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I'm still not completely clear on what's ok and what isn't. They seem to be saying that special-purpose clients would still be ok. For example, a SXSW iphone

I'm still not completely clear on what's ok and what isn't. They seem to be saying that special-purpose clients would still be ok. For example, a SXSW iphone app that filtered and ONLY showed tweets with the #sxsw tag, and perhaps appended the tag to your own tweet. Not a path to riches, but you can see why such an app may be of use in certain situations. It seems to be allowed under these rules, but I'm not 100% sure. What they've done is introduce uncertainty, which is worse for the ecosystem than anything else.

wtn 16y ago
I think this is great advice from Twitter and developers should follow it. Twitter is totally correct--if you haven't entered this space by now, and you still want to, you are probably overlooking much more interesting opportunities. Why would you develop a new Twitter client anyhow? You might make $5 a seat from a few thousand users who will expect you to maintain your product in perpetuity.
- kmfrk 16y ago
  >Why would you develop a new Twitter client anyhow? Have you by any chance used the newest version of the client recently? There's this bar at the top ... :P
  - Klonoar 16y ago
    Have YOU? Seeing as it's been, y'know, removed now.
guptaneil 16y ago
Well, based on this article, anything is allowed. It's just a matter of can you monetize it, knowing that Twitter is focusing on its own client as a core product. An SXSW app doesn't seem too monetizable to begin with, but no reason why you can't make it. Having said that, I am confused as to what happens if you do make a new competing client. Is this really just friendly advice to developers to not compete against Twitter, or will Twitter block your API access?
- adamesque 16y ago
  Not at all. This sounds more like friendly advice to developers making it clear that they plan to compete in this area. Because theirs have the benefit of being the official apps, you may have a harder time gaining traction. The writing was on the wall with the Tweetie acquisition and newtwitter, but now there's a blinking neon sign there.
  - alain94040 16y ago
    This sounds more like friendly advice to developers I would agree with you if they had not changed their terms of service, to make it illegal for you to do <unclear> things. A simple warning saying: "we intend to compete in the client space" would have been fair.
dasil003 16y ago
Yeah, I think Twitter fucked up this PR pretty badly. I get that it's time for them to make money, and that changes are necessary to that end. Yes, some devs are going to get screwed in the deal, that's a matter of course, but the last thing they should be doing is spreading FUD about their own platform, which is exactly what this announcement was. I get that they were trying to be transparent, but that's greatly overrated in this case. API guidelines should be crystal clear. There's no way for them to have made them crystal clear from the beginning given the rapid iteration of the business plan. So what Twitter should have done is just iterate the guidelines along with their business plan. Sure it's gonna piss people off when changes come, but there's no way to prevent that without freaking everybody out in advance.

wtn 16y ago

I think this is great advice from Twitter and developers should follow it. Twitter is totally correct--if you haven't entered this space by now, and you still want to, you are probably overlooking much more interesting opportunities. Why would you develop a new Twitter client anyhow? You might make $5 a seat from a few thousand users who will expect you to maintain your product in perpetuity.

kmfrk 16y ago
>Why would you develop a new Twitter client anyhow? Have you by any chance used the newest version of the client recently? There's this bar at the top ... :P
- Klonoar 16y ago
  Have YOU? Seeing as it's been, y'know, removed now.

guptaneil 16y ago

Well, based on this article, anything is allowed. It's just a matter of can you monetize it, knowing that Twitter is focusing on its own client as a core product. An SXSW app doesn't seem too monetizable to begin with, but no reason why you can't make it. Having said that, I am confused as to what happens if you do make a new competing client. Is this really just friendly advice to developers to not compete against Twitter, or will Twitter block your API access?

adamesque 16y ago
Not at all. This sounds more like friendly advice to developers making it clear that they plan to compete in this area. Because theirs have the benefit of being the official apps, you may have a harder time gaining traction. The writing was on the wall with the Tweetie acquisition and newtwitter, but now there's a blinking neon sign there.
- alain94040 16y ago
  This sounds more like friendly advice to developers I would agree with you if they had not changed their terms of service, to make it illegal for you to do <unclear> things. A simple warning saying: "we intend to compete in the client space" would have been fair.

dasil003 16y ago

Yeah, I think Twitter fucked up this PR pretty badly. I get that it's time for them to make money, and that changes are necessary to that end. Yes, some devs are going to get screwed in the deal, that's a matter of course, but the last thing they should be doing is spreading FUD about their own platform, which is exactly what this announcement was. I get that they were trying to be transparent, but that's greatly overrated in this case. API guidelines should be crystal clear. There's no way for them to have made them crystal clear from the beginning given the rapid iteration of the business plan. So what Twitter should have done is just iterate the guidelines along with their business plan. Sure it's gonna piss people off when changes come, but there's no way to prevent that without freaking everybody out in advance.