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> Twitter could make a lot of people happy by re-opening the API access (e.g. third party apps) and adding access control (e.g. teams and channels). Wouldn't t

by lotso 11y ago

> Twitter could make a lot of people happy by re-opening the API access (e.g. third party apps) and adding access control (e.g. teams and channels). Wouldn't this have a huge impact on their ability to monetize the twitter stream with ads and richer content? Of course this is developer friendly, but does it help them make real money?

icebraining 11y ago
They can make showing their ads a condition for API access.
dasil003 11y ago
Twitter has been ruined by the tech bull market. Their valuation went too high too fast, and now they are constrained by Wall Street's lack of imagination and being measured by Facebook's chosen KPI. Does a monthly active user of Facebook equal one on Twitter? Public conversation happens on Twitter—it is where celebrities and intellectuals put ideas into the public sphere. When you watch television news you constantly see tweets mentioned, when have you ever once seen a Facebook post? Twitter is like the Beat Generation, and Facebook is like a scrapbooking club. Even if Facebook wanted to make themselves relevant for public discourse (which they don't because Wall Street doesn't have a metric for that), it is incompatible with their current rent-seeking post promotion model and feed tax. Meanwhile, no one, even within Twitter, can quite define what it is. Wall Street hates that, but what it really means is that there is still untapped potential there. Last I checked Twitter was 1/5th the size of Facebook. It's a bloody travesty that being 20% the size of the biggest social network ever is not considered viable, especially when it has so much unexplored potential. Twitter would have fared much better in a bear market where they managed costs, and let the API flourish. Who knows what apps could have come out in 2015, 2020, 2025 if the fucking bankers hadn't gotten their mitts all up in the oven before the baking was done.
- rokhayakebe 11y ago
  Meanwhile, no one, even within Twitter, can quite define what it is. I must try: Twitter is RSS Feed. Twitter is a notification app for updates.
  - paulddraper 11y ago
    With ads
  - karmajunkie 11y ago
    Come on. If message brokers were conceived of today, the elevator pitch would be "twitter for servers.".
- jonnathanson 11y ago
  Fair, but surely Twitter itself bears some responsibility for having decided to go public in the first place? (Or, if you believe the rumors, for having taken on enough investors to have been forced to go public.) We should keep in mind that the bankers got their mitts in the oven because Twitter opened the oven door.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- forgetsusername 11y ago
  Wow, is there nothing you won't blame on the "fucking bankers"? Guess what? No banker forced Twitter to go public. In fact, I'm sure Twitter approached the bankers to represent them in an IPO. And when you go public, you have certain obligations to your shareholders by law. So why go public? Oh yeah, the early Twitter investors wanted to get filthy rich, before the "baking was done". And they did.
- gaius 11y ago
  If anything has been "ruined" it is the public sphere. Does the Kardashians really have anything to contribute to humanity? Twitter is a plague and it will be better for all of us when it implodes.

by lotso 11y ago

icebraining 11y ago

They can make showing their ads a condition for API access.

dasil003 11y ago

Twitter has been ruined by the tech bull market. Their valuation went too high too fast, and now they are constrained by Wall Street's lack of imagination and being measured by Facebook's chosen KPI. Does a monthly active user of Facebook equal one on Twitter? Public conversation happens on Twitter—it is where celebrities and intellectuals put ideas into the public sphere. When you watch television news you constantly see tweets mentioned, when have you ever once seen a Facebook post? Twitter is like the Beat Generation, and Facebook is like a scrapbooking club. Even if Facebook wanted to make themselves relevant for public discourse (which they don't because Wall Street doesn't have a metric for that), it is incompatible with their current rent-seeking post promotion model and feed tax. Meanwhile, no one, even within Twitter, can quite define what it is. Wall Street hates that, but what it really means is that there is still untapped potential there. Last I checked Twitter was 1/5th the size of Facebook. It's a bloody travesty that being 20% the size of the biggest social network ever is not considered viable, especially when it has so much unexplored potential. Twitter would have fared much better in a bear market where they managed costs, and let the API flourish. Who knows what apps could have come out in 2015, 2020, 2025 if the fucking bankers hadn't gotten their mitts all up in the oven before the baking was done.

rokhayakebe 11y ago
Meanwhile, no one, even within Twitter, can quite define what it is. I must try: Twitter is RSS Feed. Twitter is a notification app for updates.
- paulddraper 11y ago
  With ads
- karmajunkie 11y ago
  Come on. If message brokers were conceived of today, the elevator pitch would be "twitter for servers.".
jonnathanson 11y ago
Fair, but surely Twitter itself bears some responsibility for having decided to go public in the first place? (Or, if you believe the rumors, for having taken on enough investors to have been forced to go public.) We should keep in mind that the bankers got their mitts in the oven because Twitter opened the oven door.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
forgetsusername 11y ago
Wow, is there nothing you won't blame on the "fucking bankers"? Guess what? No banker forced Twitter to go public. In fact, I'm sure Twitter approached the bankers to represent them in an IPO. And when you go public, you have certain obligations to your shareholders by law. So why go public? Oh yeah, the early Twitter investors wanted to get filthy rich, before the "baking was done". And they did.
gaius 11y ago
If anything has been "ruined" it is the public sphere. Does the Kardashians really have anything to contribute to humanity? Twitter is a plague and it will be better for all of us when it implodes.