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Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

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Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#101

Post by gfodor »

MBCook wrote: post #19
jdoss wrote: post #6

The question I have with this move is why didn't Twitter just force advertising as part of their API for third party clients? Just change the TOS for using the API so if they didn't show advertising they would be cut off. What am I missing?

“Starting Feb 1st using a third part client will require Twitter Blue.” That’s all it would have taken. Probably would have made a huge increase in subscribers too. This is 100% a control move. He wants full control over how everyone experiences Twitter (not sure why). So this was pulled. Of course you can NEVER go back from this move.

I think that is right. A public API radically slows down product iteration since each feature needs to be considered in terms of its blast radius to third party clients. It probably burned the bridge for good this time, but killing the API to speed up product velocity isn’t an insane move if you value that more than the existing 3rd party ecosystem.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#102

Post by mmastrac »

jjcm wrote: post #84

A part of me is curious what would happen if all of these 3rd party clients banded together to create their own separate backend - surely it wouldn't be that hard to get a clone of Twitter going. There's likely a strong correlation with people who use 3rd party clients and people who are power users, so you'd have a strong social network from the start.

I mean, some of them are working on Mastodon clients so it's already happening.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#103

Post by e-clinton »

barnabee wrote: post #47

I don't think they realise the damage this change has done. I have been on board with or ambivalent about most of the changes. I don't care if there's less moderation, I think Twitter probably did have too many employees, and I like the idea of a paid account with fewer (preferably no) ads. I'd even have happily paid Twitter to continue using Tweetbot. But this has destroyed the trust and the user experience of many…

Blocking journalists was the last straw for me.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#104

Post by _justinfunk »

> On January 12th, 2023, without warning, Elon Musk ordered his employees at Twitter to suspend access to 3rd party clients which instantly locked out hundreds of thousands of users from accessing Twitter from their favorite clients.

Is the claim that 'Elon ordered his employees" in evidence? I haven't seen Elon say he made the decision or try to explain it. I'm not defending Elon, just can't find the source.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#105

Post by seydor »

haidev wrote: post #21

Won't this hurt Elon in the long run? I was never able to stand the official Twitter app it's filled with ads and irrelevant clutter. I think since moving to Android Tweetbot is one of the few apps I miss from having on my phone. I was still enjoying the Mac version. I guess I will stick to Nitter [0] from now on. [0] - https://nitter.net/

By "app" do you mean the twitter website (because that's all i ve used). Why would one need an App to read a list that s basically full of browser links?

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#106

Post by gfodor »

haidev wrote: post #21

Won't this hurt Elon in the long run? I was never able to stand the official Twitter app it's filled with ads and irrelevant clutter. I think since moving to Android Tweetbot is one of the few apps I miss from having on my phone. I was still enjoying the Mac version. I guess I will stick to Nitter [0] from now on. [0] - https://nitter.net/

It depends. Probably imo, but this speeds up product development significantly and frees up a ton of resources in exchange for alienating a lot of users and the network effects of an API. Who knows if this kind of analysis was considered, but it’s not obviously a bad move until we see if Twitter starts doing faster product revs that pan out into growth.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#108

Post by sonofhans »

tzs wrote: post #80
bink wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. But announcing it ahead of time and providing time for a wind down also would've required a comms team.

How would that require a comms team? PS: let me clarify a bit. I'm not saying that Twitter should not have or does not need a comms team or that getting rid of them was not a stupid thing for Musk to do. What I'm trying to say is that this latest stupid thing (not giving any warning about changing their app API rules so that app developers and users could have some time adjust) doesn't really have anything to do with…

One of the many values of a good communications team is that they communicate in both directions. They’re not just mouthpieces for the company, they know the customers and users and market as well. A good comms team will tell the company when users are confused about something; a great comms team will tell the company _before_ users get confused at all.

By shutting down the comms team, Musk isn’t just saying that he doesn’t want to play by corporate communications rules, he’s saying that he doesn’t want to _listen_ to anyone, either.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#109

Post by rtkwe »

barnabee wrote: post #47

I don't think they realise the damage this change has done. I have been on board with or ambivalent about most of the changes. I don't care if there's less moderation, I think Twitter probably did have too many employees, and I like the idea of a paid account with fewer (preferably no) ads. I'd even have happily paid Twitter to continue using Tweetbot. But this has destroyed the trust and the user experience of many…

It wasn't just pay for fewer ads though it was supposedly going to be pay for algorithmic upranking, extra say with reports and in polls, and many other things.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#110

Post by pvarangot »

seydor wrote: post #100
wstuartcl wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also do not think Musk understands just who the primary userbase on many of these 3rd party apps were -- many of those pesky advertisers/brands that he seems to be both courting and at war with exclusively use api apps for tracking posting/responding and integrations.

Interesting, do instgram and facebook etc allow third party clients?

No, but unlike Twitter their advertiser tools are at least halfway decent.
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