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Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#11
post #4

"inspired" is probably not the right word. i think directly stolen from twitpay is probably better

Idk, the feature is definitely a little too obvious to call theft. Also, when you see someone launch 15 days after someone else, you can't assume copying. Features often take longer than that to develop, especially on sites that involve money transfers.

Not saying it's impossible, just saying it's far from a slam dunk.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#12
post #3

I'm sure this wasn't 'inspired' by twitpay.me at all, released and announced here 15 days ago ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=369568 )

Which in turn, I'm sure wasn't inspired by this post here (June): http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/how-twitter-will-be-worth... Or maybe it came from one of the 1.2 million pages that has the phrase "twitter and payment" somewhere in it but no mention of twitpay: http://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+payment+-twitpay Or inspired by TextPayMe, which did the exact same thing with phone numbers instead of twitter use…

Actually, Nate's article (first link) was a direct inspiration for Twitpay.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#13
post #3

I'm sure this wasn't 'inspired' by twitpay.me at all, released and announced here 15 days ago ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=369568 )

I would imagine a feature like this would take more than 15 days to go from concept to launch, though perhaps not. They are a startup.

Actually it took just a few days of work and we've considered it for months

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#14
post #3

I'm sure this wasn't 'inspired' by twitpay.me at all, released and announced here 15 days ago ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=369568 )

I'm sure it wasn't. Knowing the tipjoy people, I'm sure they've been planning this feature for longer than 15 days. It's pretty obvious in their space.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#16
post #4

"inspired" is probably not the right word. i think directly stolen from twitpay is probably better

Idk, the feature is definitely a little too obvious to call theft. Also, when you see someone launch 15 days after someone else, you can't assume copying. Features often take longer than that to develop, especially on sites that involve money transfers. Not saying it's impossible, just saying it's far from a slam dunk.

Errr.. Twitpay was developed over a WEEKEND at Atlanta Startup Weekend. I'd say it's pretty easy to copy this idea in 15 days. Heck, I'd have expected more features. Maybe the extra days were used to do more key words.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine a feature like this would take more than 15 days to go from concept to launch, though perhaps not. They are a startup.

Actually it took just a few days of work and we've considered it for months

Guess that just goes to show you what competition will do in a space. If it took a few days of work, why didn't you do it before since you considered it "for months"? Oh wait, you waited until someone else did it and then decided to try it out. Well, guess the competition will help create some innovation in the space. Good for everyone in the end since I'm hoping the Twitpay team out executes.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it took just a few days of work and we've considered it for months

Guess that just goes to show you what competition will do in a space. If it took a few days of work, why didn't you do it before since you considered it "for months"? Oh wait, you waited until someone else did it and then decided to try it out. Well, guess the competition will help create some innovation in the space. Good for everyone in the end since I'm hoping the Twitpay team out executes.

Someone else already did it. You shouldn't be so defensive http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/02/tipit-lets-you-transfer...

Tipjoy is about more than payments in twitter. The main reason I'm excited about this is what it allows for services that use twitter, like http://www.stocktwits.com/

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#19

Too many "pay words"! I don't know if that's the case but you should really check they aren't part of a casual tweet. Eg. "I'm not going to pay @joe $1000 for an old ipod!" or "Everyone! Give @bob $10 to buy beer".

We thought of this. They need to be in the first 3 tokens.

So this would indeed count, "Give @bob $10 to buy beer" but that is clearly a closer to a command.

More importantly, this is an opt-in option, so it would be hard to do it without knowing.

Re: Tipjoy (YC W08) now allows payments via Twitter

#20

Nice feature. I would use this if I frequented Twitter. I have sick friends who would throw money around like that for fun though.

You tweet sometimes. They're usually pretty funny, so you should do it more. I'm pretty sure twitter will be closer to an ecosystem of tips, considering everyone is a "blogger" - though some with greater followings.
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