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New Twitter Policies Put the Kibosh On Mashup Services
dburr writes "If This Then That (IFTTT) is a web mashup service that lets you connect together multiple services in unique and powerful ways. For example, you can automatically bookmark Favorited tweets using a social bookmarking service such as Delicious. Or even notify you by SMS when your server goes down. Unfortunately, Twitter has just announced policy changes that will in effect neuter it. Starting next Thursday, August 27, IFTTT will be disabling all Twitter "triggers" (the real power of IFTTT and its defining feature). (You will still be able to post Tweets through IFTTT) This has upset many long time Twitter users and members of the technorati. I have created a petition in a valiant (and perhaps vain) attempt to express our displeasure at their decision."
That's sure to stop them.
I'm not sure what Twitter thinks it is doing, but what it is doing is alienating a wide variety of people. They've stopped development on the Mac desktop client, destroy the iPad client, neutered third-party clients, prohibitted several forms of useful integration, and the list goes on.
Date is wrong or this story is a month late. TFA says "Starting next Thurs, Sept 27, 2012". Also August 27, 2012 was a Monday.
1) Why is this front page? This is the result of the API and policy changes that twitter announced what, a month ago? two months?
2) Yeah. An online petition. That'll learn 'em.
Actually I'm pretty sure that " long time Twitter users and members of the technorati" are mutually exclusive classes.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I'd like to know exactly why Twitter is a necessary component for notifying "you by SMS when your server goes down," which is the only useful example given. (Really, "bookmarking favorited [sic] tweets?" Someone wants to revisit them again and again? They must suffer from short term memory loss.) If your life depends on Twitter, you don't have one.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Twitter has served and never will serve any useful purpose.
Some people use it to obtain news, and it has delivered earthquake warnings ahead of other systems. I would say Twitter does not hold a monopoly on this kind of communication. It was available prior to Twitter and will be there after Twitter is long forgotten. Twitter is a marketing phenomenon. It gives the externally-directed types (sheeple, the majority, people who vote for the candidate with the biggest ad budget, whatever you like to call them) something to rally around. That there are so many other like-minded users convinces them to stay.
The minority who don't jump on bandwagons might or might not use it, but trying to rally them around a brand name as a group is like herding cats.
Having said that, I have never once used Twitter or visited their site. For me personally, it has no appeal. I can easily see how a corporation wants to be a major "go to" place and hoard user-submitted data (which they now own) that cannot easily be transferred to any similar site in a standardized way, but I don't see why I should join them.
And no-one really cares about whether entertainment is "decentralized" or using "open standards"
No, they don't care. That's why when they are exploited or mistreated by the centralized basket they've put all their eggs into, I have no sympathy for them. They put no serious effort into the matter; that they got anything of value (to them) out of it at all means they have still come out ahead. There is no valid basis for complaint because there is no victim here.
as long as they don't have to think
Thinking: the one case where a great privilege is commonly viewed as some kind of terrible burden.
Sure, entertainment is nice, but escapism is an abuse of it, the same way one might abuse a drug instead of merely using it. In both cases the result of repeated abuse is the same: a weaker, more petty person who is less and less able to deal with life. Not to mention that bread and circus is an ancient tactic which has been in use for so long because it is effective. Placate the masses with some transient, empty thing and they will love you for it. It has always been that way. That this no longer involves live gladiators hacking each other to death with swords and axes is progress, I suppose.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
It's an internet cliche, but still applicable:
And Nothing Of Value Was Lost
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
It is if you're Don Quixote of La Mancha!
Want to really send a message to Twitter against this policy? Stop using Twitter.
I was using Twitter pretty actively for a few years. It never was a great service, but it was simple, widely used, and had a lot of useful add-ons. But function after function has disappeared, making Twitter pretty much useless for me. So I quit.
I suspect one of the biggest reasons why Twitter keeps changing their rules/policies/etc to block these "new ways to make Twitter useful" is because all these alternative ways to consume tweets dont put their "promoted tweets" and other forms of revenue raising front-and-center like the official approved methods do.
I really have no problem with this. Mashup services just ride on the back of the people who do the hard work. Besides, these kinds of services are mostly used by geek and geek press. All the Silicon Valley rags will wag their tongues for a bit and go back to their lattes.
What I do have a problem with is the general move towards Twitter circling its wagons, and signalling that all unofficial Twitter clients will eventually be cut off. This is just a dumb move. Clients like Tweetbot will always offer more innovation because the guys at Twitter have not shown they care about their product or have the ability to really innovate. They're finally trying to figure out how to make money from Twitter, but so far it's just fumbling around. They'd be better off at least taking a cut of the profits from all 3rd-party Twitter services/clients that charge money.
Yes, yes, it's easy to mock online petitions and their traditional worthlessness, but THIS petition has been written by a member of the "technorati," so maybe it has a chance.
God Speed, Brave Technoratus! Make Us Proud!!