Thanks for writing this Chad, well worth taking 15 minutes to read. As you said, the writing has been on the wall for the past year at least.. and I have to as

Thanks for writing this Chad, well worth taking 15 minutes to read. As you said, the writing has been on the wall for the past year at least.. and I have to ask, why did you continue to bother? To me "don't fill holes" says it all. Use Twitter data, but don't be a "Twitter company". If a one sentence description of your company includes the word Twitter, you're in the wrong business. There are many uses of the API that Twitter isn't going to touch. Is Twitter going to build a Zite like app (recently launched news/reader iPad app)? No. Is Twitter going to compete with StockTwits? Not a chance. Ideas should center around a general need or want. Then see how Twitter, Instagram, other APIs can be used to leverage those ideas.