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That's a good excuse on paper, but I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the fir

That's a good excuse on paper, but I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the first place. Writing Twitter apps and clients is a pretty competitive space (whether rational or not). Back in the olden days of Basic Auth, you would email one of the API devs at Twitter and get a special source token to put in your code for client attribution. Then, Twitter said you couldn't get a source token any more and had to use OAuth to specify your client source. This was one of the main carrots they dangled in front of developers to get them to switch to OAuth before the Basic Auth shut off; "Use OAuth so that your client source will show on the website." It would be one thing if it felt like a snub, but now it feels like a bait and switch. Disclosure: I've written several twitter apps and worked on the Twitter API team as a contractor for a bit last year.

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
> but I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the first place Do you think? I'd have expected most people came to twitter.com and after some time (and possibly frustration) learnt of other ways to access the main features (ie 3rd party apps).
travisjeffery 16y ago
"...I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the first place." No, you either don't spend enough time with these 'normal' people or you are simply too biased. As someone in University right now watching his 'normal' friends and colleagues join Twitter, and even just other 'normal' people in general -- very few to none use a Twitter client, they all use the Web. The one exception that I've seen some use are Blackberry people and ÜberTwitter. I think one reason geeks like us use clients is to have a constant flow and connection of updates coming from Twitter. 'Normal' people on the other hand use it in a more 'get-in-and-out' sense, they get on and post what they're doing, read what the last few things their friends wrote and then get back on to Facebook or whatever.
- damncabbage 16y ago
  Heck, count me as "normal". I use the twitter.com site, security holes and all, as what's happening in my Twitter stream is a twice-a-day interest, rather than yet another feed of information on my desktop. (Outlook and IM all week at work is bad enough, thanks.)

pbhjpbhj 16y ago

> but I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the first place Do you think? I'd have expected most people came to twitter.com and after some time (and possibly frustration) learnt of other ways to access the main features (ie 3rd party apps).

travisjeffery 16y ago

"...I would give a lot of credit to the 3rd party developers for getting most of those 99% of normal people on Twitter in the first place." No, you either don't spend enough time with these 'normal' people or you are simply too biased. As someone in University right now watching his 'normal' friends and colleagues join Twitter, and even just other 'normal' people in general -- very few to none use a Twitter client, they all use the Web. The one exception that I've seen some use are Blackberry people and ÜberTwitter. I think one reason geeks like us use clients is to have a constant flow and connection of updates coming from Twitter. 'Normal' people on the other hand use it in a more 'get-in-and-out' sense, they get on and post what they're doing, read what the last few things their friends wrote and then get back on to Facebook or whatever.

damncabbage 16y ago
Heck, count me as "normal". I use the twitter.com site, security holes and all, as what's happening in my Twitter stream is a twice-a-day interest, rather than yet another feed of information on my desktop. (Outlook and IM all week at work is bad enough, thanks.)