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Yes, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. I would be pretty cautious about building anything on Twitter after that.
by pg 16y ago
Yes, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. I would be pretty cautious about building anything on Twitter after that.
- TimH 16y agoTwitter is no longer a protocol.
- gbattle 16y agoTwitter was never a protocol. SMTP, http, XMPP are protocols - a data exchange description explained in an RFC where anyone is free to do their own implementation of it. Twitter is just a fauxpen API for a private company's massive platform. The idea that no one has created a true microblog protocol (like a realtime USENET) is a testament to the incorporation of innovation and a lock-in economy.
- starkruzr 16y agoEr. http://identi.ca http://identi.ca ?
- hymanroth 16y agoSounds obvious now, but I remember advising quite a few people "not build their house on other people's land" several years ago. It was true then, is true now, and will always be true.
- rkischuk 16y agoHow would you contrast this opinion to your current thoughts on RFS7 (Facebook Instant Personalization)? Facebook has shown themselves to be developer-hostile in the past as well, and they represent all of the common risks of building on someone else's platform. Are their boundaries better drawn? Is the magnitude of the opportunity on Facebook larger to the point of justifying the risk?
- mickdarling 16y agoPG, sorry, but I am a little confused by your answer. Is your "yes" in response to "do you still feel comfortable with the suggestion to build companies on top of it?" Or, to the fact that you would now recommend other companies and startups be "cautious about building anything on Twitter after" the new Twitter TOS and other policy changes there? Are you removing http://ycombinator.com/rfs3.html http://ycombinator.com/rfs3.html from the Y-C suggestions? My team and I were hacking on our site to launch http://tweeplayer.com http://tweeplayer.com at SXSW exactly at the moment the new TOS came out, and it freaked us out at the time. But, the gist I got from people in the know was that as long as you are helping Twitter get content they wouldn't get on their own, they will likely be happy with you.
- pg 16y agoI meant yes, my feelings have changed about RFS3. I would no longer be so enthusiastic about funding companies built on Twitter.