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What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

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Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#121

Post by frabcus »

taylorbuley wrote: post #110
jmilloy wrote: post #85

Twitter: Don't build core-feature Twitter clients, we probably won't approve them. Atta: I built a core-feature Twitter client! Twitter: Sorry, we're not approving your core-feature Twitter client. Who is surprised? How is this news? Were you expecting them to not apply their own rules? It seems like a clear-cut case, and concluding "don't build anything for Twitter" is just throwing a temper tantrum.

It's interesting to me that a prevailing view seems to suggest that developers have a right to plumb a given service for data. This worldview seems to come up most in relation to free services, so maybe it's a belief that freely consumable services via the Web or mobile give should mean a freedom to consume the same data via an API.

I think of it as being similar to the right to reverse engineer which you get for hardware in some jurisdictions.

I feel as a user as though I should be allowed to automate my use of Internet services. I should be able to use improved clients for any service as and when I like, to get improved user experience, and to integrate them with other services.

I can imagine a law that allows this. Entirely to encourage innovation and competition.

Remember - it's the early days of the web. It took about a century after the printing press before the consequent law changes (such as invention of copyright) settled down.

I expect it to take a century on the Internet as well. Everyone should plan for the future assuming our laws from previous centuries will be found by society to be unsuitable, and will change.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#123

Post by anu_gupta »

snowwrestler wrote: post #92
swombat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same used to be true of Twitter.

Yes but early-days Twitter did not have to compete with current-day Twitter when it was trying to grow.

It had to compete with general ignorance of its value. Many would argue that's a more difficult hurdle.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#124

Post by blibble »

nicholassmith wrote: post #114
Argorak wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not heavy-handed. Twitter has shown repeatedly that they have no problem with: a) changing the rules of the game and b) leaving you in the dark of what the actual rules _are_ Make business with people that care about your business. Twitter clearly doesn't.

Twitter was quite happy to sit and watch as people built fantastic services and tools on the service that without a doubt increased engagement, then sort of went "oh shit we need to make some money" and proceeded to piss on the bonfire 3rd party developers have created. It's even handed for Twitter and heavy handed for people that expect rationality from a company.

they're acting perfectly rationally: they see third party clients as a threat to their ability to monetise, so they're killing them

why anyone would expect a business to do anything else is beyond my understanding!

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#125

Post by shawn-butler »

nicholassmith wrote: post #114
Argorak wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not heavy-handed. Twitter has shown repeatedly that they have no problem with: a) changing the rules of the game and b) leaving you in the dark of what the actual rules _are_ Make business with people that care about your business. Twitter clearly doesn't.

Twitter was quite happy to sit and watch as people built fantastic services and tools on the service that without a doubt increased engagement, then sort of went "oh shit we need to make some money" and proceeded to piss on the bonfire 3rd party developers have created. It's even handed for Twitter and heavy handed for people that expect rationality from a company.

So would you say the same thing about people that abuse regulations adopted honestly in the spirit of helping the public and now having been captured by special interests abuse it to serve their own interest?

For example, most taxi cab regulations were passed in an era where the public had extremely unsafe and unclear transportation in an unfettered race to the bottom, (were being extorted by drivers, unsafe cars and unlicensed drivers, no insurance, etc etc). So in many municipalities regulations after much debate were passed to address these concerns that the market seemed unable to correct.

Now after enough time has passed, are the usages by taxi companies of those regulations to insure their market dominance in your view acting rationally or in an abusive manner?

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#126

Post by k-mcgrady »

mcantelon wrote: post #107
jmilloy wrote: post #85

Twitter: Don't build core-feature Twitter clients, we probably won't approve them. Atta: I built a core-feature Twitter client! Twitter: Sorry, we're not approving your core-feature Twitter client. Who is surprised? How is this news? Were you expecting them to not apply their own rules? It seems like a clear-cut case, and concluding "don't build anything for Twitter" is just throwing a temper tantrum.

>concluding "don't build anything for Twitter" is just throwing a temper tantrum. Not really. They led people on, over the years, into building on their API. People spent a lot of time and money building Twitter clients. Then they pulled the rug out. Why would you build anything using an API that could get arbitrarily locked down in the future?

From what I can tell it doesn't affect current clients, only new ones.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#127

Post by bigiain »

shawn-butler wrote: post #125
nicholassmith wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter was quite happy to sit and watch as people built fantastic services and tools on the service that without a doubt increased engagement, then sort of went "oh shit we need to make some money" and proceeded to piss on the bonfire 3rd party developers have created. It's even handed for Twitter and heavy handed for people that expect rationality from a company.

So would you say the same thing about people that abuse regulations adopted honestly in the spirit of helping the public and now having been captured by special interests abuse it to serve their own interest? For example, most taxi cab regulations were passed in an era where the public had extremely unsafe and unclear transportation in an unfettered race to the bottom, (were being extorted by drivers, unsafe cars and…

I suspect Über would have a different answer to the apparently assumed one in your question.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#128

Post by jetti »

ishansharma wrote: post #3

This is really idiotic. What are they trying to do? Make sure that all the top users flock to App.net or somewhere else?

To me, it seems like they may have a long term plan for monetization which requires users to visit the website rather than using a client.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#129

Post by javajosh »

Goddamn, I've never seen a clearer example of the colloquial term "butt hurt". Twitter is a company, they built something, they support it, they have the right to control it, and they have arbitrary rights over it. More tellingly, they have a very good point.

It reminds me of the craigslist haters, and my response to them. I don't hate craigslist for stopping third parties from using their data because, frankly, it hurts their brand if "druggycriminalroommates.com" starts syndicating their apartment ads.

That said, don't think that I'm some sort of right-wing capitalist fascist. No, I don't think everything should be privately owned and controlled. There are some things that should remain public: internet infrastructure being one of them. My personal belief is that the only real egalitarian, open system is one that relies on that infrastructure, and ONLY on that infrastructure. This vision requires that people either a) run their own servers, or b) pay money to someone else to run servers (or parts of servers). (Other possibilities for payment exist, of course, such as bartering information for service, etc.)

I mean, twitter is free to control, the OP is free to complain about that control, but the solution presented (don't develop anything for twitter) is ridiculous and immature.

Re: What Happens When A Twitter Client Hits The Token Limit

#130

Post by k-mcgrady »

I still don't understand why everyone is getting angry about this. It doesn't affect clients made before they introduced the new rule. The only people who get hurt are the idiots who ignore twitter and build a business which uses their API in a way they have said not to.
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