send a followup email to api@twitter.com, this will open a ticket in our support help desk. When a ticket is opened due to a key’s suspension, the details regarding its suspension are given directly to the developer. Tickets are answered by our agents in the order received. We apologize for any inconvenience this suspension may cause you or your service.

Regards,
@truebe
Twitter API Policy

GrabInbox · 2011-11-24T21:01:32.000Z

Hi @Truebe,

Thanks for the pointer, I’ll send an email to api@twitter.com

The point of this discussion I’ve started however, is to ask why an app does not deserve a warning before being suspended. Being suspended is a big deal for any app that uses the twitter API. IMO, app suspension should be a 2 step process with a warning followed by the actual suspension on non conformance.

truebe · 2011-11-24T22:58:56.000Z

Hello,

We frequently reach out to developers requesting changes be made to applications that are in violation of our API’s Terms of Service prior to suspending an API key. Usually our only point of contact is the email address attached to the account which registered the API key, and if it is not a regularly checked email address our notices often go unnoticed. Let me know if you have any further questions regarding this process.

Regards,
@truebe
Twitter API Policy

Kundalini__Yoga · 2011-11-25T19:26:12.000Z

At this point I no longer know if this app has been suspended.

When I go to twitter dev (where I am writing this letter) I can go to my application and there is nothing that says that I am suspended.

When I go to twitter and check under setting/application, it says "suspended"
So who suspended me and twitter or twitter developper and for what reasons?

Please don’t tell me that sometimes email go un noticed or to check my spam folders as These are checked on a DAILY basis and I NEVER received an email about this.

Thanks

GrabInbox · 2011-11-25T19:52:16.000Z

FYI, I too did not receive any email. I have good experience at handling incoming emails. I never miss any. I am not a first time email user. So, when I say I did not receive any email, I really mean I did not receive any email. I think you should really check once to see if the app suspension emails are being sent out.

Apart from that, today I received an email from twitter support saying our app was suspended by mistake and the suspension was revoked.

It reiterates the need to have a warning email sent out to app developers before really suspending their app. I think a lot of other app developers would agree on this.

Kundalini__Yoga · 2011-11-25T22:10:57.000Z

Well @GrabInbox, lucky you. I don’t even know what I have done as this is a pretty well brand new account. 16 tweets

Good luck to you

whnorwood · 2011-12-08T18:17:11.000Z

I don’t know where to post this anymore, it seems that everywhre you turn there are people conmplaining about being deactivated without an email. This also happened to me this morning. I would understand if I would put out x rated stuff like I get DAILY I don’t see twitter suspending them. If they are that big , they should hire more people and stop hording all this money that tjey are making

Cheers

leozeba · 2011-12-12T13:53:21.000Z

@Truebe,

The exactly same thing happened to me about 3 days ago. I didn’t received any email also (I think Twitter could notify developers using Direct Messages). We spent 6 months building this new app and got our keys suspended 7 days before our private beta release. It is so frustrating!

At first I really didn’t know my account was suspended, so I look at some discussion forums and tried to generate new keys. Later a discovered that this action alone is against the TOS. I really apologize about that. Well, I sent an email to api@twitter.com asking for more information about the suspension and really hope this all being another suspension by mistake.

I completely agree with @GrabInbox. We should receive a warning before the suspension. That could be a Direct Message on Twitter. This would add an important transparency layer to Twitter API and would avoid wrong actions like I did (generate new keys while in suspension).

Regards,

Leo Zeba

4EE_Group · 2012-03-14T02:54:19.000Z

Both of my apps were suspended today…

Did you get your problem resolved?

Lessons?

erictj · 2012-08-08T14:56:52.000Z

We also are dealing with a suspended app with no prior warning whatsoever, and no response from Twitter other than an automated Zendesk email after we emailed api@twitter.com to appeal the issue.

Twitter could very simply send a DM to the @username to which the app is registered, prior to the suspension happening. To say that they email, and sometimes it goes to their junk mail is, in my opinion, irresponsible and completely unprofessional. We absolutely received no e-mail at all regarding this issue. We heard it from our users first.

Twitter drastically needs to revamp the process of alleged TOS violations, app suspensions, and appeals if they want to keep developers building against their platform.

KDrgas · 2013-03-05T18:30:28.000Z

aha

kimbirakmis · 2013-05-12T16:42:58.000Z

Same issue. My application is suspended without any warnings.
I only got “your API Key is suspended email”.
But also that email has no reason inside.
It would be better to have warning emails from Twitter.

kimbirakmis · 2013-05-13T18:56:36.000Z

Not getting a suspension warning is a bad thing.
But the worse is not getting a response.

I created a support ticket 4 days ago for my application.
But still don’t know why my application is suspended.

I worked very hard for 1 year. Give most of my time to an application.
Maybe I made mistakes, but I think supporting should not be as long as 4 days.

ftw_mike · 2013-07-29T20:53:07.000Z

Anyone who had their app suspended - did you ever hear back from your ticket? It’s been a full week for me and not a word from Twitter. It’s unbelievable.

clivealive99 · 2013-08-26T18:00:56.000Z

It can take up to a few weeks from what I read so just a matter of hanging on if you made a ticket.

baronallen41 · 2013-08-31T10:40:48.000Z

I need to know how long my account going to be suspend for

cjsoftlab · 2013-09-01T03:52:14.000Z

To all developers,

Once your apps are suspended, your lives will turn into pure pain. Reasons why:

If your app is suspended, you have to make the modifications in darkness (Twitter does not allow you to create a new app for testing; You can do it, but soon it will be suspended too unless you secretly use a different account).
Twitter does not disclose the length of the windows or how many tweets are allocated to them. However, they expect applications to comply with API’s Terms of Service. This is totally controversial and does not help developers follow a specific rule so as to cover their backs and do not get apps suspended. Instead, you must follow a generic set of rules, so your apps are at risk of falling into recurrent suspensions.
According to Twitter: “It is actually very practical for an account to legitimately use all 1,000 daily tweets or all tweets in a roaming window period of time without using any kind of automation at all”. This is contradictory: you are allowed to use your 1,000 daily limit but do not think about automation. So my friend, be prepared to spend the whole day on your computer and send your tweets in an old-fashioned manual way. WARNING: you still do not know the length of the windows or how many tweets are allocated to them, so be ready for suspensions anyway, no matter if the process is done manually.
Oauth is the most senseless method that Twitter could have ever chosen for allowing users to approve an application. Too much care about users but what about developers? The implementation that developers have to undertake is far away from being straightforward. In addition, the use of a secure channel like HTTPS does NOT guarantee that your Consumer Key & Consumer Secret will be safe. A software application can easily be reversed by crackers to catch your API keys before you send them via HTTPS. So you, as a developer, not only have to implement Oauth, but also have to know about reverse engineering to protect your keys from crackers that could potentially steal them, just for fun, or just for making your life painful and to send spam on your app behalf…Believe me: What I said is not science fiction, it is a fact and I was able to gather others’ keys (of course that I never used them).
Read my former posts to find out much more.

So well, my advise is: NEVER USE OR EMBED YOUR API KEYS IN YOUR APPS. IT IS BETTER TO ADAPT YOUR APPS SO THAT THEY CAN BE CONFIGURED TO ACCEPT EXTERNAL KEYS. THIS IS TO INSTRUCT YOUR CLIENTS TO OBTAIN THEIR OWN KEYS AND ENTER THE VALUES IN YOUR APPS. It sounds difficult and not agile, but believe me, your life will not be as miserable as dealing with certain Twitter operators (depending on who is assigned to your case).

Good luck,

CJ

Iam_KimmyBW · 2014-01-01T14:14:38.000Z

Hello.my account has been suspended for days now and I don’t get any emails from Twitter on what I did to get suspended but I have filed a ticket and when I check how far along my request is ,it says ‘assigned’ and it has been days with the same message.I would really like to start using Twitter again and I know that pestering you guys won’t get me anywhere,I’m just desperate.Please help me.

Thank you

StKonrath · 2014-01-02T07:09:59.000Z

As I know it can take 4-5 days to get a reply, especially if it is the second time your account violated the terms; make sure that you comply with the rules (e.g.: no automated following/unfollowing). Try to send another ticket as well; It’s holiday season …