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What Twitter Can Be

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Re: What Twitter Can Be

#131
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you charge for the API calls?

Ideally the developer would be able to choose between paying themselves or letting users pay through micropayments.

With the amount of app piracy, this would make no sense, in my opinion. Developers would be actually robbed.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#132

I used to be on twitter. Left because nobody talks with you, just at you. And when you do actually get a conversation going, it's hard to follow when it's thrown in the same chronological time line with other conversations. The hashtag doesn't do much to foster conversation either. Merely a way to label slogans. This dichotomy between being a public feed but also being a place for conversations is at the core of why…

Tweets are threaded now. Conversations work, though can break down if people compose new tweets with an @mention instead of the reply button.

Can break down with sub-conversation trees a little, but that's hardly only twitter's problem. I'd be more than happy with reddit-style @reply threads.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#133
post #38
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how exactly do they make money on developers using their API?

The way I see it, third party applications increase the value of using twitter, bringing more users to it. Twitter as a social sharing tool has very little value to me, personally, but as a chat tool, marketing tool, or customer support tool I think it has a lot of potential. Its presentation/UX is not very optimized for those experiences, though -- and that's why third party apps exist. If an open source project bui…

Brings value is not the same as brings money.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#134
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally the developer would be able to choose between paying themselves or letting users pay through micropayments.

With the amount of app piracy, this would make no sense, in my opinion. Developers would be actually robbed.

Aside from that, almost all apps are paid for once, not on a subscription basis.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, please! From other peoples' descriptions, I can rationally understand what benefit Twitter brings them, but I have never been able to replicate that for myself. I have always walked away, convinced that it's a real-time medium that requires constant attention, because I find it to be nigh impossible to read up on any discussion ex post facto. That is especially true for any discussion with more than two particip…

To steal someone else's metaphor, try thinking of Twitter as a river. If you try to bottle it up or consume it all you'll drown. If, on the other hand, you dip in for a swim as you please, you might find it all bit more manageable. As the rush of tweets flows by you, just check out some, then turn your phone off and carry on. When you load it again, don't feel you have to go back and "catch up" or give it the constan…

I've heard this too; it drives the completionist in me nuts. After reading a Twitter stream for 5 minutes, I look up and wish I had caught up on the news, or read a short article from Instapaper / Pocket.

I have no doubt this says more about me than about Twitter, but I never could never see a way around it. Similar experience with Reddit, comparing the default front page to one tailored to the subreddits I enjoy the most. Of course I gave up on Reddit too after a while...

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#136

Twitter lists (especially in combination with Flipboard) are useful for filtering/curation, but have seen few improvements and remain unavailable in the mobile app. Lists could exhibit business value comparable to Pinterest curation, if Twitter paid any attention to the feature. They are micro-social networks that amplify the value of Twitter's main accomplishment: a directory of pseudonymns for writers, marketers, s…

What ever happened to Flipboard? It seemed very cutting edge when it debuted years ago. Now I can never remember it's there to browse.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at their Content Display Requirements (especially the section on "timeline integrity") https://dev.twitter.com/overview/terms/display-requirements

That only applies to showing a timeline. So you can't mix @user on Twitter with @user on Instagram in the same timeline. But if they aren't grouped, no problem. It also doesn't apply if there's human selection going on, a manual process. (Dunno if you can automate that with e.g. MT, heh.) That seems reasonable. I don't like any of this social media stuff, but Twitter has the best APIs. Maybe because they sell access,…

There are similar clauses in the requirements that apply to single tweets, and which e.g. prohibit the display of any social media buttons like "Like", "Share" etc. along a tweet, and that are pretty strict on the formatting of the tweet content itself.

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, please! From other peoples' descriptions, I can rationally understand what benefit Twitter brings them, but I have never been able to replicate that for myself. I have always walked away, convinced that it's a real-time medium that requires constant attention, because I find it to be nigh impossible to read up on any discussion ex post facto. That is especially true for any discussion with more than two particip…

To steal someone else's metaphor, try thinking of Twitter as a river. If you try to bottle it up or consume it all you'll drown. If, on the other hand, you dip in for a swim as you please, you might find it all bit more manageable. As the rush of tweets flows by you, just check out some, then turn your phone off and carry on. When you load it again, don't feel you have to go back and "catch up" or give it the constan…

(sorry for the delay, I'm on CEST, and it was close to my bed time)

Thanks! Maybe I should try to treat it more like the worlds' biggest IRC channel then. I will give it another shot some day…

Re: What Twitter Can Be

#140

I used to be on twitter. Left because nobody talks with you, just at you. And when you do actually get a conversation going, it's hard to follow when it's thrown in the same chronological time line with other conversations. The hashtag doesn't do much to foster conversation either. Merely a way to label slogans. This dichotomy between being a public feed but also being a place for conversations is at the core of why…

    > ... when you do actually get a conversation
    > going, it's hard to follow ...
That's why I wrote some scripts to do this:

http://www.solipsys.co.uk/TwitterConversations/HeliumBalloon...

http://www.solipsys.co.uk/TwitterConversations/ListContainin...

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