Once merely a simple email hazard, spam has made its way into the 2.0 world. As the life of the newly born Twitter begins to unfold before the eyes of the public, interesting trends are beginning to emerge that highlight both the self-serving and salutary aspects of the human psyche. Once small community of like-minded, tech-savvy individuals, Twitter has recently exploded into a national (and some would argue narcissistic) mini-obsession. The increased popularity of the site has made Twitter the target of the most recent marketing blitz; the result being an increasing complex, muddy thread-storm that may be curbing Twitter’s potential to achieve high retention rates. Twam, or Twitter spam, is basically when a user is exposed to tweet containing information that is unrelated to the information they were trying to obtain (i.e. unrelated to the topic they thought would be discussed in a particular tweet). Individual and organizations are accomplishing wide spread twamming by manipulating Twitter Trends; a Twitter function that ranks the most popularly followed Twitter threads. Posters can simply (and dishonestly) include a search word currently being “trended” in the title of their post and the post will be included in users’ search results for that trended word. Such activity distills the value of Twitter as an effective information-sharing medium and frustrates Twitter users, perhaps incentivizing disengagement with the platform.However, the 2.0 world is nothing is not community-oriented. And the critical mass that comprises the Twitter following has been mobilized to ignite the fight on twam. WhatTheTrend is a site that crowd sources information to help clarify and define various Twitter trends. Taking its cue from Wikipedia, the site allows users to upload information about Twitter trends and possible twamming tactics. The site also allows users to correct mistakes or delete inaccurate information. While it is by no means spam free, the site has been a great help to the Twitter audience in deciphering the meaning of long and often cryptic trend threads. The success of WhatTheTrend is a testament to the logical behind one of the fundamental components of the 2.0 web movement: to trust that passionate users will willingly and voluntarily contribute to the quality of website. The three-dimensional world is wrought with examples of how communities formed over seemingly meaningless causes can effectively, if not feverently, self-police to preserve the value of their initiatives. WhatTheTrend is perfect example of this real –life tendency spilling over into 2-dimensional the two-dimensional world. To read an interview with the creator of WhatTheTrend, click on the link below:

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