[twitter-dev] Re: Some Meaningless Output from Gardenhose

2009-09-14 Thread Chad Etzel

Hi Ryan,

These are generated when a user deletes a tweet from their timeline.

>From the documentation page [1]:

Streams may also contain status deletion notices. Clients are urged to
honor deletion requests and discard deleted statuses immediately. At
times, status deletion messages may arrive before the status. Even in
this case, the late arriving status should be deleted from your
backing store.
XML:  12343
JSON: { "delete": { "status": { "id": 1234, "user_id": 3 } } }

[1]http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation

-Chad

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 2:09 AM, Ryan Rosario  wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I am working with a weeks worth of data I collected from Gardenhose
> for research. About 4% of the tweet JSON records are just the
> following. What do these mean? Is this a bug, or some type of privacy
> restriction on that tweet?
>
>
> {"delete":{"status":{"id":##,"user_id":}}}
>
> The #s represent digits.
>
> Thanks,
> Ryan
>


[twitter-dev] Some Meaningless Output from Gardenhose

2009-09-14 Thread Ryan Rosario

Hi,
I am working with a weeks worth of data I collected from Gardenhose
for research. About 4% of the tweet JSON records are just the
following. What do these mean? Is this a bug, or some type of privacy
restriction on that tweet?


{"delete":{"status":{"id":##,"user_id":}}}

The #s represent digits.

Thanks,
Ryan


[twitter-dev] Re: empty data + no error returned from friends/ids

2009-09-14 Thread Raffi Krikorian



We are seeing random, intermittent empty result sets from friends/ids,
called without page or cursor arguments.  These empty results return
without error, and frequently "correct" themselves when tried again.
Is this a known issue?  What is the status of this issue?



hi PJB.

i don't know of this particular issue, unless it is the same issue as  
the non json responses that have been reported:


http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/decf7c323c10d869/ac2774091611be0b?lnk=gst&q=html#ac2774091611be0b

if so, we're actively working on it.  if you think you have a  
different issue, if possible, could you send me a tcpdump of when that  
error occurs?


thanks!

--
Raffi Krikorian
Twitter Platform Team
ra...@twitter.com | @raffi






[twitter-dev] empty data + no error returned from friends/ids

2009-09-14 Thread PJB


We are seeing random, intermittent empty result sets from friends/ids,
called without page or cursor arguments.  These empty results return
without error, and frequently "correct" themselves when tried again.
Is this a known issue?  What is the status of this issue?


[twitter-dev] Re: Streaming API Help

2009-09-14 Thread John Kalucki

Greg,

All users can access the streaming API at default access levels. Roles
can give elevated access through the same URLs -- more statuses, more
keywords, etc.

"Gardenhose" access is additional access on the /1/statuses/
sample.format resource.

You should use the track keyword on the /1/statuses/filter.format
resource. If the default access level is insufficient, we can discuss
upgrading your access to restricted track. Most apps can run fine
without elevated access.

You should not use /gardenhose.format resource. It works via backward
compatibility mode and will go away shortly.

-John Kalucki
http://twitter.com/jkalucki
Services, Twitter Inc.


On Sep 14, 12:10 pm, Greg  wrote:
> I've recently been given access to Streaming API - and I was given
> access to the "gardenhose" - however it is not listed on the Streaming
> API Documentation Website (http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-
> Documentation). Is anyone aware of the documentation for this API
> call?
>
> I am specifically looking to use it to get tweets with certain text in
> them - however should I be using the status/filter API? (http://
> apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation#statuses/filter)
>
> Any help on examples of these two APIs (PHP) would be helpful.
>
> Thanks,
> Greg


[twitter-dev] Re: Streaming API Help

2009-09-14 Thread Rolando Espinoza La Fuente

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 3:10 PM, Greg  wrote:
>
> I've recently been given access to Streaming API - and I was given
> access to the "gardenhose" - however it is not listed on the Streaming
> API Documentation Website (http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-
> Documentation). Is anyone aware of the documentation for this API
> call?

http://stream.twitter.com/gardenhose.json

I'm not sure, but i think that was the early version of the api, but
still works.

> I am specifically looking to use it to get tweets with certain text in
> them - however should I be using the status/filter API? (http://
> apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation#statuses/filter)

I think you should try filter api with track parameter

$ curl http://stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json -uUser:Pass
-d "track=twitter"

Regards,

-- 
ø Rolando Espinoza La fuente


[twitter-dev] Streaming API Help

2009-09-14 Thread Greg

I've recently been given access to Streaming API - and I was given
access to the "gardenhose" - however it is not listed on the Streaming
API Documentation Website (http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-
Documentation). Is anyone aware of the documentation for this API
call?

I am specifically looking to use it to get tweets with certain text in
them - however should I be using the status/filter API? (http://
apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation#statuses/filter)

Any help on examples of these two APIs (PHP) would be helpful.

Thanks,
Greg


[twitter-dev] Re: Random 408 errors having been appearing the last 48 hours

2009-09-14 Thread Raffi Krikorian

hi!

we're actively working on this issue -- if you're personally  
experiencing this issue, it would be really helpful to get either a  
tcpdump of it occurring, or a curl -vvv simulating the issue.  in lieu  
of those, you can also send:


date/time that the error occurred;
what API endpoints were being requested;
source IP address (along with any useful information on your network  
-- behind a NAT? proxy?)


feel free to send those directly to me.

thanks!



Hi team,

Any update on this?
I filed a ticket for 408 code so that we can keep track of the issue
easily.
http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/detail?id=1036

Thanks,

On 9月12日, 午前2:40, Duane Roelands   
wrote:

I'm having this issue as well, and also getting some 405s, which I
thought were long gone.

On Sep 11, 9:44 am, "Jeff Ayars"  wrote:



We're using basic auth and having the problem so it's not OAuth  
related.


IP ranges, accounts, curl -vvv and TCP dump of failures sent to  
a...@twitter yesterday.  Seeing ~60% failures and 40% successes  
also.  Haven't heard back from Twitter.  Would love to hear  
something.



JEff



-Original Message-
From: twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com [mailto:twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com 
] On Behalf Of Roy Hooper

Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:04 AM
To: Twitter Development Talk
Subject: [twitter-dev] Re: Random 408 errors having been appearing  
the last 48 hours



I'm still seeing this recurring problem.  Are only oauth users
experiencing this?  If so, maybe its time for us to give up on  
OAuth?



On Sep 9, 12:16 pm, John Kalucki  wrote:
Point your mobile device through a web proxy that you control.  
Monitor

the traffic there with tcpdump.



On Sep 9, 7:07 am, Naveen A  wrote:


It might be useful if detailed (step by step) instructions of  
how to
generate the debug information twitter needs to track down this  
HTTP
data being returned on the API, I am not sure how much data you  
are
getting but I would really like to provide as much as I possibly  
can
and provide others with the tools to make providing this  
information

as easily as possible.


We unfortunately can't easily provide the necessary information  
as our
application runs on a mobile device where we can not easily get  
the

detailed information you require.



I understand how to provide the ip address, and the verbose curl
request.. Unclear what you are looking for when you are  
requesting a
tcp dump.. I would be happy to attempt to generate this  
information if

it will help expedite solving this problem..



On Sep 7, 10:06 pm, John Kalucki  wrote:


If you are having connection problems like this, please send  
your IP

address, account(s), a curl(1) -vvv trace, and a tcpdump of the
failure to a...@twitter.com.



-John Kaluckihttp://twitter.com/jkalucki
Services, Twitter inc.



On Sep 7, 5:02 pm, fablau  wrote:


I am having the same issue, most of the times I cannot connect  
to
Twitter, I get 408 error and the API is mostly unusable form  
my side.
I am able to connect just a couple of times every 36-48 hours!  
Are we
the only people having this issue? How that can be possible?  
Is there
any way to contact Twitter folks about this issue? Are they  
aware of

this?



Any more thoughts and testimonials about this issue would be
appreciated.



Thank you for sharing.



Best,


--
Raffi Krikorian
Twitter Platform Team
ra...@twitter.com | @raffi






[twitter-dev] Re: graph API call returning 'This Method requires authentication'

2009-09-14 Thread nicarcola

Go to my site http://www.homesforholidays.eu/twitter.php, log in and
you get the message,  this message requires a get. Why I don't know,
but if you go to twitter you are already logged in

Nico.

On 30 aug, 04:23, Pete Warden  wrote:
> A late follow-up on this, but I'm hitting the same problem:
>
> - It's only happening with friends/ids.json, all other calls work
> - Bizarrely I can call it fine from command-line curl on the same machine,
> but using curl within PHP I get the error
> - I've tried rejigging my curl/php code to use the in-url syntax (eg
> someone:passw...@twitter... as the URL) rather than curl_setopt, with no
> luck
>
> The documentation seems to indicate this method doesn't even require
> authentication, so I'm left scratching my head. If I can create a minimal
> reproducible case, I'll file an issue, but for now I just want to document
> this for posterity.
>
> Pete
>
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 7:56 AM, developerinlondon 
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi,
>
> > For some reason I am getting the above error message returned for a
> > specific ID only:
>
> > curl -u username:password
> >http://twitter.com/friends/ids.xml?user_id=2064571515
> > 
> > 
> >  /friends/ids.xml?user_id=2064571515
> >  This method requires authentication.
> > 
>
> > Any other Twitter IDs it works fine and I get a list of IDs for them.
> > Eg the following works:
> > curl -u username:password
> >http://twitter.com/friends/ids.xml?user_id=23943320
>
> > Any ideas what I need to be doing to fix this?
> > The pattern seems to be always occuring when I try a UserID with 10
> > digits.
>
> > Thanks,
>
> > Nayeem- Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht niet weergeven -
>
> - Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht weergeven -


[twitter-dev] Re: Random 408 errors having been appearing the last 48 hours

2009-09-14 Thread H12山本 裕介

Hi team,

Any update on this?
I filed a ticket for 408 code so that we can keep track of the issue
easily.
http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/detail?id=1036

Thanks,

On 9月12日, 午前2:40, Duane Roelands  wrote:
> I'm having this issue as well, and also getting some 405s, which I
> thought were long gone.
>
> On Sep 11, 9:44 am, "Jeff Ayars"  wrote:
>
>
>
> > We're using basic auth and having the problem so it's not OAuth related.
>
> > IP ranges, accounts, curl -vvv and TCP dump of failures sent to 
> > a...@twitter yesterday.  Seeing ~60% failures and 40% successes also.  
> > Haven't heard back from Twitter.  Would love to hear something.
>
> > JEff
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From: twitter-development-talk@googlegroups.com 
> > [mailto:twitter-development-t...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Roy Hooper
> > Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:04 AM
> > To: Twitter Development Talk
> > Subject: [twitter-dev] Re: Random 408 errors having been appearing the last 
> > 48 hours
>
> > I'm still seeing this recurring problem.  Are only oauth users
> > experiencing this?  If so, maybe its time for us to give up on OAuth?
>
> > On Sep 9, 12:16 pm, John Kalucki  wrote:
> > > Point your mobile device through a web proxy that you control. Monitor
> > > the traffic there with tcpdump.
>
> > > On Sep 9, 7:07 am, Naveen A  wrote:
>
> > > > It might be useful if detailed (step by step) instructions of how to
> > > > generate the debug information twitter needs to track down this HTTP
> > > > data being returned on the API, I am not sure how much data you are
> > > > getting but I would really like to provide as much as I possibly can
> > > > and provide others with the tools to make providing this information
> > > > as easily as possible.
>
> > > > We unfortunately can't easily provide the necessary information as our
> > > > application runs on a mobile device where we can not easily get the
> > > > detailed information you require.
>
> > > > I understand how to provide the ip address, and the verbose curl
> > > > request.. Unclear what you are looking for when you are requesting a
> > > > tcp dump.. I would be happy to attempt to generate this information if
> > > > it will help expedite solving this problem..
>
> > > > On Sep 7, 10:06 pm, John Kalucki  wrote:
>
> > > > > If you are having connection problems like this, please send your IP
> > > > > address, account(s), a curl(1) -vvv trace, and a tcpdump of the
> > > > > failure to a...@twitter.com.
>
> > > > > -John Kaluckihttp://twitter.com/jkalucki
> > > > > Services, Twitter inc.
>
> > > > > On Sep 7, 5:02 pm, fablau  wrote:
>
> > > > > > I am having the same issue, most of the times I cannot connect to
> > > > > > Twitter, I get 408 error and the API is mostly unusable form my 
> > > > > > side.
> > > > > > I am able to connect just a couple of times every 36-48 hours! Are 
> > > > > > we
> > > > > > the only people having this issue? How that can be possible? Is 
> > > > > > there
> > > > > > any way to contact Twitter folks about this issue? Are they aware of
> > > > > > this?
>
> > > > > > Any more thoughts and testimonials about this issue would be
> > > > > > appreciated.
>
> > > > > > Thank you for sharing.
>
> > > > > > Best,


[twitter-dev] Mood flagging in general search

2009-09-14 Thread Raymond Camden

So I see that the search API lets me find results based on happy/sad
moods. However, is there anyway to do a general keyword search and
have the results flagged by Twitter? I.e., each result would have a
flag if it would have been returned on a positive/negative search.

My thinking is - I want to search for X and find all results, but I'd
also like to know which ones Twitter considered as positive or
negative. I could do another search and someone munge the results, but
that seems wasteful network wise.


[twitter-dev] Re: Source parameter only available through oauth - misses a use case

2009-09-14 Thread Ivo

Hi,

short answer: oauth is for delegated authentication; I'm using direct
authentication of my own account. Both are valid use cases, so in my
opinion the source parameter should continue to work for the second
use case (I can't find a good reason to only support it for delegated
authentication)

Besides; all the examples you mention are for delegated
authentication; it would be weird to have a headless system that is
working as a service implement an oauth scheme.

greetings,
Ivo

On Sep 14, 12:09 pm, Andrew Badera  wrote:
> With all the freely available examples, and all the freely available
> documentation and support available through oauth.net, what's stopping
> you from cranking out an OAuth client implementation in <2 hours?
>
> OAuth helps prevent, or at least make obvious for the time being,
> spammers. HTTP Basic Auth has no value here.
>
> ∞ Andy Badera
> ∞ +1 518-641-1280
> ∞ This email is: [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ] private
> ∞ Google me:http://www.google.com/search?q=andrew%20badera
>
> On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 1:48 AM, Ivo  wrote:
>
> > Hi,
>
> > the developer wiki mentions that the source parameter is no longer
> > recommended, because using oauth, twitter can already know the source
> > of messages.
>
> > However, there are a few use case scenario's that are limited if
> > source is only available through oauth.
>
> > Oauth is all about delegated authentication. It's about the user
> > granting access to his resources to a service.
>
> > There are services out there that do not use the user's credentials at
> > all, but use their own account. E.g. I built flackr.net, and it logs
> > in with its own @flackr account to follow its own timeline and
> > aggregate news on a website. I don't need user's credentials at all
> > for that. The Flackr backend is autonomous and runs on a server that
> > has no web frontend, it just fetches data and processes it. It does
> > send out tweets when it has aggregated something interesting.
>
> > If I were to use oauth in this scenario I would have to build in full
> > oauth support in my backend script, only to login once with my own
> > account to grant myself access.  Since this is not about delegated
> > access, I don't need oauth and can authenticate against twitter
> > directly.
>
> > This is a perfectly good use case scenario, and the source parameter
> > would have to stay in order to support this use case scenario while
> > still providing a different source.


[twitter-dev] Re: Paging STILL broken

2009-09-14 Thread Ryan Sarver

Waldron,

I wish I had an exact ETA for you, but unfortunately these types of
issues are never simple. As soon as we can identify exactly what is
causing the problem we should be able to know when it can be resolved.
I will update you with an ETA as soon as we can.

Thanks, rs

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Waldron Faulkner
 wrote:
>
> That's awesome, Ryan, thanks. Can I get an ETA on a fix please? This
> is extremely important to my business, I need to know when I can begin
> selling. This bug has caused a delay, because I can't sell a broken
> product, even if it is Twitter's bug and not my own.
>
> So... ETA??
>
> Thanks!
>
> On Sep 13, 5:49 pm, Ryan Sarver  wrote:
>> Waldron,
>>
>> Thanks for the email. I am working with our team internally to track
>> down the issue and figure out how to resolve it. I will get back to
>> you with an update shortly, but know that we are listening and working
>> on this.
>>
>> Best, Ryan
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Waldron Faulkner
>>
>>  wrote:
>>
>> > PLEASE, can someone on the API team let us know when the paging bug(s)
>> > with followers/ids (and friends/ids) will be addressed? There have
>> > been problems with it for weeks, but now it's just downright broken.
>> > We can't get lists of followers for users with large numbers of
>> > followers. That's a basic, fundamental API feature that's just BROKEN.
>> > There's a reproduced, accepted, high priority bug against this issue
>> > in the "issues" area, starred by many, and we've had neither a fix,
>> > nor a comment as to whether it's even being addressed.
>>
>> > I need to know that I can expect problems with the platform's basic
>> > functionality to be resolved within a reasonable time-frame. This is
>> > killing my business development efforts. If Twitter wants people to
>> > build businesses on this platform, they HAVE to support it.
>>
>> > PLEASE guys, give us something. Don't make me throw away months of
>> > work and go focus on something unrelated to Twitter.
>


[twitter-dev] Re: whitelisting q

2009-09-14 Thread Dale Folla MeDia
My company is about to launch our app, and need to submit it for
whitelisting.  The WL request form says the app needs to be "in production",
but not sure what that means.  Can anyone tell me?  Its currently being
tested, and will launch on Friday of this week, most likely.  Does that
qualify as "in production"?  Just trying to anticipate massive growth, and
start process sooner rather than later : )

Dale

On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 1:05 AM, developar  wrote:

>
> I have the same question :)
>
> On Aug 28, 8:08 pm, Joseph Cheek  wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm hopeful that someone on-list can answer this as I have been over the
> > faqs and am still not sure I understand.
> >
> > Whitelistinggives me more API calls (20,000 vs 150 per hour) but still
> > only 1000 status updates per day, correct?
> >
> > I'm developing a bot that responds to updates with a certain hashtag and
> am concerned that if there are more than 1000 updates per day with that
> hashtag that I will only be able to respond to the first thousand.  What's
> the proper thing to do in that case, split it among several different
> accounts?
> >
> > Joseph Cheek
> > jos...@cheek.com,www.cheek.com
>  > twitter:http://twitter.com/cheekdotcom
>



-- 
Dale Merritt
Fol.la MeDia, LLC


[twitter-dev] Re: Geocoded OR search broken?

2009-09-14 Thread Voolkan

Hey Chad,

Thanks for the reply, and I can understand how tricky that must be.

It's kind of curious though--at some point over the weekend, several
more (but still not all) of our tweets were indexed and searchable,
yet our live tweets still aren't. This at least leads me to believe
that our account wasn't banned for some reason, so that's a relief!

Still odd that over the weekend, even our old tweets were and are only
partially searchable...


[twitter-dev] Re: Can the Twitter API call me?

2009-09-14 Thread Nigel Cannings


in particular:

X-Twittersenderid:
X-Twittersenderscreenname:


Nigel
http://tweet.linkky.com

bob.hitching wrote:

some events like 'new follower' generate an email message - you can
build a listener to react to those emails.  there's even some useful
twitter headers included so you don't have to parse the message body.

Bob


On Sep 12, 1:24 am, Duncan  wrote:

Does Twitter have something in place where i can build a litener app
that Twitter can HTTP/POST to when a new follower follows me or
someone sends me a direct message, etc?

Duncan




[twitter-dev] Re: Paging STILL broken

2009-09-14 Thread Waldron Faulkner

That's awesome, Ryan, thanks. Can I get an ETA on a fix please? This
is extremely important to my business, I need to know when I can begin
selling. This bug has caused a delay, because I can't sell a broken
product, even if it is Twitter's bug and not my own.

So... ETA??

Thanks!

On Sep 13, 5:49 pm, Ryan Sarver  wrote:
> Waldron,
>
> Thanks for the email. I am working with our team internally to track
> down the issue and figure out how to resolve it. I will get back to
> you with an update shortly, but know that we are listening and working
> on this.
>
> Best, Ryan
>
> On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Waldron Faulkner
>
>  wrote:
>
> > PLEASE, can someone on the API team let us know when the paging bug(s)
> > with followers/ids (and friends/ids) will be addressed? There have
> > been problems with it for weeks, but now it's just downright broken.
> > We can't get lists of followers for users with large numbers of
> > followers. That's a basic, fundamental API feature that's just BROKEN.
> > There's a reproduced, accepted, high priority bug against this issue
> > in the "issues" area, starred by many, and we've had neither a fix,
> > nor a comment as to whether it's even being addressed.
>
> > I need to know that I can expect problems with the platform's basic
> > functionality to be resolved within a reasonable time-frame. This is
> > killing my business development efforts. If Twitter wants people to
> > build businesses on this platform, they HAVE to support it.
>
> > PLEASE guys, give us something. Don't make me throw away months of
> > work and go focus on something unrelated to Twitter.


[twitter-dev] Re: Source parameter only available through oauth - misses a use case

2009-09-14 Thread Andrew Badera

With all the freely available examples, and all the freely available
documentation and support available through oauth.net, what's stopping
you from cranking out an OAuth client implementation in <2 hours?

OAuth helps prevent, or at least make obvious for the time being,
spammers. HTTP Basic Auth has no value here.

∞ Andy Badera
∞ +1 518-641-1280
∞ This email is: [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ] private
∞ Google me: http://www.google.com/search?q=andrew%20badera



On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 1:48 AM, Ivo  wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> the developer wiki mentions that the source parameter is no longer
> recommended, because using oauth, twitter can already know the source
> of messages.
>
> However, there are a few use case scenario's that are limited if
> source is only available through oauth.
>
> Oauth is all about delegated authentication. It's about the user
> granting access to his resources to a service.
>
> There are services out there that do not use the user's credentials at
> all, but use their own account. E.g. I built flackr.net, and it logs
> in with its own @flackr account to follow its own timeline and
> aggregate news on a website. I don't need user's credentials at all
> for that. The Flackr backend is autonomous and runs on a server that
> has no web frontend, it just fetches data and processes it. It does
> send out tweets when it has aggregated something interesting.
>
> If I were to use oauth in this scenario I would have to build in full
> oauth support in my backend script, only to login once with my own
> account to grant myself access.  Since this is not about delegated
> access, I don't need oauth and can authenticate against twitter
> directly.
>
> This is a perfectly good use case scenario, and the source parameter
> would have to stay in order to support this use case scenario while
> still providing a different source.
>


[twitter-dev] Re: Twitter Background

2009-09-14 Thread WyoKnott

Visit twitterbackgrounds.com

On Sep 13, 7:47 pm, shapper  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I need to create a custom Twitter background.
> What are the dimensions for it and the allowed maximum size or the
> size you advice?
>
> Does the background repeats horizontal and vertically?
>
> What are the options?
>
> Thanks,
> Miguel


[twitter-dev] Source parameter only available through oauth - misses a use case

2009-09-14 Thread Ivo

Hi,

the developer wiki mentions that the source parameter is no longer
recommended, because using oauth, twitter can already know the source
of messages.

However, there are a few use case scenario's that are limited if
source is only available through oauth.

Oauth is all about delegated authentication. It's about the user
granting access to his resources to a service.

There are services out there that do not use the user's credentials at
all, but use their own account. E.g. I built flackr.net, and it logs
in with its own @flackr account to follow its own timeline and
aggregate news on a website. I don't need user's credentials at all
for that. The Flackr backend is autonomous and runs on a server that
has no web frontend, it just fetches data and processes it. It does
send out tweets when it has aggregated something interesting.

If I were to use oauth in this scenario I would have to build in full
oauth support in my backend script, only to login once with my own
account to grant myself access.  Since this is not about delegated
access, I don't need oauth and can authenticate against twitter
directly.

This is a perfectly good use case scenario, and the source parameter
would have to stay in order to support this use case scenario while
still providing a different source.