Given some of the recent policy changes at Twitter, do you still feel comfortable with the suggestion to build companies on top of it?
Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
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Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#2Clickable RFS3 link: http://ycombinator.com/rfs3.html
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#3Yes, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. I would be pretty cautious about building anything on Twitter after that.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#4The fact that they're changing policies without much community discussion is certainly scary to any twitter-based company. Luckily, it appears that they're primarily opposed to clients, which is only one of the many possible applications people can build on top of Twitter.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#5Actually, I feel more comfortable now with Twitter after this.
Why? They have come out and said it. We know their direction now and what they intend: don't make another client, but make a /unique way of using twitter itself/
If anything, this is exactly what we need as entrepreneurs. We now have a mandate from the source to take their platform and ecosystem to the next level. If everyone else wants to quake in their boots over this silliness, then I say go for it.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#6Yes, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. I would be pretty cautious about building anything on Twitter after that.
Twitter is no longer a protocol.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#7On the other hand, it might be a good time to launch/fund a product that competes. Without its developer ecosystem, Twitter is practically an unusable product. Sure, they have their network, but so did Myspace, Digg.
Twitter can't reasonably act like Apple and get away with it. It's a very low cost-to-switch environment. If this trend continues, if they make things too hard for devs, the devs will leave, and won't be in a hurry to come back. Might be a perfect time for a lean, developer friendly startup with the right innovation to come in and claim a piece of that market.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#8Actually, I feel more comfortable now with Twitter after this. Why? They have come out and said it. We know their direction now and what they intend: don't make another client, but make a /unique way of using twitter itself/ If anything, this is exactly what we need as entrepreneurs. We now have a mandate from the source to take their platform and ecosystem to the next level. If everyone else wants to quake in their…
My concern would tend more along the lines of "how long before they change the deal again?"
They have the right to do so, but it makes building on top of their platform unappealing, and really downright dangerous. It's the same reason building on top of iOS is tricky since you can be denied a way to make money off of your work at any moment by a whim from apple.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#9Yes, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. I would be pretty cautious about building anything on Twitter after that.
Twitter is no longer a protocol.
Twitter was never a protocol. SMTP, http, XMPP are protocols - a data exchange description explained in an RFC where anyone is free to do their own implementation of it. Twitter is just a fauxpen API for a private company's massive platform. The idea that no one has created a true microblog protocol (like a realtime USENET) is a testament to the incorporation of innovation and a lock-in economy.
Re: Ask PG: Have your feelings changed about RFS3?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Twitter is no longer a protocol.
Twitter was never a protocol. SMTP, http, XMPP are protocols - a data exchange description explained in an RFC where anyone is free to do their own implementation of it. Twitter is just a fauxpen API for a private company's massive platform. The idea that no one has created a true microblog protocol (like a realtime USENET) is a testament to the incorporation of innovation and a lock-in economy.
Er. http://identi.ca ?