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Recently I was asked if I would like to beta test a new service called "TidyTweet" that will be released to the public soon. My first thought was "Are you kidding me? I LOVE trying out new stuff!", but I managed to keep myself under control and simply answer yes... The service is still in private beta at the moment, but that certainly hasn't stopped it from becoming widely known already!

What is TidyTweet, anyway?

TidyTweet is an innovative idea no matter how you slice it, and quite frankly, one that I'm surprised was not thought of earlier! Now before I delve deep into critiques and praises, here's what RockFish Interactive, the company behind this great service, has to say about their brainchild...

Think of TidyTweet as your very own Twitter feed housekeeper. Based on your preferences, it keeps conversations clean, orderly, and free of unwanted comment clutter. TidyTweet works behind the scenes to prevent unwanted surprises from showing up on your website. After creating an account and setting up a feed, you can blacklist or whitelist specific handles, approve Tweets manually or automatically, and create a customized word filter to avoid annoying – or embarrassing – situations. TidyTweet lets you keep the conversation going - without worrying about what's being said.

So how's it work?

Well I'm glad you asked! I've taken some time to gather up a few screenshots of the various steps required to set up your Twitter feed with TidyTweet and the options available to you while doing so. Now obviously, the first step is to ask for a beta invitation. You can do this by simply tweeting this message or by filling out the signup form.

Once you've been accepted as a beta tester and your login details have been emailed to you, you'll find that creating custom filtered feeds is simpler than you could have ever imagined! So let's take a look at the first set of options your given, shall we?

Step 1: Tell it what you're looking for...

This step allows you to not only name your feed, but this is where you tell the service exactly which tweets you'd like to make up your Twitter feed. This is done by making use of Twitter's search operators.

In this example I have set my feed to search for tweets containing either the phrase GI Joe OR the hashtag #GIJoe (not case sensitive). You can get much more in-depth than that though, so don't be afraid to experiment!

Step 2: Tell it what to filter out...

Although you can streamline your results quite a bit simply by using the search operators, it would take quite a while to come up with a search query to filter out ALL of the stuff you don't want in your feed. Not to mention that the Twitter API only allows 140 characters max in the search query, so it would be virtually impossible to create a query that does any real in-depth "filtering" per se. This is precisely why this service is so invaluable!

Now whatever crud happened to get through the custom search query you made can be filtered even farther by making use of the automatic (and manual) filters TidyTweet offers! The first (and one of the most important in my opinion) filter is the option to filter out any bad language from a predefined list of "bad-words" in the TidyTweet system.

The second area of this option is the ability to filter out custom words of your choosing. So let's say you wanted to filter all the known "bad-words" AND filter the PG replacement word fiddlesticks as well. Simply enter the word "fiddlesticks" in the custom words box and just like that, your feed will be free of those foul mouthed sailors who use the word "fiddlesticks" by golly!

Step 2 (continued): More filtering goodness...

This section allows you to further customize your feed by a sort of "whitelist/blacklist" feature for Twitter users. If you know of a particular username associated with a SPAM account, it's probably best to put that name in the blacklist to make certain your feed isn't helping the spammer one iota.

On the flip side of that coin, if you have a particular username in mind which you would like to make sure ALWAYS made it through the other filters you put in place, then it's probably a good idea to make sure that they are whitelisted in the "approve" box! So I can now assume that each and every one of you are going to whitelist me (@eight7teen) for your feeds, right? Ok, ok... It was worth a shot anyway!

Step 2 (continued again): Even MORE filtering goodness!

Now that you've filtered out bad words, custom words, and usernames, it's time to target some of the most common aspects of a SPAM account. Many times SPAM is posted from an account which was just recently created, (probably due to the fact that their previous account was either suspended or deleted) so TidyTweet allows you to set a time-frame of account creation from which to reject tweets.

Another common practice of SPAMMERS is to throw in a reference to one or more trending topics in a completely irrelevant tweet just to get noticed. Fortunately, TidyTweet also allows you to set a maximum number of trending topics that any one tweet can contain before being rejected!

TidyTweet also allows for a bit of "house cleaning" if you will... They make it simple to remove any @replies as well as ReTweets to keep your feed clean and clutter-free!

Step 3: Manage the leftovers...

This step simply defines a default action to be taken for any tweets that make it through all of the above filtering. You can choose to auto-approve, manually-approve, or auto-approve after specified delay. Easy Peasy!

Non-Filtered Example...

I've taken screenshots of the feed(s) I created using TidyTweet to show you the outcome. This image is of the feed with NO filtering whatsoever.

Notice the highlighted tweet. This is a prime example of a SPAMMER using trending topics to boost their relevance in Twitter Search. Now also notice that next to it, the tweet has been "auto-approved" due to the fact that I have not yet implemented any filters.

Filtered Example (using settings from above)

Now notice the same tweet highlighted once again. This time however, the filters did exactly as they were supposed to do and made sure to "auto-reject" this tweet due to it's SPAM-like nature.

So what do I think?

In an effort to keep my rambling down to a minimum, I've waited until the end to really voice my opinion about the service as a whole. Now that I've explained what the service does and how to use it, I'll give you my two cents... Take it for what it's worth.

I think that overall TidyTweet is on the fast track to becoming one of those services that we as developers simply can't live without. Not only does it make syndicating your tweets a breeze, but it makes sure that you can be confident that your syndicated content isn't going to cause you any unwanted embarrassment as well!

As with any service that's worth it's weight, there's always room for improvement. If there isn't, then the service has either already lived out it's lifespan or it's on the downhill slope. That being said, here are a few things that I felt could be improved upon...

Possible improvements

1. Add unique class names to each element of the feed

   I was a little disappointed that the embeddable widget you can generate doesn't include unique class names for each individual element that makes up the tweet feed. This would ultimately lead to complete brandability by companies or even just allowing the common user to customize the feed completely to match whatever site it's placed on.

2. Implement a public API for developers

   I also think that a service like this should definitely think about implementing an API to allow developers to integrate it into custom apps. However, I realize that the service is still very new and a fully functional API might take a while to develop.

3. Integrate some sort of AI system to recognize SPAM

   TidyTweet should (in my opinion) definitely work on a smart AI system that can be "trained" to identify SPAM automatically by what we automatically approve/reject. I'm sure this one might be a stretch for a semi-simple service, but if you think about it... SPAMMERS are constantly upgrading the logic used in SPAM bots to overcome hurdles day after day, so why can't the services which are trying to prevent the SPAM do the same thing?

4. Allow users to double-check the predefined list of inappropriate words

   Another thing that bothered me a little bit when I first started using the service is the fact that users must assume that TidyTweet has every possible bad word listed in the predefined filter. I understand that there can be an issue as far as publicly posting all of the bad words that the service is filtering, but possibly some sort of "waiver" or "disclaimer" could release them from liability? Just an idea, because although we can probably be safe in assuming that they filter all of them... It would be quite embarrassing if any one particular word happened to slip through one day because we didn't know it wasn't in the list.

Well deserved kudos...

1. Level of dedication to service

   I have to say that the amount of dedication to user satisfaction by Michael Paladino (aka @mpaladino) has far exceeded my expectations, and if his boss happens to stumble across this article...

   You should give that man a raise!

2. Excellent feedback system in place

   I also think that the overall user feedback system they've implemented for feature requests and so forth is definitely a step in the right direction. They not only keep you informed of new ideas that have been accepted into development, but they seem to genuinely care about what you the user have to say. (that's a nice break from the norm)

3. Ability to filter tweets by language

   Since I first started this article a few days ago, TidyTweet has already released another great feature that will benefit MANY of you out there! They've now made it possible to filter your results by language thus removing any language but the one you'd like your feed to display in.

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So if you're interested in trying out TidyTweet or just interested in learning more about it, you can visit their site: http://tidytweet.com