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Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

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Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#1

Post by nopal »

This weekend a well-known comedian was live-tweeting sardonic commentary for a new Lifetime movie. It got me thinking that it would be cool to be able to replay his tweets later so that someone who missed the live show would be able to sync them up with the movie.

That, along with the fact that I've had lots of fun on Twitter during big events (like the elections), made me think that it'd be a fun hack to put together a Twitter playback site.

So last night and tonight I threw together http://www.twitterplayback.com. Check it out an let me know what you think!

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#2

Post by nopal »

Clickable: http://www.twitterplayback.com

Replay of movie commentary: http://www.twitterplayback.com/?q=from%3Aaimeemann+OR+from%3...

Tonight's TV: http://www.twitterplayback.com/?q=dancing%20stars

Social media contest: http://www.twitterplayback.com/?q=%23GOU100

Sports: http://www.twitterplayback.com/?q=%23iubb

The page is (hastily) written using JavaScript, so feel free to take a peek. There's a lot more that can be added to this -- most notably, date ranges, but I think it's pretty fun right now. Oh, and the maximum number of results Twitter will let me have per query is 1500, so keep that in mind.

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#4

Post by gab008 »

I know I'll probably get down-voted - but I have to ask: when will people stop building apps/stuff around twitter and facebook...? It's useless (yes, I know - my opinion).

I can understand that it was fun for you to build, no offence - but I don't see the value in things that piggyback on those two services. There are so many real challenges out there...

There, I had to say it (not impressed).

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#5

Post by shail »

I like the idea very much. In fact this could be extremely useful if you tweak it a little bit.

How about instead of waiting and controlling the time speed etc. the app itself keeps playing the tweets along with its duration from the last tweet: "after 2 hours", "after 4 days", "after few mins" etc.

That ways I am never waiting for something to appear instead am constantly engaged.

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#6

Post by nopal »

gab008 wrote: post #4

I know I'll probably get down-voted - but I have to ask: when will people stop building apps/stuff around twitter and facebook...? It's useless (yes, I know - my opinion). I can understand that it was fun for you to build, no offence - but I don't see the value in things that piggyback on those two services. There are so many real challenges out there... There, I had to say it (not impressed).

I get your point.

As you said, this is for fun. It's certainly not a business or something I'm going to take much further, so the long-tem viability of Twitter's platform doesn't matter that much to me.

That said, it is where the people are, and I haven't found anything that let's me feel the pulse of the global online community as well. As I said, I think Twitter's a blast during a big live event, and that's why I built this.

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#7

Post by nopal »

shail wrote: post #5

I like the idea very much. In fact this could be extremely useful if you tweak it a little bit. How about instead of waiting and controlling the time speed etc. the app itself keeps playing the tweets along with its duration from the last tweet: "after 2 hours", "after 4 days", "after few mins" etc. That ways I am never waiting for something to appear instead am constantly engaged.

I definitely see the value in what you're saying, particularly for exploratory searches, although it doesn't fit my original use case (Dark Side + Wizard of Oz).

Maybe two modes would be useful?

Feel free to fork: https://github.com/bretwalker/twitterplayback

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#8

Post by gab008 »

nopal wrote: post #6
gab008 wrote: post #4

I know I'll probably get down-voted - but I have to ask: when will people stop building apps/stuff around twitter and facebook...? It's useless (yes, I know - my opinion). I can understand that it was fun for you to build, no offence - but I don't see the value in things that piggyback on those two services. There are so many real challenges out there... There, I had to say it (not impressed).

I get your point. As you said, this is for fun. It's certainly not a business or something I'm going to take much further, so the long-tem viability of Twitter's platform doesn't matter that much to me. That said, it is where the people are, and I haven't found anything that let's me feel the pulse of the global online community as well. As I said, I think Twitter's a blast during a big live event, and that's why I b…

"it is where the people are"

I agree. Sorry to sound "negative" - it's probably because I'm one of the people that "don't get" twitter/facebook in the first place.

*Update: I was looking at submissions about Certician, your tool for monitoring your SSL certificates. As comparison, I find that so much more useful, even if the website it's no longer live.

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#9

Post by Osmose »

gab008 wrote: post #8
nopal wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your point. As you said, this is for fun. It's certainly not a business or something I'm going to take much further, so the long-tem viability of Twitter's platform doesn't matter that much to me. That said, it is where the people are, and I haven't found anything that let's me feel the pulse of the global online community as well. As I said, I think Twitter's a blast during a big live event, and that's why I b…

"it is where the people are" I agree. Sorry to sound "negative" - it's probably because I'm one of the people that "don't get" twitter/facebook in the first place. *Update: I was looking at submissions about Certician, your tool for monitoring your SSL certificates. As comparison, I find that so much more useful, even if the website it's no longer live.

I've been trying to "get used to" Twitter over the past year or so ever since I started working somewhere where a lot of my coworkers use Twitter a lot.

It's interesting, and I've gotten into a few amusing discussions, but in the end I still "don't get" it. People talk about Twitter being this exciting place where they have all these discussions with all sorts of people, but I just don't see how.

I'm probably a lost cause for doing anything more than consuming and making the occasional quip, but I'm curious: Is there some common point that everyone hits where suddenly they're fully engaged and Twitter stops feeling disjointed? Is it just that I check Twitter like once or twice a day, and I need to try harder?

Re: Show HN: My 2 evening project - Twitter Playback

#10

Post by donebizkit »

shail wrote: post #5

I like the idea very much. In fact this could be extremely useful if you tweak it a little bit. How about instead of waiting and controlling the time speed etc. the app itself keeps playing the tweets along with its duration from the last tweet: "after 2 hours", "after 4 days", "after few mins" etc. That ways I am never waiting for something to appear instead am constantly engaged.

I like the idea too. I also agree with shail's suggestion but I don't think it should be either/or. Both options should be available. Good luck man.
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