Really curious to find out how this is done exactly, but someone somewhere has managed to change a real trending topic on Twitter – #MrsSlocombe – into something childish, as you can tell from the screenshot above. Strangely enough, when you do a search for the less appropriate trending topic, not a single result pops up (for now).
Update: ok apparently it’s a legitimate trending topic (see origin here, it was meant as a tribute to British comic actress Mollie Sugden on the occasion of her death, so fans, celebrities and Brits in general started to tweet it) but Twitter is just blocking search results from appearing (which is good). Update 2: I’m not ‘pro-censorship’, but in this particular case it’s understandable behavior on Twitter’s behalf, period. I’m sure they didn’t mean to interrupt or ban tributes to a deceased person.
This may seem like something mundane at first glance, but many people (including reporters worldwide) track Twitter trending topics for breaking news, and it worries me that they can be manipulated. I mean, it’s one thing if large groups of people arrange for certain terms to show up in Twitter’s trending topics, but it’s a whole other story when they can be gamed with a hack (see update above).
(hat tip to Samuel Ryan)
it’s a hashtag to pay respects to molly sugden, an actress who died yesterday. mrs slocombe was the name of a character she played.
it was started by jonathan ross here..
http://twitter....atus/2433925844
It’s kind of sad how the editors of TC write an article without even looking into a topic. It’s like, they write an article first, and then go back and figure out what it actually is that they wrote about.
I’d have to agree on the above point and this article.
Little more homework would have validated this as a (1) “legitimate” trending topic and (2) company doing do diligence for no search results as a “just-in-case proactive action”.
FEEDBURNER
Remind me…are the 3.2 Million plus subscribers getting a resend of the post when TC does “Update 1″…”Update 2″?
I’m not knock’n Robin…I have loved his posts…
But this really kills me though…especially when other writers at TC have dogged traditional journalists, editors, publishing and that whole trade and career field. I’m not a traditional journalist but you see my point.
+1
TC needs to stop dogging traditional journalists. It’s like Mark Sanford lecturing people on fidelity.
That’s typical TC. Good at getting articles out quickly to the public. Weak at even basic fundamentals of journalism. Of course, these aren’t journalists, they’re bloggers, and there’s a big difference. Anyone who thinks the major news organizations can be replaced by the “crowd” need only look at this story or the one on the pornographic iPhone app as an example. No research, 100% speculation. Fox News, eat your heart out.
It’s also proof that Twitter is a crappy source of news. It’s simply a digitized form of water cooler gossip. Sometimes something like the Iranian protests comes along, but most of the time it’s fluff and nonsense, like eavesdropping on a billion short phone conversations. Please, someone figure out how to save our real news organizations!
I don’t want to knock TC…but this Update 1, Update 2, Update has shown increase on posts.
If a blog site had an screenshot of any biz’s homepage with a big “WTF” plastered on it and had not done due diligence on background info…any business owner would be ticked…whether large player like twitter or small startup trying to do well.
I don’t think that’s fair, errors are going to happen people are only human, surely you can see how this seem self explanatory just from looking at it.
Fair enough it was an error, but I can see how that could happen. So I think sometimes it’s hard to get everything right. So cut Tech Crunch some slack.
I think of all the sites on the net, they do a pretty good job, at getting things right.
Every now and then something is going to slip, it’s called being human, it happens..
I can also see your point…
How insightful you are.
http://twitter....atus/2433925844 It seems they’ve either “hacked” and modified peoples tweets or this is a legitimate hashtag that twitter have blocked.
So apparently it is a legitimate hashtag that is a “joke”, however it’s been blocked by twitter? What?
“Mollie Sugden died on the 1 July 2009. She was most famous for her role as Mrs Slocombe in the BBC series “Are You Being Served” who was always talking about her pussy cat. This is the trend to show your respects. #MrsSlocombesPussy”
Surprisingly, I’ve actually seen the show but I think someone was definitely going for the edgy/attention getting headline here.
I don’t know how trending on twitter is done. All I know is that I am just sick of spammers exploiting every site for their pron crap.
So, Ace, despite the fact that there are questions to be asked about the gaming of Twitter trending topics, it’s actually not pr0n.
Mrs Slocombe was a character on Are You Being Served?, one of the mainstays of 70s British comedy, which was often dominated by a risque undercurrent disguised as innocence. The very prim and proper Mrs Slocombe, a cat owner, often referred to “her pussy” in a very deliberate double entendre on the part of the writers.
There were several characters on the show whose activities were either deliberately or subtly a touch off color, including Mr Humphries (blatantly gay but never stated so) and the blatant (but often unsuccessful) womanising of Mr Lucas.
You can avail yourself of some schooling on 70’s British Comedy and specifically Are You Being Served? at http://en.wikip...ou_being_served
Nowhere in his response did he mention that THIS particular hashtag had anything to do with porn. He did, however, mention offhand that he is sick of the spammers exploiting certain hashtags for their own gain.
This particular one, containing a word with dual meaning, could easily be tracked by many spam accounts and each time it is used, those accounts could follow anyone using them.
For those who are outside the UK it is in reference to the death of the actress Molly Sugden who played a character in an old sitcom – “Are You Being Served?” called Molly Sugden. She unfortunately passed away yesterday.
http://news.bbc...ent/8129617.stm
Wikipedia reference to her “pussy”, “Tiddles” explained here…
http://en.wikip..._Betty_Slocombe
If it don’t happen in the US it don’t matter!
this is exactly what I thought too! Initially i thought it was another game or something being played… but nothing appears when I click on the tag.
Twitter trending topic is really influential, it getting hacked is screwed!
I doubt it’s a hack.
Mollie Sugden who passed away yesterday, played Mrs Slocombe in ’70s British comedy Are You Being Served.
Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy was a running joke in the series and the phrase she is probably best associated with.
More a fitting tribute from fans rather than a hack.
If you were British you’d probably realise that Mrs Slocombe’s pussy comes from the UK TV show ‘Are You Being Served’.
It’s not spam, it’s comedy ~ http://www.yout...h?v=unmkX15AeN8
I’m not British. I grew up in Colorado, and even I knew that.
I didn’t know that, updated the post. Still amazes me how stuff like that gets in the top list of trending topics. It shouldn’t.
Mollie Sugden, the actress that played Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being served died recently. That’s how it comes up.
Why, it’s just people having fun, right? #MrsSlocombespussy is a joke from way back in the 70s in the UK.
why shouldn’t it? because you never heard of her?
so thousands of people paying respect to someone who died shouldn’t be included in the ‘trending topics’ but millions of tweeters attempting to blag a free laptop should?
Robin maybe you could tell us all what rending topics you find aceptable? We appreciate that it would be in all our interests if you decide what we should or should not see. Sheesh.
“Still amazes me how stuff like that gets in the top list of trending topics. It shouldn’t.”
Why shouldn’t it?
One of the UK’s best loved comic actresses (Molly Sugden, who played Mrs Slocombe in “Are You Being Served”) has passed away. A #1 trending topic is a nice tribute and perfectly legitimate as far as I’m concerned.
It’s OK for Michael Jackson’s death to break the Internet, but when a lovely old lady dies and people want to pay tribute, that’s not OK? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…
Sleep tight Molly, you’ll be missed <3
Why shouldn’t that get to the top of trending topics? Her passing is news and the hashtag is a way of people showing their appreciation. A much more community minded sentiment than #moonfruit I think?
She was a much loved British comedy character in Are You Being Served, I think a twitobit’ is fitting.
As for #moonfruit, it’s our 10th birthday we’ve been in this community for a long time, we wnated to take away the tech barriers so people can put their passions online, the offer’s transparent. it’s not that significant people are being creative/silly/surreal with their tweets and what’s to not like about a macbook. As for dominating twitter/trends, what’s it for anyway? It’s to communicate as the community wishes. The rules and twitter platform will evolve to respond to the crowd’s changing proclivities. We love twitter and will respond to sentiment. Right now people are having fun with it. All trending topics don’t have to be about the ‘worthy’ which by the way seems to be a euphemsim for death or oppression right now.
I’ve no real problem w/ #moonfruit hashtag – I was simply replying to the above comment that #mrsslocombespussy shouldn’t be there …
… but, as you brought it up, worthiness has nothing to do with it, the question is about gaming the results for a commercial purpose.
#moonfruit is a great marketing exercise but it does deliberately manipulate the trending topics. I don’t see any real harm in it – unless everyone starts to do it – but if the question is which is more community minded – people RTing as a tribute to someone who’s passed or RT to win a prize – I’d prefer to see more of #mrsslocombespussy
Why shouldn’t fun things get trended on Twitter?
Just when did it suddenly become a preserve only of the humourless and serious?
Sorry, I had no idea it was supposed to be funny. I can see how people find it objectionable though, which is most probably why Twitter barred it from the search results.
Nah. Pussy refers to cats, but not for Americans…
Twitter just blocks anything that can be remotely thought of as offensive. Something that backfires when it’s used legitimately…
They haven’t banned it! Twitter won’t search for any word longer than 15 characters.
Yeah. let’s only put up stuff about the Jonas Brothers so people can hate America some more.
Why shouldn’t it appear? It’s little different to something like “MJ’s Thriller” appearing in the list. If that’s how people want to pay their good-hearted tribute, and that’s how they want it to appear in the trending list, so be it.
What’s the beef here? Is it because it’s not a core term (e.g. “mollyslugden”) or because Americans are really that conservative and prudish when it comes to a harmless term like “pussy”?
Glad we have the good guardians @techcrunch to decide for us what topics are worthy of being popular.
Why shouldn’t it become a top trending topic? Because you say so?
“me how stuff like that gets in the top list of trending topics. It shouldn’t.”
How is this any different than MJ’s death being in the trending topics section? Just because she’s less famous than him she should be there? Why is TC turning into such garbage?
I thought it was a more popular show here, but I guess a lot of people don’t know it.
Hi guys this is actually a reference to the TV show that Mollie Sugden appeared in where she played a character Mrs. Slocombe and there were references to her cat / pussy in it
http://en.wikip...i/Mollie_Sugden
I think its a rather fitting trending topic paying homage to the late Mollie Sugden while keeping in character with the original TV show
It’s a reference to a running joke from a vintage British comedy, “Are You Being Served” as the actress who played Mrs Slocombe just died…
http://news.bbc...ent/8129617.stm
silly joke,I don’t know why people think this way …At least,even it’s true.
just want to knwo what it really is?why it’s blocked?
Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy is a reference to the TV show, ‘Are You Being Served’, where Mrs Slocombe always referred to her pet cat as her ‘Pussy’ – it was a poor 1960’s attempt at sexual innuendo – but the show will be remembered for that line and one other (’I'm free!’).
The actress who played Mrs Slocombe died, sadly, yesterday – this I assume would make it a trending topic, especially in the UK and I assume using the word ‘Pussy’ hits Twitter filters and stops any results.
Oh dear. You appear to have fallen for a joke. Mrs Slocombe was a UK sitcom character in the 70s, in Are You Being Served?’ She had a pet cat, so the running gag was, ‘Has anybody seen Mrs Slocombes Pussy’. Not spam, a gag. Wash out your filthy minds
http://en.wikip...Being_Served%3F
Yeah, got the message. I actually watched that show a couple of times, but not enough to realize it was a running gag.
thx Barnaby, interesting link… at least it solves the reflexion.
Here is the twitpic picture for proof. I have no idea what this is from. I found it interesting and was about to forward it to MG @ techcrunch as well.
http://twitpic.com/9167m
I find it astounding that Twitter can block legitimate hashtags from showing up in searches. Doesn’t this scare anyone else?
If they contain inappropriate words, why not? it’s no different from Google’s search filters.
And for anyone in the UK, should they then not also block #fannypack?
Touché, Mr. Nagurski!
And for americans the phrase ‘can I bum a fag?’
My aunt Fanny’s pussy jumped up onto Pedro’s ass. The ass got angry and tossed it off and it landed in the water butt?
Fanny
Pussy
Ass
Toss
Butt
Inappropriate words? Good god, man – who the hell do you think you are, the dictionary police?
Since when did it become Twitter’s role to police the language we use? And since when did it become TechCrunch’s role to cheerlead it?
Shame on you.
Hear hear. You missed an Uncle Dick in there
“Still amazes me how stuff like that gets in the top list of trending topics. It shouldn’t.”
Sorry Robin Wauters, you fu*ked up and saying stuff like that only makes it worse.
No, he did not. It is the reaction to expect. Without the proper knowledge, this hashtag was likely to be a spam topic.
Why is this topic considered spam? I have gotten enough e-mails from ex-presidents of Nigeria that want to give me money – and twitter has more and more spam associated with it.
Is this hashtag appropriate – it is
It’s pretty funny really, once you watch it. I wish they had links to amazon.com selling the movie, so that people get *served*
#HaveUgottenServed
Why is this a problem? Twitter is not solely about news. Trending topics get gamed often. News agency use Twitter to save themselves money – let the proles give you the info for free instead of having reporters in place.
Journalists are not a respected breed, up there with politicians and estate agents. Tough.
i don’t know why the search doesn’t work with the hash tag. remove the pound sign and just search for MrsSclocombesPussy on there.
and this is a useful site for twitter trending topics: http://whatthetrend.com/
You’re exactly right – we see this all the time with hashtags longer than about 15 characters. Simply dropping the # sign will return results. We ran into similar problems at http://wthashtag.com/ but figured out the length and adjusted accordingly.
It’s a legitimate hashtag.The character played by Molly Sugden, the well-loved British comedy actress who died recently, was called Mrs Slocombe in the classic comedy Are You Being Served. One of the long-running jokes in the show were the frequent references to her ‘pussy’, meaning her cat. It’s a classic example of the smutty humor of the time best exemplified in the Carry On series of films.
The tag is an irreverent yet fond mark of respect. It’s not spam. Twitter are wrong to block it.
/me feels like an idiot.
Ha, +1. Ah well.
hahaha! classic
Once again, people don’t know that ‘Good night’ is two words! That gets my attention over spam, any night of the week.
I’m not sure why there are no search results on Twitter.com, but Tweetie gives results when you search for mrssclocombespussy.
That’ll get Tweetie banned from the app store no doubt.
It was me that started this (along with a few others). It is a tribute to one of the finest British comic actresses on the occasion of her death, so fans, celebrities and Brits in general started to tweet it. Does that make it any less important than Moonfruit or Michael Jackson? It is certainly not spam. I am a journalist/author and use twitter to find stories as much as the next person, but I have a sense of humour as well as being able to distinguish between hard news and just stuff that people like to talk about.
Mrs Slocombe’s pussy was a running joke was a running gag in the series that made actress Mollie Sugden famous. Those who don’t know her can see clips of her talking about her pussy (slang for her cat) on my blog about this at http://britishi...ordpress/?p=502
Thanks
Iain
Thanks, already updated the post a while ago.
Though humour bypass still seems very much in place
Twitter blocking search results from appearing? And now you guys reporting it as spam? You know, not the whole world is American, shouldn’t the rest of us be allowed to having fun trending topics too – hardly as bad as the movie related meme hashtags that trend *constantly*.
Talk about an over-reaction.
Yeah I’m from Belgium.
Well you do a good impression of an ignorant American.
Thanks, I know some, could be an explanation.
Americans are ignorant? You do realize TC is an American site, as is Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Google, Youtube, Yahoo, Bing, etc?
Can the author explain why blocking #MrsSlocombesPussy, which is just a bit of fun is deemed to be good, when #moonfruit, which is blatently spam is presumably fine?
“#MrsSlocombesPussy, which is just a bit of fun”
Well, only some people – think “Island” – actually knew what the hastag was about.
Now mashable have it wrong too …
http://mashable...twitter-trends/
hahaha, awesome. I guess there is a small story in that twitter are blocking legitimate hash tags, but still, haha.
hahah this time the blogs spread a false rumor about twitter!
“many people (including reporters worldwide) track Twitter trending topics for breaking news” – so? It’s a SOCIAL NETWORK, not a press release agency. Get over yourselves and live with it.
Just wait, copy n paste tech sites like Pocket Lint and IT Pro Portal will be running it this afternoon too!
and Mashable! (see above)
I think the lesson here is – “don’t rely on twitter for everything in the world” – check other sources
Hey wait … shock horror …. amazing! – just because it’s posted on twitter doesn’t mean its real! I still believe big news agencies have their place for credibility compared to 100 people who post “Britney is dead” and then everyone believes it.
Real time is both fantastic and terrible – the verification of fact goes out the window. More so the use of “RT” means everyone just keeps flocking like sleep.
Breaking News: Twitter HashTag Considered Spam, TechCrunch Shocked.
Less attention on Robin Wauters’ mistake, more attention on why Twitter.com blocked the hashtag search.
I think your update stating that Twitter blocking the hashtag is a good thing is almost as outrageous as the quality of the original article.
What’s wrong with you? Why do you think it’s OK for Twitter to censor an arbitrary hashtag?
They’re not censoring. Try searching for *any* hashtag over 15 characters.
#virgilioanderson has over 15 characters and still appears.
Because it’s a free, public service that’s used by kids (even though officially you need to be 13 years or older to use Twitter)?
Is it Mrs Slocombe you object to, or her cat?
And are you seriously suggesting any 13 year old on this planet would be offended by the word ‘pussy’?
This was a 1970s sitcom! It was a silly, fun little double-entendre that has been shown on prime time TV all over the world for over 30 years!
Let it go Dom, it was an honest mistake and I simply understand why Twitter (most likely automatically) stripped the term from its search results. I overreacted, as you are now.
I don’t think I’m overreacting. As a journalist with a potential readership of over 3 million, you have a duty to make reasonable efforts to research and verify stories before publication.
It just saddens me that standards are so poor.
It really doesn’t seem that hard to check something like this out before you write a post about it. Just Google it, for crying out loud.
And it doesn’t seem like too much to ask that a site of TechCrunch’s influence would do that basic check.
Sorry if it seems abusive to point it out, but you keep defending the mistake.
This isn’t 20/20 hindsight, it’s Journalism 101.
make me laugh, let’s see what the twitter will do next.
Mrs Slocombe’s pussy is not spam:
http://tinyurl.com/klh8ln
Twitter just lost ALL my respect. I’ve noticed time and time again Twitter ‘trains’ in the trending topics due to spam, but this… this being blocked is just disgusting. It would take 2 seconds for them to of checked out its authenticity. 2 damn seconds.
HEY TWITTER; THERE’S MORE CELEBS OUT THERE THAT HAVE DIED OTHER THAN MICHAEL JACKSON. Jesh.
Arse.holes. That is all.
It is not spam or a game. I live in the US, 35 Years Old. It showed on most PBS channels for the past 20 years.
You can search for MrsSlocombesPussy but not for #MrsSlocombesPussy. The former gives results, the latter not.
The commenter above about a 15-character limit would seem incorrect as MrsSlocombesPussy
is 17 characters. Maybe that is the limit?
Also, what’s happened to the #fannypack one – that is rude in the UK…
Newsflash “Twitter search blocks Double entendres”. LOLz
Does it really?
Oh Robin, not you too …
The battle over what to censor and what not is never ending. However, people know the difference between right and wrong and appropriate and not. Some things are just vulgar and crude and everyone agrees so why not censor those things or put them somewhere separate to be visited by people who enjoy that.
No, not everybody agrees what is ‘just vulgar and crude’. Really, what empirically measurable thing about the word ‘pussy’ makes it crude? Pray tell. You missed the point by so much you must have had your back to the target.
there will always be sensors… you can’t help it.
I quote …. ‘it was a poor 1960’s attempt at sexual innuendo’ ….
No, actually it was (in an historical prime-time TV context) a FANTASTIC 1970s attempt at sexual innuendo! You had to be a 12 year old school boy to understand how much it shocked some prim parents. It staggers belief how this could now shock the twitterati in the noughties ….
Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy Found Dead
http://www.thes...adline=s1i55569
I still think its bad taste
“but many people (including reporters worldwide) track Twitter trending topics for breaking news”
It’s clearly no replacement for decent research though. A Google of Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy would have given you the information that you needed before writing this desperate article.
OK, this has been pointed out before but Twitter is NOT censoring this hashtag. It’s a glitch in the search system.
Proof? Compare
http://search.t...sslocombespussy (zero results)
and
http://search.t...sslocombespussy (bazillion results)
Gah, sorry, first link should have been http://search.t...sslocombespussy
I suspect they have an automatic system that detects certain words in hashtagged terms, which triggers the ‘censoring’ of the term in search results when it includes the hashtag.
A length limit seems more likely. Again, compare
http://search.t...EvenThisHashTag (no results)
http://search.t...EvenThisHashTag (7+ results)
As a system being relied on for real time information they should really figure out a way to understand what’s being talked about better. This is real news to a lot of people and censoring it is hindering news from spreading in the real time fashion that twitter is loved for.
I’ve for one have noticed a lot of random “followers” pop up on twitter that are nothing but links to porn sites. What’s being done in cases like this? If nothing why is that ok but it’s not ok for it to be “big” news in the trends?
If twitter finds something objectionable, why not at least add it inside an “adult” filter like bing, google and other search engines so that your not exposed to it unless that filter is turned on.
you’re*
Sorry, but have you not just proved exactly the opposite of your statement? Remove the hash and you get no results – i.e., when you click on the hashtag you get no results.
I wouldn’t have expected this from TechCrunch. You guys should be tweeting an apology. Atleast Robin should be..
It wasn’t/isn’t Spam…
Robin – you are a moron. You made a mistake, and instead of admitting it you try to somehow make out that, although you are really wrong, you are morally right.
But you are just a prat.
It should no more be excluded than michael jackson should be excluded. The real story is what on earth are twitter doing excluding it.
I can’t be bothered to read all 80+ comments so if you have eaten humble pie on this one already then forgive me. If not, then get the spoon and some cream out.
Isn’t the point here that the TC blogger could have performed 20 seconds of research before pumping out this post?
Robin could have merely binged (or googled) the term “Mrs. Slocombes Pussy” (the results are obvious) and this post quite possibly could have been written from a much different (and informed) manner.
If another publication would have blundered like this, TechCrunch would be calling them to the carpet in two seconds flat.
Once again, a reporter blithly assumes without checking facts. A quick search would have brought up references to the show. Digging a little deeper would have brought references to this specific aspect of the show. Less than five minutes of research would have saved you from looking like an idiot on this.
What truly concerns me, is that “many people (including reporters worlwide” don’t bother to check the facts.
This incident of censuring a trending term on Twitter just points out the danger to all of us on today’s social networking sites (and also with search engines), we don’t own these sites and we don’t even control our own data on them to a frightening extent. It is even more frightening to think that that the kids who own Twitter and Facebook have become our new “thought police”. This whole incident is quite scary.
Don’t be too hard with the writer, you do have a few companies that advertise/spam twitter like magpie and commentino…
You can also buy the book at Amazon…
http://bit.ly/19mUg1
Do you think they should censor it too?