DISQUS

connectme360 · 4 months ago

Having started several businesses, I can appreciate the frustration developers must feel about the perceived lack of communication.

Given that, though, I've been impressed with the actual conditions that Twitter employees work through. Just about everyone has their own opinion of what Twitter is doing wrong, but I've seen there's a lot of unsung heroes inside of Twitter that are really committed to doing things the right way. I'm glad Louis pointed this out.

Louis Gray · 4 months ago

I tried to be fairly even-handed with Twitter on this one, but you can see other examples where developers are very frustrated with the state of affairs. For example from here: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-developm... "But for an open communications company that is postioning itself as
the future platform for messaging - there has been so little
communication and feedback to the developers in your community that it
is simply shocking."

Louis Gray · 4 months ago

I believe it's time for Twitter to invest in PR and developer relations in a big way to help with times like this. If I were Twitter's Platform Lead (or anywhere near it) I would not tweet that I was going out for sushi or out to see a concert.

Belinda · 4 months ago

When you lay down with dogs...

I have no sympathy for the devs, if you hitch your wagon to something unstable you deserve what you get. These twitter clients are largely toys. That's no way to run a sustainable business, being 100% dependent on someting else.

Jesse Stay · 4 months ago

I nominate they hire Louis for the position.

Susan Beebe · 4 months ago

+1000 Louis!

Jesse Stay · 4 months ago

+2000 Louis! :-)

Louis Gray · 4 months ago

Well, Jesse, they won't at this rate. Their lead platform developer has blocked me - not a great PR move to a blogger who on occasion covers Twitter. :)

Jesse Stay · 4 months ago

Thats why they should hire you :-)

Owen Greaves · 4 months ago

It's amazing how far you (Twitter) can see with short-sightedness (is that a word?) Either they have a very long nose or no nose at all :)

Mitchell Tsai · 4 months ago

Thanks for the good info Louis.

Duncan Riley · 4 months ago

My WordTwit plugin stopped updating at the same time: API related. It's not just app developers affected, its any site that offers site updates on Twitter and use a plugin that relies on the API to do that.

Louis Gray · 4 months ago

That is true. Notice the Twitter updates sidebar that leverages Twitter Search on my site is toast too. I may remove it if this goes on much longer.

michael lockyear · 4 months ago

This is what happens when developers try to build a business on a free service (with minimal revenue).

jimnemer · 4 months ago

I boils down to: Ease of use vs. DOS mitigation. How long until Twitter installs reCAPTCHA for all API based tweets? It’s also the anti-bot for twam.

It is a Pandora’s Box that cannot be closed. It takes only one trouble-maker to cause problems for the whole community... and after that one stops or is stopped... all it takes is one more. Revenue-based companies have had to address this head on as part of their survival. Granted it seems they had the luxury to evolve instead of fixing in a few hours or days.

I could be wrong but I see reCAPTCHA is an unfortunate part of this solution. This too will break most third party apps for a while until the handshake is defined. The apps will then remain broke until their slim development staffs can accommodate the changes.

There is no quick or easy fix here.

Kevin Dykes · 4 months ago

Obviously the adoption of the Twitter API has been one of the most successful stories of innovation around a web services program - which has increased this trend by web app companies of all types. This is a very positive trend in general, but to me the Twitter story here does provide a good case for defining business model of a web services program earlier in the process - before 1000's of companies have built entire new businesses around something where there can be little expectation of premium support since no money is passing to the ultimate "utility" Twitter.