Please look into supporting the OpenMicroBlogging protocol. It is a attempt to build a next generation open standard that would allow for federation with other microblogging services. Ideally there should be more public pressure for Twitter to adopt this as well.
This is just how the world works. Someone builds a generic solution for everyone, then lots of vertical markets receive personalized attention. I think it's a good idea really. This kind of initiative will allow the users of these concepts filter out a lot of noise.
Consider MySpace, then Facebook, then linkedin --> trending to focus. Now you have ning which gives even more vertical focus.
Perhaps the sports leagues were leaning on them. The NFL, et. al. seem to think they own the rights to any account of the games. I could easily see them thinking you are poaching on their IP (I've always thought these were absurd claims).
Just to be clear, I'm building a real-time service for sports information. It will have some of the attributes of Twitter, but it is NOT a simple Twitter clone.
:-) It's all part of the grand StatSheet Network plan. stat.us will be integrated into statsheet.com heavily and may be integrated into the upcoming StatSheet subscription service.
I really hope your target audience goes for it in a big way. There are already some people that I unfollow on game day. And having a sports focused version would give them a place to go.
This is great to see. Twitter really left you with few options. One huge advantage with rolling your own site is you can do everything that Twitter hasn't done. Due to either scaling or their community (depends who you ask) there is a lot that has been left to be desired with Twitter.
As an aside: I recently had a historic sport stat question come up and couldn't readily find the answer. Did Michael Jordan ever go scoreless in the second quarter during his career? I'm sure the information is out there. But I couldn't find it in a usable or detailed enough way to answer my question.
Did Michael Jordan ever go scoreless in the second quarter during his career?
That is the sort of question that Wolfram Alpha was created for, but it doesn't look like NBA stats are covered yet, just NFL and MLB scores, and not yet in sufficient detail: http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/SportsGames.html
As someone who loved the StatTweet service this past college football and basketball season, it's a shame to see that Twitter has done this and refuses to communicate effectively with you. Best of luck with http://stat.us/, I'll be certain to check it out.
And let me also plug the OpenMicroBlogging/Laconi.ca platforms. They are an excellent step forward for a standardized API with all these similar services out there.
It'd be neat if there was a unified interface for several different "like-twitter" applications.
Using twitter's current API as a de facto interface to fulfill.
