

The Declaration of Twitter Independence - theyCallMeSwift
http://twitterindependence.com/

======
debacle
> We hold these truths to be self-evident

Really? Really guys? We're going to invoke the Declaration if Independence on
an impotent campaign page about Twitter?

Just stop using Twitter. Problem solved.

~~~
missechokit
p-a-r-o-d-y

~~~
debacle
What is this a parody of?

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gjulianm
I'm sorry, but this is absurd. It's not tyrany and oppression, it's Twitter's
API and they set the terms they want. You agree to those terms (and to the
fact that Twitter can change them at will) the exact moment you start using
the API.

Twitter won't be affected in any way: they already said that they don't want
third party clients. Developers creating apps that Twitter accepts (analytics,
social media for business, etc) won't stop supporting Twitter (they would lose
users, opportunities and money). Only developers who create "non-OK" apps
would join this, and if we did Twitter would be happier than ever as they
stopped us without any action on their part.

And no, I don't support Twitter API changes, but we knew that we were taking
risks when developing for a closed platform.

EDIT: added last paragraph.

~~~
theyCallMeSwift
The tyranny and oppression bit is satire. And disallowing the creation of
third party clients is only a minor piece of a much larger puzzle. When good
services like IFTTT are forced to stop using the API, there's obviously
something wrong.

~~~
gjulianm
TC reports that IFTTT was actually infringing terms before the API changes:
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-
in-...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-violation-
of-twitters-api-for-months-todays-move-unrelated-to-1-1/).

I suppose that they've just noticed it and decided to take it down.

And yes, of course there's something wrong. It's not fair to grow helped by
third party apps and them trash them, but, as I said, we all knew that this
could happen. We can't trust that any company won't be evil during all of its
lifetime, specially when that company needs to show real money to investors.

------
joshuahedlund
What percent of developer frustration falls under "We're making money off
Twitter without paying Twitter anything and now we're upset that we can't do
that anymore"?

~~~
gaius
I'm guessing... 100?

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viseztrance
"Fork the project on Github, and add yourself as a signer in a pull request."

Seriously? Just because they redesigned the profiles to look like Facebook
that doesn't make the forks the new "like".

~~~
humbledrone
I actually thought that the whole "fork to add yourself" thing was
interesting, in that it would add a tiny bit of weight to the signatures. The
bar for signing is to have a Github account, and to know what "fork" and "pull
request" are. The probability that someone who can add their signature is
actually a developer is presumably somewhat higher than if there was a big
green button that any disgruntled user could casually press.

[EDIT] I don't use or care about Twitter, so I'm not trying to defend the
goals of this particular petition. I just thought "fork to sign" was kind of
interesting.

~~~
viseztrance
Say this catches on and you have two push requests, which one are you going
use, because odds are you need to merge the second one by hand. This is not
practical, but at least you get a fork.

~~~
theyCallMeSwift
I'll gladly manually merge in this case. It doesn't scale obviously, it's more
novelty than anything else.

------
hiphopopotamus
Grow up. Twitter doesn't owe you anything.

~~~
theyCallMeSwift
It's not about Twitter owing me, or anyone else for that matter, anything. If
you release an API under the premise that developers are going to build apps
that enhance and refine your existing service, then it is your responsibility
to maintain a fair and open attitude towards them.

~~~
randomdrake
You can't effectively say "they don't owe me anything" and say "they owe us a
fair and open attitude" in the same sentence and expect to be taken seriously.
They don't owe you anything. You don't pay them for anything. There's risk in
piggy backing on another service. There always has been and always will be.
This same reaction occurs every single time an API gets closed, changed, or
altered in ways that developers don't like.

If anything, you provide a disservice to developers by invoking and promoting
such a, pardon me but, whiny attitude towards something that should you should
understand to be basic business.

~~~
HalcyonicStorm
Twitter does owe a fraction of its success to its developer ecosystem. By
upsetting said ecosystem, they're hurting themselves.

~~~
randomdrake
I'm sorry but don't see what that has to do with the misplaced sense of
personal entitlement.

~~~
HalcyonicStorm
It's not about entitlement so much as don't piss off the people who add value
to your platform

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fromhet
Develop for status.net then? They don't have the user base, but if you make a
killer app that runs there but not on twitter, well, you'll still win. If not,
it's twitters fault they will fail when all 3rd party devs get new projects.

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ctdonath
Has anyone actually offered Twitter _money_ for the API? Like, give Twitter a
_reason_ to allow access to their rather valuable data?

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grazanaut
I see there are about 10 signatories. Wow. Big :-/

Would a better "declaration-of-independence-by-github-fork" be to encourage
people to fork tentd, and install to <insert free hosting service here>

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andrewnez
Please just change the heading font to something more readable!

~~~
theyCallMeSwift
Updated. Thanks for the suggestion

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Aloha
The man who controls the press, controls the speech.

Twitter undeniably controls the press in this case - they can do whatever they
feel like.

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true_religion
I think it might look better if you used a different cursive font, or even a
print-press font rather than a cursive font.

~~~
theyCallMeSwift
I picked this guy

<http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/IM+Fell+English>

~~~
true_religion
The new font is much more readable. Cheers.

------
interg12
App.net

------
Buzaga
I clicked for the headline but won't sign it because because it would mean I
still have interest in using twitter as a developing platform and I don't.

I rather just ignore it and let it fade away and hope it to take all it's
egotic celebrities, teenies, morning-tv-moms, smartasses, attention seekers,
ads, media & marketing businesses, and all the rest of waste with them,
feeling good!

