

Twitter Gives Developers 6 Months To “Properly” Display Tweet - kunle
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/16/twitter-gives-developers-6-months-to-properly-display-tweet-use-new-authentication-and-rate-limts/

======
_lex
It looks like Twitter won't be happy until the only Twitter developers are the
ones that work at Twitter.

------
ceol
To play a bit of Devil's advocate... Most of the popular apps fall under the
free API access, don't they? If so, isn't it unfair for everyone to say how
users need to jump ship and find an alternative? I mean, Twitter is giving you
API access for one of the most utilized services on the Internet... for free.
You just have to make sure your app follows some guidelines.

Unless I've misinterpreted this?

~~~
_lex
People aren't building apps for fun. They're trying to build a business. No
one in their right mind is going to invest in a business that's built in an
area that can be bulldozed at any moment, and that's what twitter's platform
is.

For developers, twitter is now officially a burning platform.

~~~
ceol
That's true of any API, though. You don't build your entire business around
another company's API without a contract.

And yes, people are building apps for fun. Programming isn't just a job.

------
nchlswu
Can you imagine if any other content provider or medium had this restriction?
Or even worse, imagine how Twitter's growth would not have occured if the
developers were intially subject to these restrictions...

~~~
DrJokepu
Craig's List comes to mind. They're doing fine.

------
andrewhillman
Twitter seems to be taking themselves too seriously. Guidelines for displaying
a tweet? Come on.

~~~
poblano
How are they expecting to enforce that? Are they really going to download and
test every third-party app?

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Require screenshot submissions, hire a bunch of temps, and they're all set.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
... or use their recently open-sourced mechanical turk library.

------
state
It certainly is time for an alternative, isn't it.

~~~
calvin
Hence Dalton Caldwell's "Audacious Proposal" and the birth of App.net.

<https://join.app.net/>

~~~
streptomycin
So we have a walled garden network fucking over its users, and you think the
solution is to replace it with another walled garden because its rulers are
supposedly more benevolent? That's not very ambitious. Think bigger.
StatusNet/Identica is free, open source, and (most importantly) federated.

~~~
54mf
A walled garden lets anyone in, but not out. You're thinking of something more
along the lines of a gated community.

~~~
streptomycin
No, I'm thinking of a walled garden.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=walled+garden+twitter>

~~~
54mf
Ah, appears we're both correct:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_garden_(technology)>

"... refers to a carrier or service provider's control over applications,
content, and media on platforms..."

"More generally ... refers to a closed or exclusive set of information
services provided for users"

~~~
encoderer
No, i actually think just he's correct. It's OK to be wrong though, so no big
deal.

Though I do disagree with his sentiment. I think App.Net is a perfectly good
alternative to Twitter and every attempt at open, federated services since the
original one (eg www) have failed to catch-on.

~~~
protomyth
www was not the original federated service. E-mail is still around and quite
successful.

~~~
unimpressive
Usenet is dead now, but worked for quite some time.

------
doublec
How will they handle console twitter apps (ttyter and bitlbee for example)
where formatting can't happen to match their requirements?

~~~
prodigal_erik
The authors of these requirements don't seem to know or care that the World-
Wide Web was never intended to mandate one visual-only rendering of your
content, and in fact doesn't even do that very effectively. Most of them are
pretty reasonable semantics (e.g., @user links to their profile) but as soon
as you mention "lines" or "icons" or "top right" you're Doing It Wrong, and no
affordances using other services is just blatantly anti-competitive.

~~~
chmars
… not to mention the issue of accessibility. Is Twitter going to block access
for visually impaired users by enforcing the new rules?

Tweetie (now Twitter app) at least is a horrible app from an accessibility
point of view and could only improve …

