

Twitter and Me - jazzychad
http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/03/14/twitter-and-me.html

======
technomancy
> "There should be a federated, distributed, open-source protocol that will
> replace Twitter and Facebook and let our data be free!"

> no average user wants that. Really, they don't. If you haven't seen
> Diaspora's Easy 25 Step Quick Start Guide, you should take a look. Is your
> mom going to do all that?

I really wish people would stop repeating this straw-man. XMPP is a federated,
distributed system, and my mom can use it fine without setting up her own
servers. Is it that hard to understand how the same thing would apply to
status updates?

~~~
kolektiv
I don't know about this. I presume you mean she's using something like Google
Talk, built on XMPP? While that's true, I'm not sure it has the same
requirements. Twitter works because there's no fragmentation - everyone you
care about is in one place. A system of loosely federated systems would lose a
lot of the "authoritative source" value it seems. Of course, I could be wrong
here, that's only an initial reaction, so feel free to correct me!

(I presume on Google Talk it's only commonly possible to speak to other people
on Google Talk? I presume you could change the server config or set up your
own XMPP servers, etc, but does anyone?)

~~~
shazow
No, you can chat with people across servers, thus the federation. Somebody
using jabber.org can talk to somebody using gmail.com.

There are even bridge transports to let jabber users talk to ICQ users and
Facebook users. It's quite extensible. More here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber>

~~~
kolektiv
Hmmm, thanks for the information on that, it makes sense :) It still seems
like some of the authoritative aspects of Twitter which provide value would be
lost, but I am grateful for the clarification on that.

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shazow
Great post, thank you Chad.

I'm feeling the same disdain about committing to Twitter. I launched
<http://socialgrapple.com/> a few weeks ago--a social graph analytics product
built on the Twitter API, and I'm pulling a bit of revenue already (a dozen
paying customers). Now I have two choices: I have some wicked ideas of how to
expand further on the Twitter API and provide even more value to customers who
have expressed clear demand, or do I try and diversify onto other platforms to
avoid getting bulldozed.

I know I can build a better and more valuable service with less effort by
continuing to build on the Twitter platform. My developer instinct says "do
it" but my business instinct says "forget the opportunity and diversify
somehow." Diversifying is tricky because the graph mechanics on Facebook
aren't the same, it seems the value of this intelligence is lower. Only other
relevant market I can think of is something to do with SEO/web search terms vs
domains.

I also know Twitter is building an internal analytics product, based various
leaked screenshots, to complement their business model (tracking tweet
impressions) but luckily it seems there's no overlap with what I'm building...
yet.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but it seems relevant and I would love some
feedback.

\--

On a side note, I wrote a post in another thread that questions the details
about the recent shift in Twitter's spirit towards developers:

What if before @replies, #hashtags, RT's (all invented by third parties),
@Twitter said "don't make more clients"?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2321837>

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Not that you should take my advice, but I'd listen to your customers. It
sounds like you have a good product and they just want more features. Being an
enterprise app, you're safe from Twitter's growth for the foreseeable future;
they still have a lot of consumer holes to fill.

Going the multi-platform route is overrated in my opinion. You'll just become
the lowest common denominator between the two. Either become your own
platform, or really nail what you're doing on one.

------
PStamatiou
Big applause for my cofounder Chad launching his blog. I knew he was up to
something.. he was asking me Jekyll questions in Campfire this weekend. Then I
woke up at 7 this morning and he was still in Campfire saying he wrote a big
post.

His blog is actually hosted by S3 but I'm sure he'll write a post on Jekyll
stuff later.

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jazzychad
If you make it all the way through, congrats! I apologize for the length of
the post, but it was just dying to get out of me.

~~~
kolektiv
I thought it was interesting. Made it through to the end and pretty much agree
with the points you're making. More people should consider the long term
effects of building on platforms where they have no control of direction.
Everyone knows the sharecropper story, not enough people consider it.

Also, many congratulations on having a wife who sounds like a saint.

------
MatthewPhillips
Thanks for writing this Chad, well worth taking 15 minutes to read. As you
said, the writing has been on the wall for the past year at least.. and I have
to ask, why did you continue to bother?

To me "don't fill holes" says it all. Use Twitter data, but don't be a
"Twitter company". If a one sentence description of your company includes the
word Twitter, you're in the wrong business. There are many uses of the API
that Twitter isn't going to touch. Is Twitter going to build a Zite like app
(recently launched news/reader iPad app)? No. Is Twitter going to compete with
StockTwits? Not a chance.

Ideas should center around a general need or want. Then see how Twitter,
Instagram, other APIs can be used to leverage those ideas.

------
nickbp
_A couple of weeks later I received an email saying, "Thanks, but no thanks."_

Weeks? That's pretty obnoxious.

The lack of feedback is pretty standard. Companies are scared stiff that
they'll get sued for something they say, so they try to say as little as
possible.

~~~
kvdr
I interviewed with a company in San Jose for a job on Nov 16th last year. And
guess when I got a answer back from them? Dec 23rd. Yep, that's right. And not
like it was some big corporation or a shady company, its a legit publicly
traded $2B up and coming firm. As an active job seeker, it has been a very
frustrating past 4 months for me. People don't respond after phone interviews
or after interviews. And yet if I make a single mistake I always keep thinking
about if that costed me that opportunity. Sorry for the unrelated rant.

------
andrewmwatson
Very good writeup, Chad. I too have, apparently, flunked Silicon Valley up to
this point. It's really great that you've been relentlessly pursuing it,
though.

I had the same reaction about Chirp. I started to get the feeling from Twitter
around the time of Chirp.

I was always wary of building apps that are completely dependent on someone
else's platform to live and, indeed, my own startup was dealt a serious
setback by the release of OpenVBX. So my fears were valid, after all.

My own Twitter usage has changed quite a bit lately, as well. I've given up on
keeping up with what's going on. I check it less and less each day it seems. I
had an idea this weekend about using small GroupMe groups to share ideas
instead of Twitter because I could segment people better that way...

Anyway, It will be interesting to see what Twitter looks like in a few
years...

------
KE4ZNR
Chad-- Marshall @KE4ZNR here. We actually met up for a few mins at the Durham
Tweetup at Bronto. Just wanted to say as a satisfied user of both Notifo and
Pushly that any company out west would be lucky to have your skills in their
arsenal. I am glad you and Kim are doing well and you still have the support
of the Triangle Twitter Community in whatever projects you tackle in the
future. Look forward to seeing what the future holds for you. All the best
from Raleigh. Marshall @KE4ZNR

~~~
jazzychad
Thanks, Marshall!

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tptacek
Do you miss the hardcore network stuff? I would.

This was a great post. Thanks for writing it.

~~~
jazzychad
Yes, I do sometimes. Flipping bits is just so much fun.

Thanks for reading!

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johnnyn
Great post Chad. I work for an SF startup and have been trying to sell my
house in Texas for 6 months. It's ridiculously frustrating and stressful. Best
of luck on your house selling!

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tzm
Thanks Chad for sharing your story. I remember you vividly from a dinner in
Raleigh with Matt Mullenweg, Wayne Sutton, etc. You're a rock star. Code
strong.

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troyk
Chad you've got half the screen play for the sequel to the Social Network, the
best parts are ahead and I'll +1 you hitting big any day!

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revorad
Chad, thanks for writing this post. It's inspiring and embarassing at the same
time to see how many things you built in your spare time.

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jayair
Thanks for sharing your story Chad. It honestly is quite inspiring.

