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I've started using X a lot more in the last few months since I built an app that let's you track habits with a tweet called Xtreeks (yeah, I know..). I enjoy t

by gmays 2y ago

I've started using X a lot more in the last few months since I built an app that let's you track habits with a tweet called Xtreeks (yeah, I know..). I enjoy the product, but wish they'd spend more time making the core elements of the product work. For example, aspects of the API just don't work as expected, like for some reason search and mention endpoints do not have support for long form posts (>280 characters) enough though X supports posts with thousands of characters. The result is the API appears to work for some posts and just silently fails for others. In addition to the API issues, we've struggled with inexplicable labeling/suspension and shadow banning, even on the personal account I've had for over a decade (seemed to be triggered by using my VPN). I understand the desire to control spam, but it seems excessive. Or if you do it excessively, at least provide adequate tools/support to request review. On my app's X account I paid for both API access ($200/mo) and the Verified Org status ($2,000) and had a hard time getting support that took days to reply, when it did reply at all. And when the person replied they had nothing to do with the account label process, so weren't able to help, which was quite frustrating. It was fine since this was a little side project, but if this was a business at scale and I was paying that much in addition to ad spend I'd be furious. Anyway, I know nothing about the Head of Eng or what's at the root of these issues, but I'm a big fan of X and hope they're able to fix these things. It's such. valuable tool. I'm even fine if it's pay to play, but if someone is on the higher tiers of your paid plans the support should be available when they need it.

smileybarry 2y ago
> For example, aspects of the API just don't work as expected, like for some reason search and mention endpoints do not have support for long form posts (>280 characters) At the risk of sounding blunt, they probably fired the people who actually built the API at Twitter and it's now (internally) in maintenance mode. They very openly don't care about giving other companies data -- even with the new pricey API tiers -- or making the non-app/-website experience good at all. I doubt any of the new item types -- Articles, ordered media in tweets, etc. -- even have an API exposed.
jonkoops 2y ago
The API is broken by design, even before Musk took over they slowly crippled it so you would only use official Twitter apps.
avs733 2y ago
>I enjoy the product, but wish they'd spend more time making the core elements of the product work. I think it might be worth stepping back and thinking about what the core elements of the product is. Not just with X, but with with all social media. Personally I've migrated from thinking 'damn this is broken' to 'oh thats a feature not a bug'. I'm embarassed how long this really took me across a lot of platforms, but when I stopped thinking about my needs as driving product design decisions it all was less frustrating (albeit more disturbing).
abxyz 2y ago
Why did you choose to build it on top of X? X is no longer Twitter, it's Elon Musk's vehicle for his personal political agenda. Setting aside whether you are aligned with Musk's political views, it seems like a poor decision to align yourself to a platform that is so explicitly not intended to be used the way you're using it. You should take this as a sign to fix your dependency on X. Musk doesn't care about what you're doing, he cares about his political agenda, he will happily destroy what you're doing if it were to benefit him.
- DonHopkins 2y ago
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  - pc86 2y ago
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      - pc86 2y ago
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        DonHopkins 2y ago
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        pc86 2y ago
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        computerthings 2y ago
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haswell 2y ago
> I'm a big fan of X and hope they're able to fix these things. It's such. valuable tool. Genuine question: what value are people finding on X these days? I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but I gave up on the site due to the rampant toxicity awhile ago. Are people just highly curating their feeds? It started to feel like going to a trash dump with the intention of finding things that aren’t trash. Perhaps possible, but extremely smelly and occasionally the cause of a bed bug infestation.
- throw0101c 2y ago
  > Genuine question: what value are people finding on X these days? I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but I gave up on the site due to the rampant toxicity awhile ago. Are people just highly curating their feeds? There are still a few Nitter instances running, so I use a web browser to check up on a few individuals (journalists, economists) sporadically. (I don't have any apps from The Socials installed on my phone (and never have): always web-based lurking.)
  - pc86 2y ago
    Is "I don't have social media apps on my phone" the new "I don't even own a tv"?
    - creaturemachine 2y ago
      Yes, and using the web as a workaround is like continuing to watch TV down at the pub.
    - throw0101c 2y ago
      > Is "I don't have social media apps on my phone" the new "I don't even own a tv"? I know myself well enough to know that it'd be a bad idea for me. I have enough issues with screen time as it is, I don't need it in my pocket as well.
- tpm 2y ago
  > what value are people finding on X these days? I find value in: 1. Good ML accounts that allow me to stay up to date. Didn't find such concentration of them anywhere else, even after some have left. This is what mostly keeps me there. 2. Current info about the russian aggression from a few trusted accounts, mostly in ukrainian. Again, as I don't want to use Telegram, it's hard to find those in other places, though some good ones are also on Mastodon and Bsky.
fauxpas 2y ago
[flagged]
gmays 2y ago
For context in response to the questions about "Why build on X?" I've be working to relearn math and there happens to be a large group of others also doing the same with Math Academy and sharing daily updates on X. I found this inspiring (especially as the lessons got harder) so I tweeting my updates too. But I also wanted a way to independently track my progress across math and other areas to see progress over time, even if I changed tools or stopped tweeting. So that's the reason I built app on X: So my tweets get logged in a GitHub-like habit graph to show progress over time. It just pulled my bio/profile from X (login with X) and tracks my habit tweets. It's super simple, but meets my needs perfectly. My habit page: https://xtreeks.com/gabemays https://xtreeks.com/gabemays I understand the questions around the long-term stability of the API, but I'm optimistic.

by gmays 2y ago

smileybarry 2y ago

> For example, aspects of the API just don't work as expected, like for some reason search and mention endpoints do not have support for long form posts (>280 characters) At the risk of sounding blunt, they probably fired the people who actually built the API at Twitter and it's now (internally) in maintenance mode. They very openly don't care about giving other companies data -- even with the new pricey API tiers -- or making the non-app/-website experience good at all. I doubt any of the new item types -- Articles, ordered media in tweets, etc. -- even have an API exposed.

jonkoops 2y ago

The API is broken by design, even before Musk took over they slowly crippled it so you would only use official Twitter apps.

avs733 2y ago

>I enjoy the product, but wish they'd spend more time making the core elements of the product work. I think it might be worth stepping back and thinking about what the core elements of the product is. Not just with X, but with with all social media. Personally I've migrated from thinking 'damn this is broken' to 'oh thats a feature not a bug'. I'm embarassed how long this really took me across a lot of platforms, but when I stopped thinking about my needs as driving product design decisions it all was less frustrating (albeit more disturbing).

abxyz 2y ago

Why did you choose to build it on top of X? X is no longer Twitter, it's Elon Musk's vehicle for his personal political agenda. Setting aside whether you are aligned with Musk's political views, it seems like a poor decision to align yourself to a platform that is so explicitly not intended to be used the way you're using it. You should take this as a sign to fix your dependency on X. Musk doesn't care about what you're doing, he cares about his political agenda, he will happily destroy what you're doing if it were to benefit him.

DonHopkins 2y ago
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- pc86 2y ago
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  - DonHopkins 2y ago
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    - pc86 2y ago
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      - DonHopkins 2y ago
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        pc86 2y ago
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      - computerthings 2y ago
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haswell 2y ago

> I'm a big fan of X and hope they're able to fix these things. It's such. valuable tool. Genuine question: what value are people finding on X these days? I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but I gave up on the site due to the rampant toxicity awhile ago. Are people just highly curating their feeds? It started to feel like going to a trash dump with the intention of finding things that aren’t trash. Perhaps possible, but extremely smelly and occasionally the cause of a bed bug infestation.

throw0101c 2y ago
> Genuine question: what value are people finding on X these days? I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but I gave up on the site due to the rampant toxicity awhile ago. Are people just highly curating their feeds? There are still a few Nitter instances running, so I use a web browser to check up on a few individuals (journalists, economists) sporadically. (I don't have any apps from The Socials installed on my phone (and never have): always web-based lurking.)
- pc86 2y ago
  Is "I don't have social media apps on my phone" the new "I don't even own a tv"?
  - creaturemachine 2y ago
    Yes, and using the web as a workaround is like continuing to watch TV down at the pub.
  - throw0101c 2y ago
    > Is "I don't have social media apps on my phone" the new "I don't even own a tv"? I know myself well enough to know that it'd be a bad idea for me. I have enough issues with screen time as it is, I don't need it in my pocket as well.
tpm 2y ago
> what value are people finding on X these days? I find value in: 1. Good ML accounts that allow me to stay up to date. Didn't find such concentration of them anywhere else, even after some have left. This is what mostly keeps me there. 2. Current info about the russian aggression from a few trusted accounts, mostly in ukrainian. Again, as I don't want to use Telegram, it's hard to find those in other places, though some good ones are also on Mastodon and Bsky.

fauxpas 2y ago

[flagged]

gmays 2y ago

For context in response to the questions about "Why build on X?" I've be working to relearn math and there happens to be a large group of others also doing the same with Math Academy and sharing daily updates on X. I found this inspiring (especially as the lessons got harder) so I tweeting my updates too. But I also wanted a way to independently track my progress across math and other areas to see progress over time, even if I changed tools or stopped tweeting. So that's the reason I built app on X: So my tweets get logged in a GitHub-like habit graph to show progress over time. It just pulled my bio/profile from X (login with X) and tracks my habit tweets. It's super simple, but meets my needs perfectly. My habit page: https://xtreeks.com/gabemays https://xtreeks.com/gabemays I understand the questions around the long-term stability of the API, but I'm optimistic.