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Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

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Re: Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

#61

Post by sgt101 »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #23
zaksoup wrote: post #4

I deleted my twitter account a while ago but this is a new level of forgetting history. If I remember correctly Twitterrific/Iconfactory were the first folks to actually use the verb 'tweet', and absolutely provided the first iteration of the interface to twitter that we all expect today. It took acquiring Tweetie, which literally invented 'pull to refresh', before they had their own native app 3 years after Twitterr…

You're absolutely correct re: the history. Twitterrific not only came up with the word "tweet," they were the first one with a blue bird logo! Twitter basically encouraged a third-party ecosystem to blossom, then decided that rather than finding ways to monetize that ecosystem, they should start slowly strangling it to death. I can't imagine that this is happening because investors are insisting on it; yes, they want…

They faced the prospect of aggregation of the clients via takeovers, this would have allowed the owner of the majority of the clients to change out the platform. I had a conversation with a private equity guy in 2009 who wanted to do this, what stopped them was the idea that twitter would ratelimit and control the interface. So there was a pretty rational fear driving Twitter to do this.

Re: Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

#62

Post by olliej »

pvg wrote: post #57
olliej wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A follow on from this question is why you’d ever build a company based entirely on analyzing data from another company. Best and worst case scenarios: * you do something amazing, and start making money. So your source company turns off your access to the data and makes there own version * you never make enough money for them to care/notice you. They remove the source of data for non-competition related reasons/accide…

In what way is that a best case scenario? It's just a scenario.

HN munged the two options

Re: Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

#63

Post by pvg »

olliej wrote: post #62
pvg wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is that a best case scenario? It's just a scenario.

HN munged the two options

'you make money and then the company takes away your income' is not a 'best case scenario'. You can trivially come up with real scenarios that are much better than that.

Re: Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

#64

Post by Groxx »

kalleboo wrote: post #56
vcpnt51 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What don't you like about the official apps? The iPhone one is good and performant.

I switched away from the official app to get away from the "algos" that keep surfacing content that's either old or I'm not following. No I didn't miss those tweets, and I don't care what someone else liked. Stop turning Twitter into Facebook! I'm sure it increases your engagement metrics, but at some point I'll feel overengaged, realize how much time I'm wasting and quit the app completely.

Same here. Algos surfacing stuff I don't care about at all (and can't turn off!), and I've run across enough instances of the official app/page not showing me some tweets (checked exhaustively for a couple days of tweets around the ones it missed, couldn't find) that I've utterly dropped the official clients.

Talon supports the use-case I care about: reading all the tweets from people I follow because I care about them. Twitter and Facebook both make this nearly impossible, so I don't use them directly.

Re: Favstar will shut down as a result of Twitter’s API changes for data streams

#65

Post by olliej »

pvg wrote: post #63
olliej wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN munged the two options

'you make money and then the company takes away your income' is not a 'best case scenario'. You can trivially come up with real scenarios that are much better than that.

Sorry an option is that your source company seeing you making money, and then decides to let you continue to do that rather than making that money themselves.
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