Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#31

Post by jmann99999 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:11 PM UTC

I just don't see the replacement for Twitter as Mastodon -- which it seems the Tweetbot people are targeting.

Twitter will likely file for bankruptcy later this year due to the debt burden. However, the replacement for Twitter won't be a Twitter "clone." Things will move on. I'm not smart enough to know what people will move on to... But they will move on.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#32

Post by jdminhbg » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

jdoss wrote: post #6

The question I have with this move is why didn't Twitter just force advertising as part of their API for third party clients? Just change the TOS for using the API so if they didn't show advertising they would be cut off. What am I missing?

Twitter had a decade to implement something simple like this and didn't. I assume that there are technical reasons that it's hard to do with their codebase and it's simply not worth the time and money to do so.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#33

Post by dawnerd » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

iameli wrote: post #10

And so ends my daily use of Twitter. I still haven't been able to get into Mastodon in the same way, but if Ivory is as good as Tweetbot was it might bring me around.

Honestly some days I forget I'm not using twitter. Same with the normal Mastodon web interface. Once you get into it properly it all kinda blurs away. Way more interactions on there than I had before too.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#34

Post by breput » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #19

jdoss wrote: post #6

The question I have with this move is why didn't Twitter just force advertising as part of their API for third party clients? Just change the TOS for using the API so if they didn't show advertising they would be cut off. What am I missing?

“Starting Feb 1st using a third part client will require Twitter Blue.” That’s all it would have taken. Probably would have made a huge increase in subscribers too. This is 100% a control move. He wants full control over how everyone experiences Twitter (not sure why). So this was pulled. Of course you can NEVER go back from this move.

I can't say I totally saw this coming, but when Elon started talking about the WeChat/Everything App/X, the writing was on the all for 3rd party clients.

Still, a very shortsighted move.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#35

Post by w10-1 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

Why am I not surprised that the bots rise again?

They will destroy everything that could be good, by empowering a tiny, tiny minority of malicious actors under the cover of serving a few real needs.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#36

Post by 33955985 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

It was always odd to me that entire businesses relied on what was essentially the goodwill of a corporation. I think the same about things like microG in the Android world. They just… use Google’s API without paying and yet we think it’ll all work out?

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#37

Post by vlunkr » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:13 PM UTC

jdoss wrote: post #6

The question I have with this move is why didn't Twitter just force advertising as part of their API for third party clients? Just change the TOS for using the API so if they didn't show advertising they would be cut off. What am I missing?

They could change the TOS, but actually enforcing would be difficult. You'd have to have something like the app store review process. And another goal here is probably to get everyone using the same clients so they have more control over the experience.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#38

Post by dljsjr » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:14 PM UTC

w10-1 wrote: post #35

Why am I not surprised that the bots rise again? They will destroy everything that could be good, by empowering a tiny, tiny minority of malicious actors under the cover of serving a few real needs.

That is not even remotely close to what this article is about. Tweetbot is the name of an extremely popular iOS Twitter Client. This article has nothing to do with bots, at all.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#39

Post by TuringTest » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:14 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #19

jdoss wrote: post #6

The question I have with this move is why didn't Twitter just force advertising as part of their API for third party clients? Just change the TOS for using the API so if they didn't show advertising they would be cut off. What am I missing?

“Starting Feb 1st using a third part client will require Twitter Blue.” That’s all it would have taken. Probably would have made a huge increase in subscribers too. This is 100% a control move. He wants full control over how everyone experiences Twitter (not sure why). So this was pulled. Of course you can NEVER go back from this move.

That's what I thought as well. They need money badly, and they have an obvious way to get it - monetize the API so that third party clients can continue using Twitter while building a business on top of it.

Yet instead of supporting the strong ecosystem they already have and nurturing a symbiotic relationship with it, they burn it all?

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#40

Post by justinclift » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:14 PM UTC

redox99 wrote: post #29

MBCook wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Starting Feb 1st using a third part client will require Twitter Blue.” That’s all it would have taken. Probably would have made a huge increase in subscribers too. This is 100% a control move. He wants full control over how everyone experiences Twitter (not sure why). So this was pulled. Of course you can NEVER go back from this move.

That's actually a really good idea

If they did some kind of revenue share (from Twitter Blue) with the third party clients their users are using, it might even provide useful funding for some of the otherwise non-commercial ones.