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Twitter kicking off a developer API campaign on January 16, 2023
- mvid 4y agoMy guess is this is where they announce new applications for 3rd party clients that need to pay fees and show ads
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoA few $/month for each user for API access or perhaps free for verified/blue users would make sense.
- suction 4y agoSo if I create a free Twitter client that has 10000 users, I will have to pay Elon 80000 Dollars every month? Seems a worthwhile effort ;-)
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoI don't think Twitter cares about free Twitter clients, or even commercial ones. It's always amazed me that TweetDeck has existed for so long, but now if users aren't being monetized by ads or paying for (Blue) features in the Twitter app I can see them not being welcome on Musks Twitter.
- darreninthenet 4y agoTweetDeck survived as it's owned by Twitter
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoSorry meant TweetBot!
- hgsgm 4y agoYour users can pay. This is the "insert API key to continue" model, standard across the industry.
- suction 4y ago[dead]
- rvz 4y agoIt should be $/month of the third party app developer or a tiered plan where you choose depending on the number of users using it. An easy win-win-win-win for Twitter, partners, users and developers.
- andrewclunn 4y ago[flagged]
- iLoveOncall 4y agoThat sounds perfectly reasonable to be honest.
- smcl 4y agoPerfectly reasonable would be telling their existing API users “we will revoke your access to the APIs you are using and will introduce a new program where you have to pay a bit more to use them” with some kind of notice period that overlapped with the introduction of the new program. What they did was suddenly yank access for a handful of apps then go silent for four days, before sending an email out to API users for (maybe?) a new program which we can’t be 100% sure was part of the plan or just an old scheduled mailer by a now-fired person. We are left guessing because nobody really knows what’s going on at Twitter any more.
- iLoveOncall 4y agoThat's not the topic at hand.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Vinnl 4y agoIt kinda is - that's the reason OP labelled it as "unbridled audacity".
- torben-friis 4y agoHow is their discontinuation without warning or communication of the old api not relevant to the topic of the new one?
- iLoveOncall 4y agoBecause the comment thread is about the monetization of the API, not how Twitter communicates with 3rd party developers.
- nayroclade 4y agoPerhaps, but if they had a plan to monetize 3rd party clients, then the first people they'd want to sign up would be existing clients with developed products and an install base. Instead it seems they just silently killed them.
- pjc50 4y agoAd scheduled months ago by someone who has since been laid off? Internal ads are presumably "free" to Twitter.
- Manfred 4y agoOn the other hand, it's kind of embarrassing when you don't have your external communication sorted out.
- smt88 4y agoMusk has very intentionally killed the "external communication" teams at both Tesla and Twitter. This isn't embarrassing, it's inherent to choices he makes when running companies.
- crote 4y agoRegardless of whether you have a PR team or not, how is making a fool out of yourself anything but embarrassing? Kicking off an API developer campaign mere days after silently killing API access for its biggest users is a VERY bad look. Are you saying that Musk is intentionally trying to make Twitter look like the laughing stock of the tech industry?
- smcl 4y agoI think he’s definitely trying to look like a cutthroat, willing to strip down the company to its essentials and reintroduce a sort of startup culture. The fact that his efforts have also made Twitter and himself a bit of a laughing stock are an unfortunate side effect to how poorly and clumsily he's executed this plan. Note: I used to say that even though I don't particularly love some of the changes Musk made, I hoped it would turn out ok and that Twitter would survive somehow. But I accidentally cured myself of my Twitter habit (waited a couple of days to see if Tweetbot would regain API access again, never restarted) so I’m just kinda indifferent to it now.
- pjc50 4y ago
- twelve40 4y agowhy are all these people so up in arms about this?
- ilogik 4y agobecause twitter just blocked the API keys to the most popular third party apps, without any messaging whatsoever.
- cinntaile 4y agoIf you (plan to) shut down an API, it's kinda nice if you communicate this beforehand rather than just pulling the plug and keeping everyone in the dark.
- Lutger 4y agoI believe because it shows how much we depend on good behavior of Big Tech (or Big anything really) and are at their mercy. I think most people do generally have the expectation of big corps leadership behaving somewhat decently most of the times, at least publicly, and not being totally disrespectful since that harms their reputation. Musk goes against that expectation, quite spectacularly. This is changing the game somewhat, people also are up in arms about google shutting down useful services even when they give many months notice - this is far, far worse.
- lawgimenez 4y agoMight try directing this question to the user's who paid for Tweetbot's yearly plan and won't be able to use it anymore.
- smcl 4y agoI'm one of those Tweetbot users. If I'm honest its like ~1 USD a month (29 CZK), so for me at least the money isn't really a huge deal. It was just a bit confusing not knowing wtf was happening and whether it'd be reversed (clearly now we know it won't be)
- HunchedOver 4y agoWhat's the issue here, an important American day? Genuinely ignorant of what's the big concern about launching a campaign on this date.
- drcongo 4y agoIt's just 3 days after Twitter cut off API access for a bunch of developers without warning.
- Manfred 4y agoThe issue is that people have noticed problems accessing the APIs and they are speculating that Twitter is preparing a change to API access which would put more restrictions in place.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- terhechte 4y agoContext for those not following: Twitter has silently shut down their API for many third party clients without any communication. Companies with apps that have been using the API for 15+ years are left in the dark: https://blog.iconfactory.com/2023/01/state-of-the-twitterverse/ https://blog.iconfactory.com/2023/01/state-of-the-twitterver...
- TheHappyOddish 4y agoThanks. The foaming at the mouth rabble here following this closely apparently expect everyone to be up to date on the movements of Twitter at all times.
- tinyhouse 4y agoThe moment Musk acquired Twitter they should've known this would happen. The guy doesn't care about anyone except himself.
- philliphaydon 4y agoTo be fair you could argue the same for 3rd parties. Twitter may have grown cos of 3rd party apps but it would die to 3rd party apps too if it can’t make money.
- Fnoord 4y agoSure, you could argue that, but... Without API we go back to web scraping, Selenium, etc. Now guess which method is more expensive for any company (including Twitter)? Web scraping. Its the entire reason an API started to exist in the first place. Besides, if there is authentication involved, the user is logged in, and API calls can be profiled. So I would say to your statement: "Definitely not." Only on the short term. And those users you lose you might be able to write off as dead weight or leeches but if a couple of big fish will have impact on the power of the network effect. And once that is reduced, the domino effect might take place.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Lutger 4y agoNow is the perfect time to check back in with your developer account to see if you haven't been banned without warning. Its pretty amazing to make Google seem like a beacon of stability, but Twitter managed to do it. I feel for all the developers scrambling to make a mastodon app now in an effort to restart or secure their clients, and wish them luck.
- iLoveOncall 4y ago> I feel for all the developers scrambling to make a mastodon app now in an effort to restart or secure their clients Is anyone doing that? It would be incredibly foolish to believe that people that paid for a Twitter client would suddenly be fine with a paying for a Mastodon client.
- schappim 4y agoI think you would be surprised. The folks who will pay for a premium experience by using a 3rd party app are likely willing to do the same on another platform.
- Hamuko 4y agoMight be a hard sell for me since less than 10% of the accounts that I follow on Twitter have any kind of Mastodon presence, and toot per tweet volume is probably considerably less than 10%. I can get a lot more value from a good Twitter client than I can from a good Mastodon client.
- Xylakant 4y agoOn the other hand, I left twitter quite a while ago and I was a tweetbot user. I’ll be purchasing Ivory the day it’s available since I’m really waiting for a mastodon client that offers the tweetbot experience.
- Hamuko 4y agoPurchasing or subscribing? Because I'd wager that Ivory will be on a yearly subscription basis like Tweetbot is now.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- michpoch 4y agoIs the Twitter team back to the office? I'd imagine the API being down is something you'd casually mention in the queue to the coffee machine. It should have trickled down to the marketing department...
- tinyhouse 4y agoYou're naive to think this is not intentional...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kevingadd 4y agoWhat marketing department? Musk laid off tons of people, are you sure they still have one?
- andreareina 4y agoWhat office? Haven’t they stopped paying rent on the lot?
- sampa 4y agoAs if Twitter was ever (even b4 Musk) friendly to 3d party clients... PS Cawbird still works
- Slighted 4y ago[flagged]
- diffrentworld1 4y ago[flagged]
- alpha123123 4y agoHow do I report this comment? Not seeing the option.
- diffrentworld1 4y ago[flagged]
- blacklight 4y agoThey've already broken their API so many times (even before Musk came) that any developer who still wastes their time building something against their pile of crap is either desperate or fool.
- hgsgm 4y agoOr a someone who operates in the real world and understands that projects require maintenance to stay relevant in a changing world.
- seydor 4y agoTwitter 's API was always terrible to third part apps. Snarky comments about Elon aside, it s gonna be great if they are going to be serious about opening up and keeping it up this time.
- shapefrog 4y agoTried to accept the Developer T&C's and it complained I didnt have a verified phone number on account. Added UK mobile phone number to account and refused to send SMS to verify it.
- stuaxo 4y agoYeah, but no - even if you ignore anything else[1] current twitter treats developers with disrespect and any API you used could be turned off at a whim (even more so than repeat offenders Google). [1] It's also impossible to ignore everything else; why would I want to help a service run by a middle aged billionaire edge-lord ?
- dom96 4y agoShameless plug: I created a browser extension to help transition to Mastodon[0]. If you don't yet feel like you can leave twitter.com, but want to explore alternatives it's a great way to get started. Essentially it injects Mastodon posts into your Twitter timeline, so you can retain your existing Twitter following while getting exposed to Mastodon. [0] - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mastodon-chirper/lgiffpmohlpjlkclpmelkkfmjnlpafne?hl=en-GB&authuser=0 https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mastodon-chirper/l...
- andy_ppp 4y agoI would think the other way around - moving to Mastodon and still being able to keep up with a select few from Twitter would be excellent. Could even allow replying to tweets and stuff if a browser extension. I wonder if there could be a way to handle messages from other systems as a first class message in mastodon while saying on twitter "a discussion about this tweet is happening on Mastodon: _link_".
- willio58 4y agoLove the example of elonjet being put back on the twitter feed!
- 4y ago
- practice9 4y agoTwitter developer relations sucked under Dorsey and continue to be perfectly awful under Musk. Even the developer signup process is broken. You fill in the required form, get an email that they need more details about the intended use (despite the fact they already ask about that in the form), and then nobody reads your follow-up emails
- bamboozled 4y agoI have to say, this is the first news I've heard about Twitter in weeks, and of course, it's an idiotic story, but man, it's been refreshing to have had a break from Musk and Twitter.
- pictur 4y agotwitter seems determined to further screw up its API potential
- thatjoeoverthr 4y agoI’m sorry, I’m too dumb. What’s a “developer API campaign”? How does it get kicked off? What does it get kicked off from?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hairofadog 4y agoThey just mean a marketing campaign aimed at developers. It looks like the person who made the Mastodon post had a Twitter developer account, and Twitter sent them an email saying, "Hey, developer! Now seems like a great time to build some stuff with the Twitter API!" I'm assuming this was something designed ages ago and someone forgot to turn it off, but the hashtag they chose for the background of the email-marketing image – #whatshappening – is on point, as I'm sure that's what every developer who uses the Twitter API has been saying. On the other hand, I see the developer site is back up. If this is indeed a new marketing campaign, it's a brash move.
- fknorangesite 4y agoWhat did you find confusing about the screenshot?
- thatjoeoverthr 4y agoEverything. I’m forgetting my English. I understand now that “kicked off” means they’re starting something, not banning something.
- wildpeaks 4y agoThe fact that people pay for thirdparty apps when the official app is free should hint just how bad the official app is.