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Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

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Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#31

Post by asdadsdad »

anigbrowl wrote: post #30
asdadsdad wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's too related to cutting down bots. It's about making money from their dataset, which is valid. Why do people think they can hammer an API without paying?

They already have an enterprise tier for people who want to build commercial stuff on top of Twitter, and they already monetize their datasets and have done for years. How do you expect to sign up students/new developers if they have to pay before they figure out how to use the API?

Well they mentioned "basic tier API", so I guess let's wait for the pricing and capabilities, no? My main criticism is they're not being assholes just for charging for an API access to their data.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#33

Post by noirscape »

asdadsdad wrote: post #27
anigbrowl wrote: post #3

- announced at 10pm - basically a week to decide what to do with your dev project - No information to help you make that decision This seems like more management by manchild. I strongly suspect that Musk realized his promises of cutting down bots etc. were failing and that they either couldn't or wouldn't develop abuse detection, so he's decided to solve the problem by making it cost money, with the (perhaps desired)…

I don't think that's too related to cutting down bots. It's about making money from their dataset, which is valid. Why do people think they can hammer an API without paying?

In my case I literally just had a bot running to pull in my own following/followers list so I could diff them and then tweet out the result privately so I'd be aware of any changes to it.

It was useful to check to see if someone else decided to softblock me/deactivated their account (and in at least one case, has helped me to reach out to someone in need). That's not "making money from the dataset", it was a hobby project and I imagine the overwhelming majority of Twitter bots are that. (Most of the ones I used to follow generally just scraped various subreddits to tweet out/source fun art to look at).

I'm not gonna pay money to access my own data, Musk can sink in his own shit for that and I don't blame any of those other hobby bot devs for not wanting to do that either.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#34

Post by sockaddr »

andreareina wrote: post #11
anigbrowl wrote: post #8

@dang wondering why this rather major tech story doesn't make the front page, when stories with fewer points that were posted much earlier have. The lack of transparency is actively hindering HN's news functionality.

Probably a combination of: Users flagging the post Domain-based downweight (dang has mentioned it exists for Wikipedia for example, no idea if it’s automated or manual) Posts with bad comments:upvote ratio get downweighted (IIRC dang calls them overheated discursions?) And FWIW it’s on the front page now [EDIT] no it’s not. I was on the new page not front haha. Probably people sick of hearing about Twitter and flaggi…

I didn’t think about it until you mentioned it but really, why would the hacker type be interesting in all the happenings of $MEGACORP? Literally any small blurb about someone’s hobby would be more interesting. It would be nice to be able to personally filter by topic/keyword.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#35

Post by BulgarianIdiot »

asdadsdad wrote: post #31
anigbrowl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already have an enterprise tier for people who want to build commercial stuff on top of Twitter, and they already monetize their datasets and have done for years. How do you expect to sign up students/new developers if they have to pay before they figure out how to use the API?

Well they mentioned "basic tier API", so I guess let's wait for the pricing and capabilities, no? My main criticism is they're not being assholes just for charging for an API access to their data.

You can't "wait for pricing and capabilities" as they're cutting access literally one week from now.

No attempt at making this seem like reasonable behavior and communication with developers can succeed here.

And by the way if you expect reasonable cost, you're in for a surprise. Twitter is DESPERATE for cash.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#36

Post by dzhiurgis »

olliej wrote: post #21
krageon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's simple: Use the website. It will never stop working because people use it and you can automate and scrape it just fine. Kind of sucks that you have to go through the effort - but then there is no social media corporation that isn't toxic in some way to it's userbase.

IIRC the twitter website goes to great lengths to mangle itself to prevent ad blockers presumably. Of course this used to have the side effect of breaking significant swathes of basic browser UX, especially in areas of accessibility. I assume they’re better now than they once were, but given musk’s historical behavior I assume he won’t consider breaking something like accessibility to be bad or problematic.

> musk’s historical behavior I assume he won’t consider breaking something like accessibility to be bad or problematic.

I don't see why would he spend more to make website less accessible. Not fixing bugs - yes, just about everyone does so. But breaking it intentionally costs money.

Tesla's aren't THE most accessible (by cost) EV out there, but SpaceX def is.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#37

Post by dzhiurgis »

senttoschool wrote: post #2

This is why I will never build a company based around a free API from a for-profit company. I'd never be able to sleep well at night knowing that years of work and all the employees/families that depend on the business is dependent on someone who could wake up one day and decide on a whim to end access.

You can stop being drama queen and pass the cost onto your customers

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#38

Post by Symbiote »

FateOfNations wrote: post #12
anigbrowl wrote: post #8

@dang wondering why this rather major tech story doesn't make the front page, when stories with fewer points that were posted much earlier have. The lack of transparency is actively hindering HN's news functionality.

It's also just breaking, past 10pm on the west coast of the US, when we all should be in bed.

That's morning in Europe and afternoon in Oceania, so there's still plenty of people on the site.

Re: Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API

#39

Post by Felkomo »

anigbrowl wrote: post #3

- announced at 10pm - basically a week to decide what to do with your dev project - No information to help you make that decision This seems like more management by manchild. I strongly suspect that Musk realized his promises of cutting down bots etc. were failing and that they either couldn't or wouldn't develop abuse detection, so he's decided to solve the problem by making it cost money, with the (perhaps desired)…

But there is no need for Twitter to allow you to do that for free just because.

From a pure business perspective it's either Twitter dies or Elon pays the bills.

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