31–40 of 101 posts
Too bad they don't open their platform up without requiring official partnership.
This exactly. I understand why they haven't done it, but the number of things I'd love to build as a hobbyist if only I could get a REST endpoint to trigger or enter a webhook URL to receive actions...
Was going to ask how IFTTT differs from Zapier, then found the following article somewhat useful: http://blog.matt.thomm.es/post/63394262428/zapier-versus-if-... In case others had the same question.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This exactly. I understand why they haven't done it, but the number of things I'd love to build as a hobbyist if only I could get a REST endpoint to trigger or enter a webhook URL to receive actions...
http://dweet.io can give you a rest endpoint. It is very easy and open source
Was going to ask how IFTTT differs from Zapier, then found the following article somewhat useful: http://blog.matt.thomm.es/post/63394262428/zapier-versus-if-... In case others had the same question.
The Zapier founder's primary talent seems to be self-promotion (and they built a cool thing too). They've managed to land guest articles on Techcrunch, I heard they ask other new founders to mention Zapier on YC demo days, I have seem them exploit rivalry among competitors to get them all signed up (X is on Zapier, maybe you should be too), and they've put a lot into the SEO optimization of their pages, generating ne…
Given their target market, I see that as their competitive advantage. It's all too easy to appeal to the very technical, and allow them to plugin scripts and filters and whatnot into the pipeline, but by reducing all of that complexity down to "if this, then that" they are much more approachable by a huge audience.
IFTTT strikes me as the canonical example of a useful, small project that people would pay for that instead got stars in its eyes. For the moment, it's a great example of venture capitalists subsidizing a useful adapter cable for Internet services. But I get nervous when infrastructure gets delusions of grandeur. If 'cron' suddenly acquired a staff of 40, I would start looking for alternatives.
You could say the same about rsync/ftp and Dropbox, but they seem to be doing fine.
But I don't want anyone to think I'm belittling what IFTTT does, or calling the problem trivial. I wouldn't care if they didn't provide a genuinely useful service. This type of thing just seems poorly served by the startup model of grandiose dreams combined with 95%+ chance of failure.
@Pinboard: "Maybe the $30 M will allow IFTTT to stop asking people for their Pinboard passwords, and use the API token" https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/505031713681330176
Also, if Pinboard really wants it updated, add OAuth and contact IFTTT. They have a better solution for them.
IFTTT strikes me as the canonical example of a useful, small project that people would pay for that instead got stars in its eyes. For the moment, it's a great example of venture capitalists subsidizing a useful adapter cable for Internet services. But I get nervous when infrastructure gets delusions of grandeur. If 'cron' suddenly acquired a staff of 40, I would start looking for alternatives.
@Pinboard: "Maybe the $30 M will allow IFTTT to stop asking people for their Pinboard passwords, and use the API token" https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/505031713681330176
Pinboard has 24K active users[0]. I have some inside info (having previously worked at IFTTT 2 years ago) that this number is significantly less people than use most of IFTTT's channels. It's one of the early channels and taking the time to fix it and migrate everyone is probably not justified for such a small audience. Also, if Pinboard really wants it updated, add OAuth and contact IFTTT. They have a better solutio…
This is literally a request for them to change the name of an input field, and make one less API call. I'm happy to drive to their office and implement it myself if they feel they lack the resources.
@Pinboard: "Maybe the $30 M will allow IFTTT to stop asking people for their Pinboard passwords, and use the API token" https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/505031713681330176
Pinboard has 24K active users[0]. I have some inside info (having previously worked at IFTTT 2 years ago) that this number is significantly less people than use most of IFTTT's channels. It's one of the early channels and taking the time to fix it and migrate everyone is probably not justified for such a small audience. Also, if Pinboard really wants it updated, add OAuth and contact IFTTT. They have a better solutio…