
Nitter: Alternative Twitter Front-End - pcr910303
https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
======
regecks
Where does the authorization token come from? I notice it appears in quite a
few projects on e.g. GitHub.

[https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/blob/8836cf51e8a6b385e1ac0a...](https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/blob/8836cf51e8a6b385e1ac0ace651d330b74a1b2d1/src/api/consts.nim#L5)

The project is cool. The de-crapified interface is nice (no weird JavaScript
loading, no nags to login, t.co). But that also makes me think that the hosted
version (nitter.net) is pretty doomed, since it directly undermines Twitter
commercially.

~~~
bdibs
IIRC it was leaked from some older version of the app, and they haven’t/won’t
revoke it.

~~~
2bitencryption
now THIS is something I'd love to see a HN or blog post about...

edit: A google search brings me to this.
[https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/my-bot-has-stopped-
working...](https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/my-bot-has-stopped-working-how-
to-handle-new-x-twitter-auth-type-authorization.948228/#post-10144819)

Seems it is from twimg, which I believe is the image host used for tweets with
images attached? I wonder why they can't revoke this.

And interestingly, the js file linked in that forum post is still alive...
[https://abs.twimg.com/k/en/init.en.37d4e85afd8ede9741dd.js](https://abs.twimg.com/k/en/init.en.37d4e85afd8ede9741dd.js)

~~~
deith
[https://gist.github.com/shobotch/5160017](https://gist.github.com/shobotch/5160017)

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hjek
There's this lovely browser extension, Invidition[0], which does Twitter to
Nitter redirecting (as well as Youtube to Invidious).

[0]:
[https://codeberg.org/Booteille/Invidition](https://codeberg.org/Booteille/Invidition)

~~~
0xdeadb00f
Looks great...

I've been using a different extension "Redirector", and setting my own rules.
But this should cover most of them!

~~~
markosaric
Another one I add to Redirector is reddit.com to old.reddit.com :)

~~~
boring_twenties
If you're logged into reddit you can just set old reddit in your account's
preferences.

If you're not logged in you're only seeing the cesspool of default reddits...
I would recommend avoiding that

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danShumway
If anyone from Nitter is currently around, pure curiosity question -- what are
the hosting costs/usage numbers for the current public instance?

Whenever I see projects like this that are just public, and designed to be
available across large regions, I'm always curious what the logistics behind
them are. Big companies talk about their infrastructure, and tiny blogs talk
about their infrastructure. I don't hear a lot from people in the middle.

I mean, I see the installation instructions, but is this just running on a
single VPS? Are you setting up multiple servers and trying to load-balance
between them or anything?

~~~
zedeus
It doesn't take much to run Nitter really, the nitter.net instance is
currently sitting at 310 MB of memory and the CPU requirements aren't too bad.
It's running off my dedicated home server with fairly low specs (i3-8100)
tunnelled through a cheap VPS to bypass firewall restrictions. It hasn't
crashed or (to my knowledge) experienced severe slowdowns despite the huge
traffic increase today. Invidious's story is a bit different as the main
instance load balances between 10 VPS instances.

Regarding usage stats I don't have any accurate numbers, but the database that
stores preferences has 30k rows.

------
rishav_sharan
nice to see a nim lang app in production. its a great language and this
project looks nifty.

~~~
sergiotapia
Definitely on my list for the holidays. Look at this project's Dockerfile,
it's a build, then run tiny binary. Done.

Very compelling stuff.

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mirimir
Cool.

But to tweet, you need a Twitter account. And as I recall, Twitter pretty much
demands verification through a mobile account. Do virtual mobile accounts
typically work for it?

~~~
adventured
I've used Twilio numbers for this purpose in the recent past. Those work 100%
of the time so far (assuming the number hasn't already been used).

Many services seem to run checking on whether a number is really a mobile
number or not. VK (the Russian social network) for one example is a zealot
about that and won't let any Twilio numbers through. And Instagram is a lot
tighter (better at fake account creation detection) on authentication than
Twitter but you can still sign up for Instagram with just an email account in
most cases.

~~~
fulafel
Are twilio numbers pseudonymous or can they be reverse-looked-up? or does
twilio give or sell this information out?

~~~
adventured
To get the individual user information for a Twilio number, given the short
duration they might be attached to a given account, I highly suspect you have
to go through Twilio for that info. That is, Twilio is likely to be the sole
source for information on which account is attached to what number at a point
in time. Obviously any consequential government authority in the US can then
get that from Twilio, assuming the required judicial merchandise is presented.

I'd be curious though to know if eg Twitter security sends a request over to
Twilio (perhaps in a case of an account abuse investigation), if they'd cough
up information very willingly. That I don't know. It's a certainty the
government can get at it, however. The best bet is to do nothing illegal using
a Twilio number, and to assume if a big external service provider (Twitter,
Facebook, et al.) needs to get details for some legal reason, they will.

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eitland
That was a whole lot faster than the original!

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rolltiide
Are the Republican political account names randomly generated?

When it shows who retweeted something on a political thread they had comical
derogatory names. Is that something you actually spent time on or is that user
generated content

~~~
zedeus
No content gets edited by Nitter except links being expanded and
twitter/youtube links getting replaced (unless the user disables that)

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egfx
interesting that it’s automatically translating [http://2fb.me](http://2fb.me)
links to use Nitter instead of twitter.com

There must be some specific logic to translate twitter links over

[https://nitter.net/search?f=tweets&q=2fb.me&since=&until=&ne...](https://nitter.net/search?f=tweets&q=2fb.me&since=&until=&near=)

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scottmf
For me this is much slower than the native-app-like speed of the actual mobile
twitter website.

How much longer is this anti-JS ideology going to dominate HN?

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pepijndevos
Can I actually see tweets from the people I follow, or only really look at
specific profiles?

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tom_mellior
Does anyone know what this might mean?

> Unofficial API (no rate limits or developer account required)

It sounds brittle.

~~~
scrollaway
Given Twitter's history of support towards their official API, the unofficial
one is likely _less_ brittle.

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tambourine_man
Is there a regular version or just this trendy dark mode, that I find hideous?

~~~
zedeus
Yes there are various themes to pick from if you go to the settings menu,
click the cog icon on the top right

~~~
tambourine_man
Thanks.

Suggestion: put a screenshot of the regular theme in the read me as well.

