
Why Are People So Upset With Twitter? Let's Grab a Bite - iProject
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/twitter-developers-and-the-food-trucks/
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freejack
Ugh. I don't know about the rest of you - that post felt patronizing. This
stuff is complicated enough without layering on massive metaphors that shudder
under the weight of the context they are trying to convey. It would be awesome
if someone took a crack at a similar explanation without all the pandering.

~~~
JonnieCache
It almost felt like a meta-analogy about the inherent limitations of analogy.

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scottmagdalein
"The people who had come to Twitter in the early days also felt duped, as if
they had been told their bite-size snacks were being used to feed everyone on
the planet, not to make money...The early Twitter customers and chefs should
have realized that eventually Twitter would have to make money. That
possibility included advertising."

That's not true. Early adopters (us) knew they needed to make money, but we
hoped it wouldn't be at the expense of the people who invested in their
success (us).

"The food trucks that had set up shop on the corner, were in some sense, too
idealistic, believing they could always get the food coming out of Twitter
free."

Not true. It's still free, but no one else can access it. The problem isn't
with the cost, but the availability.

"But most of all Twitter, which changed its decisions and strategy midstream,
confused almost everyone, often hurting those who helped make Twitter
successful and popular."

The only true statement in the entire article.

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greghinch
I don't get why developers are so mad at Twitter. Why is making a Twitter
client the only project you can do? If you really can make a piece of software
that provides a better experience for Twitter, certainly you have the ability
to make something else. And if you're anything like me and every dev I know,
you have half a dozen or more project ideas rattling around in your head. Make
one of those and let Twitter go.

~~~
shinratdr
Ask Tapbots what makes them more money: The four projects they launched before
TweetBot, the aforementioned "project ideas rattling around in your head" or
TweetBot. I have little doubt as to the answer you'll get.

Developers are mad at Twitter because Twitter gave them a platform to develop
on, one that their users enjoyed and made them lots of money, and then yanked
it away. Simply telling people to "let twitter go" is ridiculous. Just because
you have another idea doesn't mean it will be anywhere close to as lucrative
and sustainable as a Twitter client.

Just like the article says, nobody owes anyone in this situation. Everyone was
basically in the wrong. However, devs are still going to be mad at twitter.
You don't have to feel entitled to something to be annoyed when it's taken
away.

~~~
greghinch
Fine so Tapbots made a bunch of money on a Twitter client. So people get mad
because they can't "me too"? Make something else. Maybe it'll tank. Maybe
it'll go nuts and make you a millionaire. Probably it'll be somewhere in
between. But at least you're being creative and trying to move forward instead
of lamenting change

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JoelSutherland
"The new boss, Dick Costolo, realized that if the company wanted to make
money, it would need to stop allowing all the food trucks and delivery
services from taking everything made at Twitter."

This was not the only option.

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dcotter
Yeah, the whole restaurant metaphor was distracting. Twitter has always seemed
to me more like an infrastructure project: we build the highways, you supply
the vehicles and the destinations. The thing I've never understood is how that
model is supposed to be sustainable -- in a real infrastructure project,
everyone chips in, through taxes. With Twitter, no one chips in and everyone
complains about the ads. How is that supposed to work?

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misnome
Is it me, or does this ridiculous metaphor just make it much, much harder to
understand? I'm pretty aware of what's going on with the whole Twitter thing
at the moment, and I found this really impenetrable.

~~~
pronoiac
I'm with you. I've been annoyed with reasoning by analogy and metaphor for a
while now, because it's so often bogus.

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nikcub
Good tech writing is about being able to explain complex technology issues
clearly to a broad audience without reverting to cheap, simple and inaccurate
metaphors.

To somebody who isn't familiar with the recent issues concerning Twitter this
post doesn't teach you anything.

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ek
I'm somewhat glad to see a mainstream news piece covering HN material like
this getting slammed by the community - I know people who still subscribe to
real newspapers (of the local variety) and am amazed at how terrible and slow
their coverage of most things is. This is especially apparent in instances
like this one, where we've been having a much more coherent discussion about
this for days now.

edit: Just to add another anecdote about the failings of mainstream news, last
July there was an article in the business section of the paper about that blog
post about the fake Apple stores in China, which appeared at least a week
after the link appeared on HN and with unintelligent, spun commentary
attached.

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dasil003
Where this analogy goes totally off the rails (no pun intended) is the
suggestion the developer community was called in to help Twitter scale.

> _So Twitter came up with a plan: it told people that they could take the
> food being made in Twitter’s kitchen and give it away by creating new places
> for people to eat._

Strained analogies aside, that is just completely and utterly backwards. The
API was a critical part of Twitter early from day one, and the 3rd-party
client ecosystem and extremely high utility of Twitter as microblogging
plumbing was arguably what gave Twitter the momentum to cross the chasm.

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Karunamon
_"The new boss, Dick Costolo, realized that if the company wanted to make
money, it would need to stop allowing all the food trucks and delivery
services from taking everything made at Twitter."_

That's a false dichotomy if there ever was one.

------
xo
"So who was at fault in this tale? Really, everyone."

The best.

