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Show HN: Write-Only Interface for Twitter
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tantalor 6y agoUse a blog instead.
- frankdilo 6y agoWe do that too. This was initially born as an easy way to cross-post from our markdown blogs to Twitter.
- paulgb 6y agoCool! But also, thank you for allowing us to try it without logging in. This should be table stakes, but so many Show HN posts don't do this and I click right back out of them.
- linuz90 6y agoThanks! Yes we realized that not everyone is ready to give access to their Twitter account, and it's only fair we let it try it. We ourselves would love to see this in more products.
- asyrafql 6y agoawsome, thanks for developing it
- Schiphol 6y agoThis looks very nice. Me, I would rather need a read-only twitter client. I'd like to be informed about Dionne Warwick and the occasional new cogsci paper without periodically making a fool of myself.
- linuz90 6y agoWe make a product[1] that might fix this for you. It's a tool to create digests from Twitter and other sources. You get the best content via email every day, and it's read-only. [1]: https://mailbrew.com/ https://mailbrew.com/
- mhd 6y agoI'd like a general "follow people" app, where I get an easily navigable interface (i.e. not just a dump) of posts on twitter, facebook, hacker news...
- searchableguy 6y agoThat's doable with a RSS feed service. Some providers which support reading twitter, youtube and other popular feeds without any setup. https://www.inoreader.com/ https://www.inoreader.com/ https://feedbin.com/ https://feedbin.com/ https://feedly.com https://feedly.com If there are sources that they don't support, you can host your own rsshub instance or use the default. https://rsshub.app/ https://rsshub.app/ Happy to help you get this set up.
- mhd 6y agoThanks, I'm a pretty heavy RSS user, mostly with regular desktop clients. Where my usage pattern is pretty much a single dump for everything and just quickly scrolling through the 100-200 updates/day, scanning some, reading others, postponing some by opening them in browser tabs (I still habitually check "loadDivertedInBackground" in Firefox' config, even years after google reader ceasing to exist). I don't even categorize the feeds. But for a comprehensive, all sources in one app, I'd want even more than categorization. I'd want different reading modes (concatenate tweets, leave other articles alone), maybe an expose-like overview to quickly filter, some intelligent ranking etc. rsshub seems interesting though. Can it do hackernews user's posts?
- searchableguy 6y agoYou can try: https://hnrss.github.io/ https://hnrss.github.io/
- kossnocorp 6y agoCongrats with the launch! Proud to see that https://chirr.app https://chirr.app inspired you!
- linuz90 6y agoMade this before discovering Chirr. But very happy to see another great product in this space from a fellow maker!
- biz_booster 6y ago1. 99.00% people don't even think before tweeting. 2. 0.99% think but tweet only one tweet at a time. 3. 0.01% only think and create a long thread. Hence is it really required? What REAL pain are your really trying to solve? For how many people will use this? Are people already searching/paying for this? This is a cold hard and harsh truth. May save you lot of your valuable time in the near future. Pls DON"T build something that NOBODY wants.
- searchableguy 6y agoThey are targeting a niche who is likely more willing to pay for this than average internet user. I only ever see long twitter threads from VCs, developer advocates, CEOs, startup people who spend $$$ on productivity software to optimize their life, etc. It's fine if it is $100 from 10 customers than $5 from 1000.
- linuz90 6y agoWe'll see about that :) We're seeing nice traction, and early feedback is from people that were tired to get sucked into the Twitter timeline and algorithm, and finally have a nice focused environment to tweet their ideas and move on with their day.
- swyx 6y ago"traction" = paying customers or people being nice to you on launch day? don't confuse the two. that said, all the best for your launch :)
- SamBam 6y agoI follow a lot of people who sometimes tweet out intelligent, multi-post threads.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- knightbenax 6y agoDid you pull these data from the air? I follow a lot of people who tweet long threads, a lot of the time
- rapnie 6y agoThis presents a nice way of dealing with Twitter, if it fits your use case. Some good choices too (e.g. Plausible for analytics). Only thing I wonder is, why I can only learn that you are Mailbrew Inc. from the PP or Terms of Services, and ... > For our Patron in-app purchase flow, we collect related information such as payment amounts, times and currencies to validate and secure payments. ... that your revenue model apparently is in-app purchases? Why not be more open about that with a nice About page where you present yourself and the product you offer. (Note that this same feedback holds for so many services that are launched, where the lack of this transparency imho is an oversight).
- linuz90 6y agoThanks so much for the feedback! We've put a "by Mailbrew" logo in the header, and also if you click on the chat widget in the bottom left corner of the app, you'll see info about the team. As for the business model, this is a little experiment to play with the write-only Twitter idea and create awareness around Mailbrew, which is our main product and core business. Finally regarding Plausible, it's not just better because of how privacy-friendly it is, it's also such a great product that we recommend everyone to use.
- mhd 6y agoI have to admit that I'm not too excited about the default "ad copy". Are "business influencers" the target demographic?
- mwcampbell 6y agoHmm, I'm not sure if encouraging people to shout without listening is a good thing. It seems to me like it would just exacerbate the problems with social media.
- linuz90 6y agoFair point, which I didn't think about a lot to be honest. On the other hand, this enables people to write more mindfully, without all the noise around them, and also think twice before "shouting", so I'd be very curious to see what kind of output this will produce.
- swyx 6y agoit also feels a little disrespectful of people who follow you. if I reply to you I know you won't read it. so if someone bragged about using your app it'd be a prompt for me to unfollow them.
- frankdilo 6y agoThe angle here is not about shutting other people out. It's about carving out the time to think and write, and letting other peoples in at your leisure, maybe once or twice per day.
- theelous3 6y agoIt's not permanent. They could easily check for replies a few minutes later.
- rinor 6y agoI'm working on something in the social networking space, and I'm curious about your views and where you are coming from. If you don't mind me asking: What type of people do you follow - people you met irl or online, or friend of friends, or famous people? And how do you want to interact with them?
- leephillips 6y ago
- n001sl4 6y agoFYI, Asking for upvotes or comments is against the rules. https://twitter.com/linuz90/status/1336661768807047168 https://twitter.com/linuz90/status/1336661768807047168
- linuz90 6y agoHi, I wasn't asking upvotes in the post, but I've deleted anyway for goodwill. Thanks for pointing it out!
- moeamaya 6y agoThis is fantastic. I had been wanting to make this exact tool for a while and so happy your team both built it and executed brilliantly. In particular, the mobile UI has a level of craft that I know took a while to get right! Well done.
- ktpsns 6y agoTypefully cuts a long text into several tweets. Apps like https://threadreaderapp.com/ https://threadreaderapp.com/ or https://the.rip/ https://the.rip/ unroll these stories again. What's wrong with this network where sharing content requires to use such tools both for authors and readers? ;-)
- frankdilo 6y agoThat nobody reads what you write. Jokes asides I am a big fan of blogging[1], but it's not the best medium for reach. [1]: https://francescodilorenzo.com https://francescodilorenzo.com
- dyates 6y agoTwitter is awful for longform, but it's where the eyeballs are. https://blog.ayjay.org/thread/ https://blog.ayjay.org/thread/
- rq1 6y agoIt forces you somehow de be concise. :)
- abdullahkhalids 6y agoI think this tool is not very useful, because writing tweets in the character limited box is what forces you to get to the essence of the idea that you are trying to communicate. Your tweet thread will be very unreadable if you use this tool. Consuming using "unrolling" is fine, because it only gets rid of the interface that some people don't like.
- Jatidude 6y ago> Your tweet thread will be very unreadable if you use this tool. Isn't that only the case if you don't work with their built in tool on the right to see what the thread will look like? I personally have no problem reading through a thread in this way, especially when the thread is crafted with the individual tweets in mind.
- szhu 6y ago
- jhunter1016 6y agoDespite what many comments here might suggest, Twitter is a microblogging site. You do not have to consume other tweets in order to contribute your own tweets to Twitter. That’s why you can follow 0 people and still tweet. That’s why I love this idea. Imagine writing a blog but everyone suggesting to you that you have to consume other people’s blogs in order to contribute your own. Twitter can be toxic. But it can be great. If you are not in a mental space to consume the doom scroll, this is a good way to post your thoughts while protecting your mental health. I’ve been tweeting from the command line for a few weeks now but will probably switch to this.
- linuz90 6y agoWow I couldn't have said it better. This is exactly what we're trying to achieve with Typefully, thanks for expressing it so nicely.
- e1g 6y agoUnfortunately the author cannot read your thanks, see upvotes, engage in a conversation, or learn from others’ input. They use a write-only client to access this community.
- Shared404 6y agoThat would be funny, but there is a difference between Twitter and HN. In this case, the author wants to use twitter as a microblog -- the use case it was designed for. If they don't want to read other input on their twitter, why would they? Meanwhile HN is explicitly designed as a community with a focus on curiosity, exploration, and discussion... none of which your comment provides.
- e1g 6y agoTwitter has features to Share, Like, Subscribe, Explore via Hashtags. Twitter does not have a feature to "Edit". I'm unclear how we can look at these core strategic choices and decide it's designed not as a community, but as a blogging engine.
- gdecaso 6y agoThis is very nice indeed. I would totally use it for my twitter threads but I usually add images and other media to my tweets. Would you consider adding that feature?
- nakovet 6y agoI was going to try it out, but the OAuth scopes include way more than just posting in my timeline, is that something you are considering changing, reducing scopes?
- cpayne624 6y agoIn response to https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1335953939473326081?s=21 https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1335953939473326081?s=... or coincidence? (Nice work)
- linuz90 6y agoIncredibly I missed that tweet, and also we've been working on this for many weeks, but love the coincidence!
- amwelles 6y agoReminds me of the good old days of Birdhouse[1]. 1. https://sandwich.co/work/a-notepad-for-twitter/ https://sandwich.co/work/a-notepad-for-twitter/
- tegiddrone 6y agoI want this for everything. So many times I go to text or email someone and then get distracted by the new messages in my inbox and forget what I was doing in the first place. It's especially bad on my phone where there might be cross-app notifications. Why did I pick up my phone again?
- rdiddly 6y agoThis looks well done. Although I have to laugh that it exists or needs to exist. It's like a fireproof suit for venturing into a dumpster fire!
- bambax 6y agoGreat idea!! It seems you can't paste an image inside the text though, which you can do on the regular Twitter webpage?
- tomgs 6y agoThis is, by far, one of the best product marketing work I have seen in a while. A write-only interface for Twitter.... you, dear sir or madam, have my clicks. All of my clicks.
- kalium-xyz 6y agoFinally a use for write only memory.
- d_theorist 6y agoI would like to have this for email. I try to stay out of email except for defined time slots so that I don’t get distracted. But sometimes I would like to send an email outside those times. Most clients require you to see your inbox if you want to send a message.
- jhunter1016 6y agoThank you for making this a progressive web app. I’ve been preaching the benefits of PWAs for a while now and the first thing I do on any new site I access from my phone is try to add it to the Home Screen. Well done!
- dash2 6y agoThis is a great idea, I've been looking for it for years!
- hezag 6y agoI'm an ADHD person who is tired of being trapped by the doomscroll, but like the idea of sharing random thoughts with some friends. Sometimes I just want to write something, but without receiving instant feedback, and I think Typefully will be very useful in these moments. Thank you!
- techstrategist 6y agoI’d like to use this, but I’m not approving that massive list of permissions.
- aboutabot 6y agoI love this idea! I've also recognized you. You're the duo from Mailbrew and Boxy Suite! I wonder, how do you find ideas for the great apps? Looks like you start from a need but at the same time I feel like you must be data-driven.
- linuz90 6y agoHey thanks! We actually very rarely start from data or market research, but basically from our own needs. We liked Gmail but hated it using it in the browser, so we've built Boxy Suite. We like following many websites, authors and creators, but felt overwhelmed by feeds, so we've built Mailbrew. We love Twitter but needed a focused writing environment to remove distractions when we want to publish our thoughts, so we've built Typefully. In every case, we decided to go ahead when we felt there might be thousands of people with the same need, and that we can address it effectively, leveraging our specific knowledge. When we have an idea that feels great, but we feel there's no real market for it, we don't pursue it. Hope this answers your question!
- aboutabot 6y agoThat's really good answer! Thanks for it! I guess I will need to get better into identifying my needs
- kgin 6y agoI would pay actual money for a Twitter-like site that only provided factual updates on topics I care about. I believe everyone has the right to express their opinion, but I'm just not emotionally equipped to handle being blasted daily by the firehose of all the opinions in the world. But I like to get updates.