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Lol building an app on twitter is one of the stupidest mistakes a developer can make. They are one of the most hostile companies to developers. Anyone building

Lol building an app on twitter is one of the stupidest mistakes a developer can make. They are one of the most hostile companies to developers. Anyone building anything on twitters API should assume their app will be banned if it gets any kind if usage.

lnanek2 14y ago
I have to agree. I've had apps banned by Twitter just because they let people tweet their scores easily via the API. Looks too much like a Twitter client, boom, your API access is dead. Wasn't there a successful client on Windows 8 recently, a platform where there wasn't even an official client, and they refused to forgo the API limits on the number of users you can have? Using the Twitter API is setting yourself up for failure.
bgilroy26 14y ago
I'm pretty sure that it's a win for Codecademy whether Twitter changes their API or not. The brand name will motivate students to learn, and the point is to find out how to work with APIs in general.
- wilfra 14y ago
  Why are you making logical, rational statements in the middle of a twitter-hating party?
- lnanek2 14y ago
  I've heard a lot of people say the Codeacademy lesson quality just isn't that good yet, so teaching people to use an API that will shoot them in the foot isn't going to help. And honestly, if they want to teach Twitter, they should just teach asking the user for a username and password and pretending to be a web browser, because that's the best practice for using it nowadays. Saw foursquare doing that the other day.
wallflower 14y ago
Building an app that shows a public timeline is the Hello, World app of 2013. Back in my day, we had a lame Java Pet Store. I'm jealous.
demachina 14y ago
I'd have to agree, training on the Twitter API is just a bad idea. Its just weird to see a company do everything imaginable to drive people off their API to turn around and want to train people on it. Most companies turn kind of hostile with their API when money is at stake but Twitter has been particularly bad, especially considering a lot of the innovation on their platform happened on third party clients. They haven't mustered any kind of innovation of their own either. The Chinese weibo's like Sina are actually quite a bit more interesting if you can deal with the language and the governmental interference. If you want a ground floor learning experience app.net is probably a better choice though I doubt its ever going to gain critical mass.
skippyta 14y ago
@ BoxWorks this year, Jeff Lawson of Twilio fame touched on APIs and mentioned something along the lines of "A developer should never trust an API or expect anything of it if he's not paying for it. As long as you're not paying, you're just another developer to the API provider. The moment you fork over any cash, you're a customer." Mind, this is really crudely paraphrased, but the sentiment remains. This was immediately in the wake of Twitter's API changes last summer.
- juanbyrge 14y ago
  Another reason twitter is so scummy! Instead of having straight forward pricing, they entice developers to building on their platform, and then cut them off when the developers need help the most! IN the meantime they get the benefits of the interactions in the apps.
mark_integerdsv 14y ago
Do you have any recommendations for development in the analytical space? I mean, either you develop on Twitters API or you have a gaping hole in your social media analysis product... Game over?

lnanek2 14y ago

I have to agree. I've had apps banned by Twitter just because they let people tweet their scores easily via the API. Looks too much like a Twitter client, boom, your API access is dead. Wasn't there a successful client on Windows 8 recently, a platform where there wasn't even an official client, and they refused to forgo the API limits on the number of users you can have? Using the Twitter API is setting yourself up for failure.

bgilroy26 14y ago

I'm pretty sure that it's a win for Codecademy whether Twitter changes their API or not. The brand name will motivate students to learn, and the point is to find out how to work with APIs in general.

wilfra 14y ago
Why are you making logical, rational statements in the middle of a twitter-hating party?
lnanek2 14y ago
I've heard a lot of people say the Codeacademy lesson quality just isn't that good yet, so teaching people to use an API that will shoot them in the foot isn't going to help. And honestly, if they want to teach Twitter, they should just teach asking the user for a username and password and pretending to be a web browser, because that's the best practice for using it nowadays. Saw foursquare doing that the other day.

wallflower 14y ago

Building an app that shows a public timeline is the Hello, World app of 2013. Back in my day, we had a lame Java Pet Store. I'm jealous.

demachina 14y ago

I'd have to agree, training on the Twitter API is just a bad idea. Its just weird to see a company do everything imaginable to drive people off their API to turn around and want to train people on it. Most companies turn kind of hostile with their API when money is at stake but Twitter has been particularly bad, especially considering a lot of the innovation on their platform happened on third party clients. They haven't mustered any kind of innovation of their own either. The Chinese weibo's like Sina are actually quite a bit more interesting if you can deal with the language and the governmental interference. If you want a ground floor learning experience app.net is probably a better choice though I doubt its ever going to gain critical mass.

skippyta 14y ago

@ BoxWorks this year, Jeff Lawson of Twilio fame touched on APIs and mentioned something along the lines of "A developer should never trust an API or expect anything of it if he's not paying for it. As long as you're not paying, you're just another developer to the API provider. The moment you fork over any cash, you're a customer." Mind, this is really crudely paraphrased, but the sentiment remains. This was immediately in the wake of Twitter's API changes last summer.

juanbyrge 14y ago
Another reason twitter is so scummy! Instead of having straight forward pricing, they entice developers to building on their platform, and then cut them off when the developers need help the most! IN the meantime they get the benefits of the interactions in the apps.

mark_integerdsv 14y ago

Do you have any recommendations for development in the analytical space? I mean, either you develop on Twitters API or you have a gaping hole in your social media analysis product... Game over?