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> Twitter also gives away their data to anyone that wants it for free. You can be streaming millions of tweets per day within minutes of creating an account. T

> Twitter also gives away their data to anyone that wants it for free. You can be streaming millions of tweets per day within minutes of creating an account. That's news to me. I maintain the Twitter client library for Go[0], and I still haven't been able to get through the process for getting access to the new streaming API (for testing the library). It requires an application stating your intended purpose and usage. I applied explaining the situation and was rejected (with a request to provide more information - I still have to resubmit that, but it's time and I just haven't gotten around to that yet). It's possible to stream millions of tweets per day, but good luck trying to do it "within minutes of creating an account". And it's definitely not free. For full context: I'm already a verified user on Twitter (ie, "blue check mark") and was clear in my application that I was requesting access so I could develop and test the library that other users of the Twitter API develop with. I'm not exactly complaining that they didn't approve the request initially, but if that's not sufficient to get access, it's pretty clear that they're not "giving away their data to anyone that wants it for free". [0] https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/anaconda https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/anaconda

dumbfounder 8y ago
Maybe you are referring to their paid service, Gnip? Yes, you need to pay for that one, but they have a free version that you can indeed access within minutes. Try Twitter4J. https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime/api-reference/post-statuses-filter.html https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime...
- chimeracoder 8y ago
  > Maybe you are referring to their paid service, Gnip? Yes, you need to pay for that one, but they have a free version that you can indeed access within minutes. The streaming API is heavily rate-limited, so you can't realistically stream "millions of tweets per day within minutes", in the context of the original article. The new Account Activity API, which replaces Site Streams, is what I was specifically referring to. https://twittercommunity.com/t/account-activity-api-beta-access/104722 https://twittercommunity.com/t/account-activity-api-beta-acc...
  - dumbfounder 8y ago
    I think we are talking past each other. I am not talking about the Account Activity API or Site Streams. I am talking about their FREE streaming API that let's you stream millions of tweets per day. I am just trying to raise awareness about how easily people can pull user data en masse from Twitter, which is very relevant to the article. It's public, but people still don't realize just how easy it is to do. Again, this is the API I am talking about: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime/api-reference/post-statuses-filter https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime...
    - chimeracoder 8y ago
      > I am talking about their FREE streaming API that let's you stream millions of tweets per day. I am just trying to raise awareness about how easily people can pull user data en masse from Twitter, which is very relevant to the article. It's public, but people still don't realize just how easy it is to do. Yes, that's an endpoint off stream.twitter.com. It's not only limited in terms of how much relevant info you'll be able to access (in the context of the original post), but also heavily rate-limited for clients. I agree that it's confusing that Twitter has so many different components of their API which use overlapping names, but I've looked into this extensively because, as I mentioned at the outset, I wrote the client libraries for these and still maintain them.

dumbfounder 8y ago

Maybe you are referring to their paid service, Gnip? Yes, you need to pay for that one, but they have a free version that you can indeed access within minutes. Try Twitter4J. https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime/api-reference/post-statuses-filter.html https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime...

chimeracoder 8y ago
> Maybe you are referring to their paid service, Gnip? Yes, you need to pay for that one, but they have a free version that you can indeed access within minutes. The streaming API is heavily rate-limited, so you can't realistically stream "millions of tweets per day within minutes", in the context of the original article. The new Account Activity API, which replaces Site Streams, is what I was specifically referring to. https://twittercommunity.com/t/account-activity-api-beta-access/104722 https://twittercommunity.com/t/account-activity-api-beta-acc...
- dumbfounder 8y ago
  I think we are talking past each other. I am not talking about the Account Activity API or Site Streams. I am talking about their FREE streaming API that let's you stream millions of tweets per day. I am just trying to raise awareness about how easily people can pull user data en masse from Twitter, which is very relevant to the article. It's public, but people still don't realize just how easy it is to do. Again, this is the API I am talking about: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime/api-reference/post-statuses-filter https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/filter-realtime...
  - chimeracoder 8y ago
    > I am talking about their FREE streaming API that let's you stream millions of tweets per day. I am just trying to raise awareness about how easily people can pull user data en masse from Twitter, which is very relevant to the article. It's public, but people still don't realize just how easy it is to do. Yes, that's an endpoint off stream.twitter.com. It's not only limited in terms of how much relevant info you'll be able to access (in the context of the original post), but also heavily rate-limited for clients. I agree that it's confusing that Twitter has so many different components of their API which use overlapping names, but I've looked into this extensively because, as I mentioned at the outset, I wrote the client libraries for these and still maintain them.