
Antipersona: Use Twitter from the perspective of another account - convulsive
http://antipersona.co
======
brudgers
Architecture document @ Github:
[https://github.com/agermanidis/Antipersona/blob/master/ARCHI...](https://github.com/agermanidis/Antipersona/blob/master/ARCHITECTURE.md)

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javierprovecho
nice idea! but...

why do you need to ask for permission to:

\- publish tweets

\- update my profile

?

A sentence saying "we'll not publish anything" is not enough. Better dont ask
for permission in the twitter API or explain why do you need it.

~~~
tacone
Probably because Twitter permissions granularity is very sparse. Last time I
checked it was just read the whole account or read/write the whole account.

Thus, to create private lists on your account they need the permission to
write.

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darkstalker
What this probably does is enumerating the followings for the target user,
then opening a filter stream [1] that watches a list of all of those.

[1]
[https://dev.twitter.com/streaming/reference/post/statuses/fi...](https://dev.twitter.com/streaming/reference/post/statuses/filter)

~~~
natdempk
They actually use the lists/statuses endpoint, but it accomplishes essentially
the same thing.

Their architecture is described here:
[https://github.com/agermanidis/Antipersona/blob/master/ARCHI...](https://github.com/agermanidis/Antipersona/blob/master/ARCHITECTURE.md)

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fabiandesimone
Finally. I've been wanting to see this for ages. It surprises me Twitter does
not have this option.

~~~
return0
Apparently there was such a feature [http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/26/now-you-
can-see-twitter-the...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/26/now-you-can-see-
twitter-the-way-i-see-twitter/)

~~~
throwaway87696
The rollout got stopped when a senior executive was following a porn star. I
forget whether his wife actually saw that via this feature or whether he was
simply just afraid of it happening, but the feature got cancelled.

~~~
majewsky
_Unfollow_ wasn't an option?

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Futurebot
If this app supports seeing the chosen user's public messages from their
perspective, it'd be a great way to experience what it's like for certain
high-profile accounts that get trolled and dogpiled all the time.

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tetrep
Neat!

I welcome people making applications such as these that show us just how
public information is and how little we truly appreciate that fact (I assume
many will find this creepy).

~~~
corin_
There's many areas to be concerned about regarding privacy in the 21st
century, but not this.

> _show us just how public information is_

Information we choose to broadcast to the world on a platform designed for
broadcasting to the world.

> _find this creepy_

Strangers can see my public list of who I follow, and can see the public posts
of those people I follow. The people I follow can choose to make their posts
not public if they wish, and I can choose to make my profile not public so
that strangers can't see who I follow, if I wish. Not creepy, really.

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mwsherman
The best way use case I can think of is to view my own feed anonymously. It’s
all public information (whom I follow etc) so I should not need to be auth’d.

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chtoric
I think the problem here is that many people now use the practice to follow
people and than mute them, so their tweets doesn't get shown in the feed (or
he doesn't get notified if they like/retweet/comment them). So a person which
officially follows millions of people could have muted them all and his feed
is always empty. In my opinion is a good idea though.

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gotchange
Where's the demo or preview exactly? Do I have to install it on my iPhone to
experience it first?

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mdrzn
I think the GIF on the right is self explanatory.

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MrQuincle
I think it's brilliant. We too often look at things from our own bubble. The
deeper the experience will be the better. It should not be limited to Twitter
to be even more effective. Of course it can be used in a way that someone
thinks privacy is harmed. I personally would feel honoured if someone took the
time to look at the world trough my eyes! I would normally need to write a
book for that to get that much braintime from a person.

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egypturnash
Use twitter from someone else's perspective... modulo access to private
accounts, and whatever filters they may have in their preferred client.

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tacone
This is great and if lists are created on the user personal account, then they
will be visible from the Twitter UI itself.

Too bad is a mobile app.

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kmfrk
Eh, it probably doesn't hide the "disabled retweets", which can be a bit
misleading. I doubt that's exposed to other users.

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ecesena
That is really clever! I did something similar in the past but I stopped at
"simulating" the timeline with at most 200 followers.

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dk8996
I wonder if brands will use this to monitor what their competitors are doing.
Maybe even stealing potential leads or clients.

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TazeTSchnitzel
Presumably this only works for public accounts.

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blfr
This is a feature I always wanted from Twitter and the first time I regret not
having an iPhone.

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alanfalcon
Downloaded the app and tried it. Links don't work, pictures don't show,
there's no conversation view... This isn't becoming someone on Twitter, it's
viewing a non-interactive and incomplete screenshot from over their shoulder.
That makes it much, much less useful for its stated purpose. Too bad.

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meeper16
The fact that I think this is the worst idea in the world might be the very
reason this could be huge. I thought friendster, myspace and facebook enabling
people with 15min of fame by displaying their personal lives on the net was
the worst idea in the world.

I did think the way Google handled search was the best idea in the world, so
go figure.

~~~
Ezhik
It's all about you.

