When you follow a link in a tweet, does the page look funny?

Over the last couple of weeks,  I've been noticing that when I followed links in tweets sent by other compers - for instance, when they had shared a Facebook or Rafflecopter competition,  the page looked odd. There was a band at the bottom with the original tweeter's name on it, the URL of the page looked odd and it was difficult or impossible to follow any links on the page. The extra clutter on the page slowed my computer down and when I tried the same links on my phone or iPad, brought them to a complete halt.

Have you noticed this too?

I thought it was something to do with the new Twitter design, and as every time it happened a box popped  up asking me to register, I did, thinking it would make things go back to normal. But far from going back to normal, somebody then tweeted me to say the same thing was happening with links I posted.

The culprit is a new service called Link-is that customises and "personalises" links that you share. Now that may well be great for businesses, but it's not much use for compers. We often share links in the hope that our friends will enter through our shares and give us bonus entries - but if they aren't able to actually enter the competition we've shared, then we don't get that extra credit. So I would advise any comper who had signed up to this service, either by choice or, like me, by accident, to get rid of it! You can tell if you have it because links you tweet will have ln.is as the start of the URL.

To remove it, first of all go to http://linkis.com/#twitter-automation and log in with your twitter account. Then go to the settings area at the top, choose the Twitter Automation tab and uncheck all the boxes.  Then to make doubly sure, go to your Twitter settings area and select Apps, then click "Revoke Access" next to Link-is