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Twitter Discards Client UI Community

Posted by Soulskill on from the pack-your-junk dept.

Antique Geekmeister writes "Twitter has just decided to discard the community of developers who've created interesting and innovative UI applications. The announcement shows that they intend to switch from the 'bazaar' model of development to the 'cathedral,' with much tighter control of user interfaces for 'security' and 'consistency.'"

127 comments

  1. Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure that there's no real value to Twitter, so why would it have a community?

    1. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by tomhudson · · Score: 2

      There's no real value to the [select * political_party where political_party='p0wned by corporations' or elected >=1960].. That hasn't stopped people voting for them.

    2. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by rilian4 · · Score: 2

      There's no real value to the [select * political_party where political_party='p0wned by corporations' or elected >=1960].. That hasn't stopped people voting for them.

      So essentially you're saying there is no value to any political party whatsoever as 100% of them fit your query. Voting is our right and our duty therefore we must vote for someone. Whom would you possibly vote for using your theory that *all* political parties have no value?

      --

      ...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
    3. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Not completely true! There are one or two corrupt military juntas that have been in power since before 1960. They're pretty vauable.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    4. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they're corrupt then they're (at least partially) getting owned by corporations, meaning they fall under the category of having no real value.

      It's the incorruptible military juntas you're looking for.

    5. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no real value to you, so why would I care?

    6. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by tomhudson · · Score: 1

      There's no real value to the [select * political_party where political_party='p0wned by corporations' or elected >=1960].. That hasn't stopped people voting for them.

      So essentially you're saying there is no value to any political party whatsoever as 100% of them fit your query. Voting is our right and our duty therefore we must vote for someone. Whom would you possibly vote for using your theory that *all* political parties have no value?

      I'm sure you can find at least one political party that has never been in power (never mind the "since 1960" part), and hasn't had a chance to get its nose into the trough ...

    7. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, so I'm not the only one not using Twitter?

    8. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Twitter has value, but to it's shareholders and those who would purchase it's user list and access to those users.

      I would bet that the reasoning for this is to make sure everybody gets to see the dickbar in a consistent way: front and center.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    9. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Twits are attracted to it.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    10. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Somebody who isn't a member of a political party?

    11. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by jo42 · · Score: 1

      Wait, Twitter has a community?

      I believe it is called the 'Twitterverse'.

      Personally I prefer 'Twatterverse'.

    12. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that there's no real value to Twitter, so why would it have a community?

      The vast majority of what's found on Twitter is certainly pointless - but it is now considered THE place to find breaking news when it comes to professional baseball at least (and perhaps other sports as well; but baseball is the only one I follow closely_.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    13. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by cynicist · · Score: 1

      Voting is our right and our duty therefore we must vote for someone

      That's amusing

    14. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by feepness · · Score: 3, Informative

      Voting is our right and our duty therefore we must vote for someone.

      Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They're nothing but hideous space reptiles. [unmasks them]
      [audience gasps in terror]
      Kodos: It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.
      [murmurs]
      Man1: He's right, this is a two-party system.
      Man2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate.
      Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away.

    15. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      If you think political corruption has gotten worse since 1960, it's your knowledge of history that is really killing you. Corruption was far worse before 1960, it's gotten a lot better, perhaps mainly because it's easier for people to observe what's happening. Look at the teapot dome scandal, Tammany hall in New York, the corrupt politics of Chicago, the Owens Valley thing, etc. Look what happened during president Grant's tenure. It was really bad way back then. If we survived that, then we can survive the small stuff we have now.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    16. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by tomhudson · · Score: 0
      The wall-street and bank bail-outs are the biggest heist of all time. It's the first time that someone has managed to pull off a global-scale heist - and get paid for continuing to steal.

      None of those scandals sent the world into the deepest recession since the great depression. None of them threaten to bankrupt 46 of 50 states. None of them created derivatives that are worth multiples of the total global economy, that we have to back out of slowly, all the time guaranteeing any defaults for fear the whole house of cards will collapse. None of them threatened to turn the greenback into the American Peso.

      How many banksters went to jail? None. THAT is the true measure of corruption - when the government is too afraid to even put ONE of them on trial.

    17. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by rrohbeck · · Score: 1

      The main difference is that corruption today is accepted political practice, called PAC or "campaign financing."

      --
      thegodmovie.com - watch it
    18. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      If you think it was the banks that caused 46 of 50 states to come close to bankruptcy, your knowledge of current events is as bad as your history. That was primarily a function of elected representatives doing their job: increasing spending on projects, while cutting taxes. It's exactly what the people they represented wanted them to do.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    19. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by kwbauer · · Score: 1

      the corrupt politics of Chicago

      You're not actually suggesting that Chicago has improved over the years, are you?

      To borrow from Dragnet... the names have been changed...

      ... not to protect the innocent but simply because one family eventually becomes stronger and power shifts

    20. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by the_womble · · Score: 1

      The value of Twitter depends on who you follow. Saying Twitter is valueless because some people post valueless junk all the time, is rather like saying blogs are valueless because of the existence of blogs dominated by "hat my cat did" type posts, or that newspapers are valueless because of the existence of The National Enquirer, The Sun, etc.

      You also need to skim past the stuf that does not interest you. That is why the 140 character limit matters.

    21. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Well, it seems the police, as one example, are not as corrupt as they used to be. They used to just keep all the stuff they confiscated, get paid off by the mob, etc. Illinois does go to the limits in the corruption category, though.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    22. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > gotten worse .... it's gotten a lot better

      Don't you know any other verbs? Have you reduced your entire lexicon to telling people what you have "gotten"?

      Here are some verbs that you could have used in your posting: become, deteriorated, improved, ameliorated.

    23. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      You could try voting for a candidate based on their individual merits, rather than the party platform they represent. Moreover, you could attempt to hold that candidate to their non-party specific promises and encourage them to break with whatever party they associate with (if they do at all) whenever it runs counter to yours/the community's interests.

      There's no party worth voting for, but that doesn't mean there aren't candidates worth voting for.

    24. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Snaller · · Score: 1

      No, you are just and idiot - it has huge value.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    25. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Trillan · · Score: 1

      That's pretty ignorant. Having ready access to the insight of others like me on Twitter has saved me countless hours with specific technical problems, has guided me towards or away from specific paths months in advance, and even gave me something to do when I was stuck in a hospital without visitors (due to other family medical problems, in children).

    26. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it's a listserv for sms messages, it's awesome.

    27. Re:Wait, Twitter has a community? by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      *cough* *cough*

      UPDATE political_party p, political_party_owner o
      SET p.value = 0
      WHERE o.political_party = p.id
      AND o.type = :corporations
      AND p.id IN (SELECT e.political_party FROM election WHERE election_date >= '1960-01-01')

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  2. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    This is a stupid article. Read through TFA and you'll see they didn't do this at all. They tightened up the regulations with regard to tweet semantics to protect the core Twitter experience across multiple third-party apps.

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the regulations with regard to tweet semantics to protect the core Twitter experience

      Oh dear.

      OOI, are there any geeks left who do it for love of technology and challenge, or are they all money-grubbing lackeys to marketroids now?

    2. Re:What? by dagamer34 · · Score: 2

      I don't you read the article that well. This part in particular is troubling for a Twitter developer: "*The Opportunity for Developers* Developers have told us that they’d like more guidance from us about the best opportunities to build on Twitter. More specifically, developers ask us if they should build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience. The answer is no. " Basically, they are saying, "Don't bother writing a Twitter client, ours is so much better than yours." Of course, the REALLY funny part is that Twitter just bought Atebits, rebranded Tweetie and turned that into their iPhone Twitter client. Can you honestly tell me that Twitterific or TweetDeck weren't easily as worthy? And since they've essentially kicked developers out of their primary bread and butter, what's to stop them from going after other areas involving Twitter? They already have an official URL shortening service, so it's only a matter of time before images and video are taken as well. It's the patented "Extend and Extinguish" model pioneered by another famous tech company we all know...

    3. Re:What? by countertrolling · · Score: 1

      the regulations with regard to tweet semantics to protect the core Twitter experience

      Oh dear.

      Exactly.. Was that for real?

      --
      For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
    4. Re:What? by Phoshi · · Score: 2

      In defense of having their own url shortener, having multiple third party shorteners is a fucking stupid idea and should never have happened. The internet is a bad enough web of inter-tangled links as it is without introducing additional routing layers through unmoderated third parties who run a service which is very hard to monetise. (Because if I have to pay to make links, I won't make them. If I have to pay to view links, nobody will post them. If they serve ads, it's no longer a transparent forward and loses most of its appeal) That a third party service could die and take a huge chunk of the value of twitter's database with it is a terrifying thought, and shortening first party is the only reasonable way around it. It might be them being dicks, but it should have been there from the start.

    5. Re:What? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      I reckon there is money in typos. People who enter the wrong shortcut and hit a landing page with advertising instead.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    6. Re:What? by ZankerH · · Score: 1

      OOI, are there any geeks left who do it for love of technology and challenge?

      Yes, that would be the ones that aren't running or working for multi-million dollar corporations.

    7. Re:What? by tomhudson · · Score: 2

      This is a stupid article. Read through TFA and you'll see they didn't do this at all. They tightened up the regulations with regard to tweet semantics to protect the core Twitter experience across multiple third-party apps.

      I call shenanigans. If the "core Twitter experience" is so great, they wouldn't have to protect it - anything that broke it would die a painful, lonely, ugly death, since people wouldn't use it.

      It's the same as Canonical changing the amazon affiliate id in the Banshee music player - another money-loser getting ready to "monetize".the end user.

    8. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're saying they're Twitter employees?

    9. Re:What? by Bieeanda · · Score: 1
      Tweetdeck is an obnoxious piece of shit, and probably the exact reason why they're lowering the boom like this. Very recently, they rolled out an automatic 'tweet longer' function that's transparent to the user, and to other Tweetdeck users, but only shows a portion of the original 140 characters and then a shortened URL... that leads to that user's Tweetdeck web page and the whole mondo-tweet. Tweetdeck gets free advertising, the possibility of people changing to avoid that annoying 'functionality', and anyone they happen to partner with for user page advertising gets more eyeballs.

      Tweetdeck isn't the only third-party developer who's been caught doing some smelly shit recently, either. Others have been whapped for inserting ads and hijacking users streams for self-promotion and spamming, which is probably the meat of what this is about, and not forcing trending ads or whatever is written on any given person's chunk of falling sky.

    10. Re:What? by Homburg · · Score: 1

      Basically, they are saying, "Don't bother writing a Twitter client, ours is so much better than yours."

      Their terms of service say quite the opposite, though:

      Your Service may be an application or client that provides major components of a Twitter-like end user experience (a "Client"). An example of a Client is a downloadable application that displays user timelines and allows users to create and search for tweets.

      They do place restrictions on these clients, a few of which are potentially objectionable (particularly, you aren't allowed to use "data collected from end users of your Client to create or maintain a separate status update or social network database or service," which sounds like it might prevent, say, a client posting to Facebook and Twitter at the same time), but they're not banning them entirely.

    11. Re:What? by yahwotqa · · Score: 1

      You forgot to put "synergy" somewhere in there. No marketspeak is complete without synergy. Long live synergy!

  3. Fork it by Threni · · Score: 2

    And while you're at it, support more than 140 chars, or allow compression, or something.

    1. Re:Fork it by davester666 · · Score: 3, Funny

      It already supports compression. Common methods of compression include: removal of vowels, homonyms [like 'ur' instead of 'your'], etc...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    2. Re:Fork it by AndrewNeo · · Score: 2

      Supporting more than 140 characters would break SMS support.

    3. Re:Fork it by Threni · · Score: 1

      Who cares? That's like sticking with upper case because to change would break Apple ][ support. Most Twitter users (twats?) don't use it via SMS anyway.

    4. Re:Fork it by residieu · · Score: 1

      So send 2 SMSs instead of one. Big deal.

    5. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want a platform that supports more than 140 characters then why aren't you using something like Tumblr instead of Twitter.

    6. Re:Fork it by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Enforced terseness in messages is the only reason I (sometimes) follow Twitter vs pretty much never paying attention to most other social networks.

      If Twitter took away the shortness they would be consumed under the flood of other social apps.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    7. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Tumblr has more pron too! thegirlnextdoor.tumblr.com

    8. Re:Fork it by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      Enforced terseness in messages is the only reason I (sometimes) follow Twitter

      I have it completely vice versa: I don't simply see anything worth saying that can be said in only 140 letters, and if it is just a link to another site then I much rather skip the one extra step and go straight for the other site.

      Demonstrates quite well how different people can be.

    9. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no longer a char limit for SMS. Technically a 1000 char message would be sent as multiple messages in the background but to the sender and recipient they all arrive as a single message. Time to move out of the 90s

    10. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it wouldn't. The bottleneck is sending characters not receiving them. People using SMS would only send up to 140 characters while everyone else could post more. Really, why is this so hard for some people to understand?

      However, Twitter wouldn't be Twitter without the character limit. I think it would suffer and quickly die.

    11. Re:Fork it by contrapunctus · · Score: 2

      I summarized your post in less than 140 characters but according to you there is nothing worth saying in it.

      I have it completely vice versa: I don't simply see anything worth saying that can be said in only 140 letters unless it's a link which i could go to directly.

    12. Re:Fork it by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 0

      It already supports compression. Common methods of compression include: removal of vowels, homonyms [like 'ur' instead of 'your'], etc...

      LOL! RO^HFL!

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    13. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't simply see anything worth saying that can be said in only 140 letters

      ^^^ 78 chars

    14. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It already supports compression. Common methods of compression include: removal of vowels, homonyms [like 'ur' instead of 'your'], etc...

      LOL! RO^HFL!

      So... after the backspace, you're not rolling ON the floor laughing, you're just rolling the floor itself while laughing? What is this, Bozo the Clown's Interior Decoration and Home Renovation?

    15. Re:Fork it by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      There are numerous tweet-lengthening services like TwitLonger or Deck.ly that have a URL to the full posting

    16. Re:Fork it by EvilIdler · · Score: 1

      My provider supports 160 characters. Twitter is already not conforming to the SMS standard I've been using for years.

    17. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Buddy you're just showing your own ignorance there. The limit for SMS is 160 characters, no matter the provider. The limit for twitter is 140 characters so that there is 20 characters left over for control codes.

      And I don't even use the shit and I know that... *sigh* GET OFF MY LAWN.

    18. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally, a link that's NSFW while not being NSFL.

    19. Re:Fork it by AndrewNeo · · Score: 1

      So where do you suggest they put the username in the SMS message? (Psst, that's what the extra 20 characters is reserved for)

    20. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's 159 chars. Try this:

      I have it vice versa: nothing worthwhile can be said in only 140 letters except direct links http://bit.ly/eBGQP8

    21. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but your post was longer than that :-P

    22. Re:Fork it by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      Buddy you're just showing your own ignorance there. The limit for SMS is 160 characters, no matter the provider. The limit for twitter is 140 characters so that there is 20 characters left over for control codes.

      I thought the 20 extra characters were so when tweets get sent via SMS, the person posting the tweet's name is included?

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    23. Re:Fork it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, statusnet?

    24. Re:Fork it by Gaygirlie · · Score: 1

      I have it completely vice versa: I don't simply see anything worth saying that can be said in only 140 letters unless it's a link which i could go to directly

      You conveyed the whole point of the comment incorrectly: if it's a link to which I could go directly to then it's even less worth of a tweet than something else. And you omitted completely the "Demonstrates quite well how different people can be." which I also meant as a part of my comment. As I said, Twitter simply isn't worth it.

      To make the point clearer as to why I think it isn't worth it:

      If you are going to post a link to something there isn't enough space for any kind of even remotely decent summary which I could use to determine what the link is actually about and whether or not it is worth visiting. Also without any kind of a summary it feels just like a link aggregator and there's plenty of much better tools for such than Twitter.

      Secondly, with only 140 letters there is no space for having any kind of proper discussion about a select item, like for example this comment: I simply wouldn't be able to explain my opinions and arguments. To me the whole point of getting some kind of an overview of what others think about a select item is not only interesting but also useful, and there's often commenters who add something to the item that was omitted or not made clear enough. Again, not possible with only 140 characters.

    25. Re:Fork it by WWWWolf · · Score: 1

      And while you're at it, support more than 140 chars, or allow compression, or something.

      Already done.

    26. Re:Fork it by jgrahn · · Score: 1

      Buddy you're just showing your own ignorance there. The limit for SMS is 160 characters, no matter the provider.

      There's something called "concatenated messages" -- like IP fragmentation, but for SMS. I thought everyone supported that by now -- I did the system testing of one implementation 8 years ago.

    27. Re:Fork it by lee1 · · Score: 1

      But the messages are rarely terse - merely brief.

    28. Re:Fork it by contrapunctus · · Score: 1

      I'll be honest, I'm not going to read your post because it's too long and I don't know who you are to warrant wasting time reading it.

      "Brevity is the soul of wit"

    29. Re:Fork it by Trillan · · Score: 1

      Short messages are Twitter's killer feature, really. It make people limit their updates to a single, concise thought. It's the reason I can scan tweets.

      Now, I'm not saying they have to be 140 characters. Maybe 200 would have the same effect. But I'm sure when you say "support more than 140" you're really meaning "support arbitrary length," right?

  4. Twitter's End Game by dagamer34 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What this really means is that Twitter doesn't want users to have clients that outright refuse to display Promoted Tweets or things like the #dickbar. Seems they are all about the money now...

    1. Re:Twitter's End Game by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Considering how much money they've made up until this point, that's hardly surprising.

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    2. Re:Twitter's End Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      too true :)

    3. Re:Twitter's End Game by sirlatrom · · Score: 1

      Seems they are all about the money now...

      ... because they were not until now?

    4. Re:Twitter's End Game by rgbscan · · Score: 1

      I hate the #dickbar so much. Man it sucked. I paid for a new client just to get rid of it!

    5. Re:Twitter's End Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you mean to tell me that the twats have a dickbar?

  5. Applefied by drb226 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This strange and sometimes lucrative process is known as "Applefication".

    1. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If by "Applefication" you mean becoming incredibly popular with users, having highest customer satisfaction rates, and making shitload of money to developers and shareholders then yes. Poor Twitter.

    2. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry AC, drb226 meant controlling everything with an iron fist despite their previous motto of "Think Different", selling marginal hardware at boutique prices and catering to 10% of userspace.

      Apple doesn't care as long as they have the profits to pay for Steve's new pancreas so he can survive a few more years.

      Have you considered donating to the cause?

    3. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Do you morons ever stop to think how amazingly little influence you have when you make posts like that one?

      Trust me, nobody is going to change their opinion of Apple's business practices because of your exercise in applied stupidity. But they'll definitely form an opinion about you.

    4. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha ha! They're going to form an opinion about Anonymous Coward! This is a travesty, we need to get a team on this, stat!

      Accusing people of "applied stupidity" won't win you any friends, so you must be aiming for low influence yourself, yet you posted. It seems likely that you don't care what the person you're responding to thinks of you. Given that, why don't you assume that the reverse is also true? I would say that your post is as devoid of thought as you accuse his of being.

    5. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really, since a massive amount of Mac App Store submissions blatantly break Apple’s HIG, yet are still available.

    6. Re:Applefied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      compuserve and AOL were once incredibly popular with their users, had the highest customer satisfaction rates of online services, and made a shitload of money for their keyword customers too...

  6. Did they really think this through? by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The client variety for all tastes is what seems to have in part made Twitter so big.

    It has unusually diverse clients, and has become a strong platform. And now they throw the "platform" part out to just make it a grey, boring old school software application with no reach for varying interests and usage scenarios in their community?

    OK, well... It's their choice of course. But good job in trying to keep the extremely high popularity up. That's all I can say...

    I think they'll need our best wishes.

    Twitter was where many companies work their butts off to be. A company with their own client, but also a rich ecosystem of clients. Apparently, some don't like that, and *willingly* deconstruct their achievements.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    1. Re:Did they really think this through? by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      A company with their own client, but also a rich ecosystem of clients [...that...] has become a strong platform

      Are we talking about the same Twitter, a somewhat overhyped but essentially pretty basic and straightforward distribution service for short textual messages?

      And while there may be a large number of Twitter clients out there, I'm not convinced that this constitutes a "rich ecosystem", which would imply interdependent software and services building upon Twitter to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

      Twitter was where many companies work their butts off to be. [..] Apparently, some don't like that, and *willingly* deconstruct their achievements.

      Most companies work their butts off to make money. Perhaps Twitter think they'll make more money that way.

      As I said, a wide range of clients is not necessarily the same thing as a true ecosystem (which would be more dangerous to attack). While choice may be nice, I suspect that Twitter could afford to lose countless pointless "me too" reinventions of the wheel if they're particularly crappy, or they don't support Twitter the way that suits Twitter themselves.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    2. Re:Did they really think this through? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      RTFAing reveals that 90% of regular Twitterers actually use the official applications. So while they'd lose the geek vote (worse than they already have), you're unfortunately almost completely wrong.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    3. Re:Did they really think this through? by ThinkingThinker · · Score: 1

      This as certainly put a chill on Twitter for me.

    4. Re:Did they really think this through? by emag · · Score: 1

      That's what Twitter themselves say. Looking at the clients listed in my tweet stream, I'd say it's closer to 10%...

      --
      "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
    5. Re:Did they really think this through? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      That may be sampling bias, though. I imagine that Twitter's just reading off statistics, and wouldn't do this if they thought it would be a significant hit to their business!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    6. Re:Did they really think this through? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Depends on how you look at it. If the Geeks are creating innovative value for the platform they might just end up leading the way someplace else...

    7. Re:Did they really think this through? by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Yes, its amazing those idiots don't get that.

      It was bad enough when they changed the retweet to their new stupid way of displaying it (showing the avatar of the one getting retweeted rather than the one doing the retweeting), now this "consistent experience" is another word for bad interface.

      But hey, there is greed i them there hills. Now they are trying to make or break it. I'm betting on breaking it - unless google buys them and keeps it free to harvest the thoughts of men.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    8. Re:Did they really think this through? by snookums · · Score: 1

      That may be sampling bias, though. I imagine that Twitter's just reading off statistics, and wouldn't do this if they thought it would be a significant hit to their business!

      It's almost certainly sampling bias, but it's bias towards real people who actually use the system to communicate with other real people.

      I know some self-styled "social media optimizer" consultants who will promise you thousands of twitter followers in hours. It's just a botnet of twitter accounts, all following each other and re-tweeting random garbage. In other words, the official client and the website might account for a large proportion of the volume, but it's quite possible that 3rd-party clients account for a large proportion of the signal.

      --
      Be careful. People in masks cannot be trusted.
  7. TL;DR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    TL;DR

  8. That isn't what they said. by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Informative

    "If you are an existing developer of client apps, you can continue to serve
    your user base, but we will be holding you to high standards to ensure you
    do not violate users’ privacy, that you provide consistency in the user
    experience, and that you rigorously adhere to all areas of our Terms of
    Service. We have spoken with the major client applications in the Twitter
    ecosystem about these needs on an ongoing basis, and will continue to ensure
    a high bar is maintained. "
    Sound like they are just setting some standards.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    1. Re:That isn't what they said. by John+Whitley · · Score: 2

      While Twitter was both vague and threatening in this missive (really, wtf?), I'm also picking up a definite theme of them wanting to shut down client apps that are primarily used by spammers. I've noted a short list of apps/sites that generate follows that are virtually always spam -- to the point where I want to auto-block any follow that occurs via those apps.

    2. Re:That isn't what they said. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is quite funny if you consider the state of development of the "official" Twitter app for Android - absolute atrocity until they re-designed the UI in a recent update - programs like TweetDeck and Plume shit all over it.

    3. Re:That isn't what they said. by byronblue · · Score: 2

      by "high bar" do they mean #dickbar?

    4. Re:That isn't what they said. by Nimey · · Score: 1

      But passing that on won't guarantee page hits from outraged nerds.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    5. Re:That isn't what they said. by Zadaz · · Score: 1

      Figures, a company tries to have some standards and /.ers go crazy against it.

  9. Not discarding, just tightening control by Fez · · Score: 1

    FTA:

    If you are an existing developer of client apps, you can continue to serve
    your user base, but we will be holding you to high standards to ensure you
    do not violate users’ privacy, that you provide consistency in the user
    experience, and that you rigorously adhere to all areas of our Terms of
    Service. We have spoken with the major client applications in the Twitter
    ecosystem about these needs on an ongoing basis, and will continue to ensure
    a high bar is maintained.

    Seems to me that's saying that clients still exist, they're just being held to stricter standards. They'll only be discarding ones that don't follow their guidelines. Now I'm sure that means foisting all kinds of undesirable promotional crap on clients that can't be ignored, but it's not making clients obsolete.

    1. Re:Not discarding, just tightening control by alexandre_ganso · · Score: 2

      No. That means that the ones who does not implement their revenue stream (aka dickbar) won't have candy.

    2. Re:Not discarding, just tightening control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Go read the actual guidelines, at http://dev.twitter.com/pages/api_terms. There's a lot to be concerned about. For example, they also forbid any clients that monitor or benchmark Twitter performance, and the software actual "security and interface guidelines" are not stated. Also, for example, they've reserved the right to block or refuse clients that support multiple broadcast technologies.

    3. Re:Not discarding, just tightening control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. That means that the ones who does not implement their revenue stream (aka dickbar) won't have candy.

      Wow... and I actually like the 'dickbar,' as you call it. I guess that makes me a cock-sucking homo.

  10. I have twated for the last time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That does it. I'm officially announcing I will no longer use twitter.

    1. Re:I have twated for the last time! by palegray.net · · Score: 1

      Where can I find that tweet?

      --
      512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
  11. So no poking around with Net::Twitter anymore? by yalla · · Score: 1

    So anything except the official clients and some selected 3rd party clients will be banned?
    Meh.

    --
    You look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
  12. "Pack-your-junk"? by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

    Doesn't that comment belong in the TSA thread?

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  13. I wonder... by atomicbutterfly · · Score: 1

    I wonder how this affects the twitter client built into and available out-of-the-box within Ubuntu.

  14. #Dickbar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real issue here is that Twitter pushed the #dickbar onto an unsuspecting iOS world, and there was revolt, and mass emigration to third party clients.

    Nooooes! Our users!

  15. My botnets uses twitter! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You insensitive clods :(

  16. status.net ftw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of the tools will likely still work with status.net , won't they?

  17. Is this what happened to the Star Wars Emperor!? by ThinkingThinker · · Score: 1

    Last time we heard of the Star Wars Emperor, he was thrown into a giant pit int the death star. Evidently he lived through that and runs application development at Twitter. Everyone was recently complaining about the dickbar? How about the dickedapp? Since Tweetie sold out, the app completely and totally sucks. If Twitter thinks they are going to force me to use that steaming pile, I will just leave Twitter. Twitter, quit the Evil Empire crap. Run the service and stfu!

  18. homer simpson eats a tasty donut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    film @ 11!

  19. Trying not to step on Facebook's legal toes? by game+kid · · Score: 1

    Says Sarver:

    For example, some developers display “comment”, “like”, or other terms with tweets instead of “follow, favorite, retweet, reply” - thus changing the core functions of a tweet.

    So clearly one of their fears, perhaps for legal reasons, is getting their functions and widgets confused with, say, Facebook's. We all know how often YouTube and Facebook get mentioned in the same breath as Twitter (heed the great prophet Conan) but they are very much separate companies, and if there's even a chance they're stepping on Facebook's or any other's proprietaryGoodness(TM)* with software patents, DMCA, ACTA and such then I'm not sure twttr will want to take it. It also makes me wonder if Amazon.com asked Facebook before they made their own liker.

    It all reminds me of, among other things, part of the Games for Windows Technical Requirements, a piece of terminology:

    Vibration Gameplay feedback produced by the controller motor. Do not use rumble.

    I definitely would not want to step on Nintendo's toes like that.** Last thing I want Mario to do is wear a black suit and hand me a C&D.

    *Forgive me; it's what living in a world with a group called "comScore" does to me.

    **My username aside, maybe.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  20. Odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What strikes me as weird about this is that Twitter's own official app for iPhone started out as a 3rd party-developed application.

  21. Beginning of the end by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 2

    Ah Twitter. Once seemed so promising, now in decline as they try to jam sponsored tweets (i.e. spam) in front of their users eyeballs.

    Nighty night.

    --
    Who did what now?
    1. Re:Beginning of the end by sbarber · · Score: 2

      Yes indeed. #jumpthesharkmoments

  22. XSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean the client UI's that weren't vulnerable to the Twitter XSS worm last year?

  23. Someone has to reiterate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, Twitter and Facebook. May I introduce those of you who haven't heard, to the future: 4chan and Diaspora. Also, contribute to Freedombox.

  24. I have nothing to share except this offtopic joke by zill · · Score: 2

    The announcement shows that they intend to switch from the 'bazaar' model of development to the 'cathedral,'

    Software and cathedrals are much the same – first we build them, then we pray.

  25. Scare Quotes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hm... why the use of scare quotes in the OP?

  26. Not that the "new" Twitter UI sucks or anything... by mdm42 · · Score: 1

    While I'm sure that the major motivations for this move goes around Twitter wanting to spam users with "promoted tweets" and such, as suggested by several other commenters above, I wonder to what degree they also feel threatened by the fact that their "new Twitter" web UI sucks so badly that many users don't want it. I tried the new UI for a little while, and found it confusing, waaay too busy, inconsistent and just generally horrible, and flipped back to the old UI.

    Despite Twitter repeated entreaties to "upgrade to the new Twitter" - Why on Earth would anyone bother? This means that alternative UIs will definitely get a boost if Twitter decides to force their crapulatious "new UI" down our throats.

    --
    New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
  27. Did the Poster RTFA? by Skythe · · Score: 1

    They aren't "discarding" the community, rather they intend to more strongly enforce their TOS so things like twitter terminology stays at parity across all twitter apps.

  28. Re:I have nothing to share except this offtopic jo by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
    You missed out the multiple major collapses that many cathedrals (and software projects) suffered during construction, the fact that many cathedrals (and software projects) are in a state of near-continuous reconstruction in line with changing fashions in woad-rubbing (OK, that may not be the case in countries that only have a few centuries of cathedral building ; but the time for re-design will come).

    Oh, in the early periods when the foundations of many software projects (and cathedrals) were laid down, the theoretical understanding of how to build foundations were severely or totally lacking, resulting in bodged-together lash-up unstable piles of masonry/ code.

    See your "ha, ha" and raise you a "but serious".

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  29. Mod up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's EXACTLY what this is about. Not cathedrals vs. bazaars, but willfully excluding competition (in a way that's already been ruled monopolistic in microsoft cases), in order to extinguish any possibility of a client that won't show adverts.

  30. Identi.ca / Status.net time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems like the time of http://identi.ca nad other Status.net-based social media comes, finally

  31. Re:Twitter's End Game [the end is near] by MadAhab · · Score: 1

    The latest revision of the official Twitter iPhone app (the app formerly known as Tweetie) has location service on whenever it is in the foreground. There is no way to turn it off. There is nothing to indicate what it is doing with your location info. This coming so close to the deprecation of 3rd party apps is a really, really bad sign for where this company is going.

    I will never use their iPhone app again because of this. The #dickbar is merely annoying, recording your location without consent is actively offensive to the point I'm rethinking using Twitter at all. It's not an idle threat - I haven't used Facebook in several months because of their awful attitude towards privacy.

    And if a location-tracking app is the only one left, buh-bye Twitter.

    --
    Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.