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Ask HN: Rate my webapp, Tweet Link Monster

18 points by jackowayed 18y ago

It's not really what I would call a "startup" as I don't really plan to monetize, but I'd still like to see what you guys think and get users. Plus if you have any ideas of how to monetize well (the only ways I can think of are charging, charging for features, or putting ads in the feed), I'd be happy to hear them. It's my first webapp and my first post to HN. And if you'd please, don't turn this into a "never give your twitter password to anyone" "but I love all of these apps" discussion. As soon as twitter implements oauth, I'll use it. Until then, all of the solutions are ugly, and most become scaling issues very quickly. Though I did just come up with one that is only really ugly. Comments/suggestions/signing up are all greatly appreciated.

PStamatiou 18y ago
interesting concept and this might actually be useful to me as I "follow" something like 700 or 800 ppl. on the other hand, i will not be able to use it. my twitter password is for me and me only: http://blog.dave.org.uk/2008/12/twitter-and-passwords.html http://blog.dave.org.uk/2008/12/twitter-and-passwords.html isn't there a way to use this with the user's currently logged in twitter cookie/session or some such like http://twitpay.me http://twitpay.me does?
- jackowayed 18y ago
  Twitpay doesn't use the twitter session. The way twitpay is setup, it's a lot easier to go without a password. The only ways not to use a password lead to ridiculously huge scaling issues. According to Twitter, they will offer OAuth (http://oauth.net http://oauth.net) "shortly". When they do that, I'll implement it.
- jpcx01 18y ago
  Really? Seriously, what permanent damage can twitter link monster do when they steal your twitter account and start posting PR0n ad links to it. You'll get your twitter account back, and then just delete those posts. And twitter monster will have made about $1.30 in affiliate fees, and be out of business. And you'd have some great material for 6-7 blog posts about how you'll never give out your twitter account information again. Sorry, your paranoia just doesn't add up. Now, in some cases it does. If someone stole my gmail account, they'd be able to use google payments to buy whatever they hell they want. But twitter? Give me a break.
  - jackowayed 18y ago
    No, I understand the issues, especially for normal users. Normal users have a 1-password-fits-all scheme, which is a really bad idea. Then getting your Twitter account stolen is megabad. Even so though, there's twitpay, which lets you make payments via Twitter (I think it's setup so that it would only be any money that you have in your twitpay account that someone could steal, not money in paypal/credit card.) Still, if someone leaves a few hundred in their twitpay account that's sizable. Plus there's also a bug someone found so that once someone is logged in as you, they can just not close the window and keep tweeting as you forever. But that's still just tweeting. But really, the only people that really need to be wary of giving out their twitter password are people who use that username and pass for other things and people who have larges sums of money in their Twitpay account. I'm not stealing your passwords anyway though :-)
- jackowayed 18y ago
  and when twitpay blogged about not giving out your Twitter info (http://blog.twitpay.me/2008/12/10/stop-sharing-your-twitter-credentials/ http://blog.twitpay.me/2008/12/10/stop-sharing-your-twitter-...), saying that even if none of the apps use it maliciously, they could get hacked and have your info in their logs, I checked and made sure that people's info isn't stored in logs. And of course it's encrypted in the db.
teej 18y ago
My first reaction was "what the f...", but I got quickly sucked in to reading about it. I think your value proposition is clear, though it isn't something I would use. And the monseter is growing on me :-)
- jackowayed 18y ago
  yeah, I wanted something to make it stand out in the crowd of twitter apps.
  - Shamiq 18y ago
    haha...I would love to actually see that monster catch a bird with those hands... I know some links show up more than once among the various people I follow on twitter. Anyway you can eliminate that redundancy?
    - jackowayed 18y ago
      yeah, that's a good idea. I'll probably add it soon.
      - mihasya 18y ago
        It would be extra magical if you actually aggregated tweets by link, so that it only showed up as one "link", but you could see what everyone posted along with it.
        jackowayed 18y ago
        that would be pretty magical. it would take some refactoring of my setup, but it would be awesome. I'll fiugre out how much work it would take and think about it.
critke 18y ago
I like it - not sure if I'd use it, I get too many links through feeds and regular twitter use... but the biggest problem for me is that I hate putting my password into 3rd party apps.
- jackowayed 18y ago
  As I posted above/below/wherever that thread migrated to now, I plan to use OAuth once Twitter makes that an option.
mattdennewitz 18y ago
best mascot ever. very seriously.
eisokant 18y ago
Hi Jackowayed, This is almost exactly like my web app http://tweetlinks.org http://tweetlinks.org which I created and posted here several weeks ago. Eiso
- eisokant 18y ago
  Here is the News YC thread for it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392845 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392845
- jackowayed 18y ago
  Oh wow. I'm busy enough that I sorta read HN in and out, so I didn't see that thread. Well, good idea :-) They do vary in delivery method though. So it's not like I copied your app. (I actually started mine first. I've been doing it slowly over the last several months.) Neither of us seems to have plans of monetization, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
  - eisokant 18y ago
    Don't worry at all - It was just a fun app I made when I had some free time. If you want I would be happy to share some of the things I picked up on the way that made it run smoother. I was also going to implement an RSS feed because it was requested by some people (see YC thread) - I hope you don't mind. Let me know. All the best and goodluck with it! Eiso
    - kbrower 18y ago
      That some people was just me!
    - jackowayed 18y ago
      yeah, you can add RSS if you want. it's cool. and I'd love to hear any advice you have. I'm jackowayed on twitter and gmail
hardik 18y ago
I think the idea is very cool. Although I don't use twitter from phone I many times use it only for links. I am sure there must be others like me out there too.. great concept!
speek 18y ago
You have no idea how happy I am to see that you used the word "webapp" instead of "startup." (read: very happy)

18 points by jackowayed 18y ago

PStamatiou 18y ago

interesting concept and this might actually be useful to me as I "follow" something like 700 or 800 ppl. on the other hand, i will not be able to use it. my twitter password is for me and me only: http://blog.dave.org.uk/2008/12/twitter-and-passwords.html http://blog.dave.org.uk/2008/12/twitter-and-passwords.html isn't there a way to use this with the user's currently logged in twitter cookie/session or some such like http://twitpay.me http://twitpay.me does?

jackowayed 18y ago
Twitpay doesn't use the twitter session. The way twitpay is setup, it's a lot easier to go without a password. The only ways not to use a password lead to ridiculously huge scaling issues. According to Twitter, they will offer OAuth (http://oauth.net http://oauth.net) "shortly". When they do that, I'll implement it.
jpcx01 18y ago
Really? Seriously, what permanent damage can twitter link monster do when they steal your twitter account and start posting PR0n ad links to it. You'll get your twitter account back, and then just delete those posts. And twitter monster will have made about $1.30 in affiliate fees, and be out of business. And you'd have some great material for 6-7 blog posts about how you'll never give out your twitter account information again. Sorry, your paranoia just doesn't add up. Now, in some cases it does. If someone stole my gmail account, they'd be able to use google payments to buy whatever they hell they want. But twitter? Give me a break.
- jackowayed 18y ago
  No, I understand the issues, especially for normal users. Normal users have a 1-password-fits-all scheme, which is a really bad idea. Then getting your Twitter account stolen is megabad. Even so though, there's twitpay, which lets you make payments via Twitter (I think it's setup so that it would only be any money that you have in your twitpay account that someone could steal, not money in paypal/credit card.) Still, if someone leaves a few hundred in their twitpay account that's sizable. Plus there's also a bug someone found so that once someone is logged in as you, they can just not close the window and keep tweeting as you forever. But that's still just tweeting. But really, the only people that really need to be wary of giving out their twitter password are people who use that username and pass for other things and people who have larges sums of money in their Twitpay account. I'm not stealing your passwords anyway though :-)
jackowayed 18y ago
and when twitpay blogged about not giving out your Twitter info (http://blog.twitpay.me/2008/12/10/stop-sharing-your-twitter-credentials/ http://blog.twitpay.me/2008/12/10/stop-sharing-your-twitter-...), saying that even if none of the apps use it maliciously, they could get hacked and have your info in their logs, I checked and made sure that people's info isn't stored in logs. And of course it's encrypted in the db.

teej 18y ago

My first reaction was "what the f...", but I got quickly sucked in to reading about it. I think your value proposition is clear, though it isn't something I would use. And the monseter is growing on me :-)

jackowayed 18y ago
yeah, I wanted something to make it stand out in the crowd of twitter apps.
- Shamiq 18y ago
  haha...I would love to actually see that monster catch a bird with those hands... I know some links show up more than once among the various people I follow on twitter. Anyway you can eliminate that redundancy?
  - jackowayed 18y ago
    yeah, that's a good idea. I'll probably add it soon.
    - mihasya 18y ago
      It would be extra magical if you actually aggregated tweets by link, so that it only showed up as one "link", but you could see what everyone posted along with it.
      - jackowayed 18y ago
        that would be pretty magical. it would take some refactoring of my setup, but it would be awesome. I'll fiugre out how much work it would take and think about it.

critke 18y ago

I like it - not sure if I'd use it, I get too many links through feeds and regular twitter use... but the biggest problem for me is that I hate putting my password into 3rd party apps.

jackowayed 18y ago
As I posted above/below/wherever that thread migrated to now, I plan to use OAuth once Twitter makes that an option.

mattdennewitz 18y ago

best mascot ever. very seriously.

eisokant 18y ago

Hi Jackowayed, This is almost exactly like my web app http://tweetlinks.org http://tweetlinks.org which I created and posted here several weeks ago. Eiso

eisokant 18y ago
Here is the News YC thread for it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392845 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392845
jackowayed 18y ago
Oh wow. I'm busy enough that I sorta read HN in and out, so I didn't see that thread. Well, good idea :-) They do vary in delivery method though. So it's not like I copied your app. (I actually started mine first. I've been doing it slowly over the last several months.) Neither of us seems to have plans of monetization, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
- eisokant 18y ago
  Don't worry at all - It was just a fun app I made when I had some free time. If you want I would be happy to share some of the things I picked up on the way that made it run smoother. I was also going to implement an RSS feed because it was requested by some people (see YC thread) - I hope you don't mind. Let me know. All the best and goodluck with it! Eiso
  - kbrower 18y ago
    That some people was just me!
  - jackowayed 18y ago
    yeah, you can add RSS if you want. it's cool. and I'd love to hear any advice you have. I'm jackowayed on twitter and gmail

hardik 18y ago

I think the idea is very cool. Although I don't use twitter from phone I many times use it only for links. I am sure there must be others like me out there too.. great concept!

speek 18y ago

You have no idea how happy I am to see that you used the word "webapp" instead of "startup." (read: very happy)