Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#281

Post by MattDemers » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:17 PM UTC

eddieroger wrote: post #122

tptacek wrote: post #87

If you're not paying attention to Mastodon now, a think to know about Tapbots and Ivory, their new ActivityPub client, is that their TestFlight betas, which they release in batches of a thousand or so at a time, last for just a couple minutes before they're all snapped up; there seems to be pretty huge demand for it. With a decent client (I've bounced around a couple of them so far), even in a beta state, the experie…

There are also lots of other interesting clients not from Tapbots. If losing Tweetbot was enough to make you look at Mastodon, keep that open mind and look at all the interesting clients out there.

Metatext on IOS is good.

https://elk.zone/

https://pinafore.social/

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#282

Post by guywithahat » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:18 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #87

If you're not paying attention to Mastodon now, a think to know about Tapbots and Ivory, their new ActivityPub client, is that their TestFlight betas, which they release in batches of a thousand or so at a time, last for just a couple minutes before they're all snapped up; there seems to be pretty huge demand for it. With a decent client (I've bounced around a couple of them so far), even in a beta state, the experie…

I've been on the fediverse for years and while I enjoy it, I think it's naive to think it'll replace Twitter. Fundamentally it lacks good discovery, features take too long to implement (or simply can't be implemented), and verification is impossible without setting up your own server which seems like too much overhead imo. Further it just doesn't scale, although Andrew Torba was never known for his coding ability there's a reason he left the fediverse and I think the issues are fundamental to a federated site.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#283

Post by CamelCaseName » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:19 PM UTC

The official statement is complete bullshit.

On Jan 17th Twitter said: "Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working."

Then on Jan 19th, they updated their ToS: https://i.imgur.com/YZn7PJY.jpg

It's not enough that you need to immediately be on the right side of any ToS changes -- now you get punished for edits that haven't yet been made!

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#284

Post by tobylane » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:20 PM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #253

Pxtl wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the big challenge with Mastodon is it's basically Twitter as it was like 15 years ago before they added a lot of features that define the modern Twitter experience, like trending/searching on keywords instead of just hashtags (something the leadership has said they do not want to support ever - imho a flag on the toot declaring it scrapeable would be better), an algorithmic feed that considers your follows foll…

>something the leadership has said they do not want to support ever Since Mastodon is decentralized what the leadership wants doesn't always matter. There are several instances which have patched their code to add full search in. This is one of the big advantages I see to the fediverse as a whole- different instances can experiment around with changes and even entirely different software stacks, and if someone doesn'…

I suspect I’ll move to a server more capable in these ways, as I want to know what’s most discussed with or without tags.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#285

Post by prvc » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

>we are proud to introduce Ivory for Mastodon

On the bright side for them, now that they are starting a new "app", they can double dip on those purchase fees.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#286

Post by chipotle_coyote » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

Sunspark wrote: post #252

themagician wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "almost everyone"? Four people? Using it on what server? Mastadon is more like Discord than Twitter. There is no core server. There is no core experience. It's just an instanced message board.

I don't know why Mastodon is hyped up so much. I do not have an account on it as I have some concerns. My understanding at the current time is that a server can be run by a single random individual, they can read your DMs as they are not encrypted, and they can kick you off the server if you write anything the server operator does not agree with. At least with Twitter, it was a corporation with rules and procedures.

> At least with Twitter, it was a corporation with rules and procedures.

I would submit that was is a load-bearing word in that sentence. Twitter as it exists now effectively is run by a single random individual who can read your DMs and kick you off the server if you write anything he does not agree with. Bans have gotten weirder, stupider, and more mercurial since Musk's takeover (the Tweetbot/Twitterrific bans arguably being a particular case of it), and the "Twitter Files" are a result of him giving activist-journalists access to unencrypted DMs without permission. (I'm not interested in debating whether the subjects covered in the Files prove some kind of malfeasance on Twitter's part; that's orthogonal to the point I'm making here.) Twitter may have had rules and procedures a few months ago. Now it has Elon Musk making decisions by polls he pinky-swears to abide by the results of.

In practice, major, established Mastodon instances with tens of thousands of users may well be less likely to treat their users (and developers) as badly as current Twitter is.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#287

Post by robryan » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

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?

The other weird thing is why only some 3rd party clients, was it the big ones that got cut? Harpy which I use seems to be working fine.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#288

Post by Swizec » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

yamtaddle wrote: post #171

Swizec wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this has destroyed the trust and the user experience of many of the power users who are most engaged with Twitter As the "author" of some 80,000+ tweets (can't find number anymore), their mobile app was unusable. I've been on TweetBot for close to 10 years I think. TweetBot2 was my first mobile twitter client iirc. No more mobile twitter for me. Shame. But probably better this way. It really hasn't felt like a…

Between this and the blue-check thing it's like he doesn't get that the primary draw of the site is high-volume posters and/or famous people who(se PR teams) post. Like, ease of finding and reading (plus interacting with—responding, rewteeting, et c) posts by famous (or at least Internet-famous) power users is the main reason Twitter's a bigger draw than, say, Mastodon. If people just wanted to read their non-famous…

> just wanted to read their non-famous pals' posts

I suspect Elon lives in a bubble where all of his friends are famous or highly desirable in some way. He doesn't understand that most people's friends _aren't_ a brand.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#289

Post by evan_ » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

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?

(speculation) they want to push everyone to use the official app so they can get as much user info as possible to sell. They want persistent location and all the other juicy stuff you can't get if a third party is standing in the way.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#290

Post by croes » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

nomel wrote: post #168

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/

> filled with ads and irrelevant clutter. I always assumed the third party clients just provided a better interface. I didn't realize they circumvented the income stream. If the third party clients were removing the means of monetization, for a company who struggles to profit, then it seems obvious that requiring paid access on its way, regardless of the owner. Twitter can't go forever at a loss. The "surprise" is su…

Without the debt Musk put on Twitter they could at least go longer