[twitter-dev] Re: Poor documentation. For example, regarding lists. Suggestions for improvement.

[Nicole Simon]

So if I want to have an information about a list you expect me

to read all of the documention to figure out which version to use
although i am fine in programming. I guess just including something as
a proper documentation for example a link "see current available
versions here" is too much to ask.


> list_id is available from the index of lists for a user. This request is the
> /1/lists request:
>    http://dev.twitter.com/doc/get/lists

so i am supposed to get my list info, use the user infos (which ii
have to work through as well as no working examples are provided
there), scan through the nearly 2k lists for the one i want and then
be able to implement a simple list request.

I see. that is so much more sensible than just having one (!) working
example on the page and allowing for an easy way of figuring out
"hei you know the owner and the slug of the list you are looking? this
is how you write the code example.
know the id? this is how you do it.

> Alternatively, if those values are unknown or you don't wish to look them
> up, you can provide the slug and screen_name as you have done in your
> example.

great. how about an example on that page about how to do so, since the
information
on the page is additionally inconsistent?

i have not looked up the api doc for a while, but the current status
is ridiculous.
not even all parameters are correctly listed nor how to call them.
I have to search google for documentation on how to properly format an
api request
in 5 min instead of being able to look at the real documentation.

but hei, it looks much more pretty now. 

Nicole


--
http://nicole-simon.eu / http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon



-- 
Twitter developer documentation and resources: https://dev.twitter.com/doc
API updates via Twitter: https://twitter.com/twitterapi
Issues/Enhancements Tracker: https://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
Change your membership to this group: 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/twitter-development-talk

Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Retweets and the Public Timeline

[Nicole Simon]

As retweets are such a basic feature for users, it is hard to understand how
this question could not have come up before in designing of the limitations.

I suggest you add a switch to the api call w/o authentication, then the apps
can decide what to do with this, as in once they are ready they can switch
it on.

As for the users, the suggestion can only be: do not use the retweet feature
if you are interested in sharing information to your followers,
as your retweets will not be seen elsewhere.

[similar thing btw is going for the lists: tweet results for a list do not
show
retweets or replies - meaning you have to advise users not to use @reply
at the beginning or the RT feature if they want their tweets seen]

Nicole

-- 


My german twitter site
http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: Facebook checkbox

[Nicole Simon]

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Mossy  wrote:

> Underneath the message box, a checkbox labelled "Copy this tweet to my
> facebook status."
>

Not going to happen. ;)
But you can use "selective twitter updates" as facebook app or
use one of the desktop clients which can post to both on choice
Nicole
-- 


My german twitter site
http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: lang parameter in the search api

[Nicole Simon]

The language selection is useless, even with a limitation to English.
The problem is probably that normal methods of attributing language
are more or less based on longer text - and not text stripped down
to 140 chars or less.

If you want to make detection f.e. in search, rather get all
results and apply common sense methods, like grep
special words which most likely are only used in your
language of choice.

For real 'select your choice here' it is not going to work.

At the current rate, this is rather hurting than helping.
I instruct users in my book to rather use search which
will limit itself, i.e. use German words if possible in search.


Nicole


-- 


My german twitter site
http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] if you will be using the Geolocation API ...

[Nicole Simon]

reading up on the dev list, I noticed some replies to the geolocation thing
and sorry to matt for picking his reply ;))

I'd like to add some of the "usual stuff we know US based devs do
forget but would be really great if they just thought about it because the
rest of the world likes to use them too".

Also I am surprised that the geolocation of the person can be attached
to the tweets but still not to the profile - something which would make
location based services so much easier, even without having each
tweet tell the world where you are?

Short summary:
- when developping your app, please make sure to get international users
  to test them and get their input so you don't make something US-only
- before adding a geo location to every tweet, i rather expect people to
  be willing to add a real location in long / lat to their profile. having
it
  just in the tweets is the second step without doing the first. the
ecosytem
  would profit much more from it, would it be a profile thing.


On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 17:00, Matt Kaufman  wrote:

>
> I think that issue can be simplified down to zip code radiAl query
> (simple) once you know the users relevent vicinity.  It's not like
> browsers are actually accurate as an actual gps (netbooks iPhone...
> Chipsets will change that soon)


great. my zipcode is 23554, and that resolves to Lübeck, SH.  :)
As in: there is more on the world than just US zipcodes.

Searches for anything outside of the US have been proven to be quite
ineffective as they resolve around things currently like name of town.
And that usually fails alone because the search does not recognize
the name of the town as it is locally.

// Sorting / overemphasize of state level
Very often, location based application do go for the state level (as
the US has so many of them) and does include the country, but neglects
that others might like geographic centers.

If you do an application please use a format like
continent - country - town - exact location

state in this is optional in many cases and not the center point in many
countries. more often than that, there is the additional level above town
like "car plate key" or else.

// Outputting wrong characters
if you use the application to resolve against something with the coordinates
please make sure your application does understand special characters
when you output them (like Lübeck)

// I dont want to share that
As a user, I might want to share with the world my country or my
town where I am currently at but not pinpointing me on the map.
Matt also brought up the the point about threats on exact geolocation.
I know of at least one couple who got separated because the guy did
a location aware thing from the new girls house.

But I would not mind sharing my location in my profile in general.
For purposes of human profile readers, I do not put long and lat in my
profile,
and if I do use the correct "Lübeck, Deutschland" most of my visitors do not
understand if they are from outside Germany. Which is why I am opting
for Germany. Not because I want -but because that is the lowest thing
we all can agree on being understandable.

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: Best way to get tweets from me, to me, mentioning me

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 06:47, Scott Haneda  wrote:

>
> Thanks.  These users will be mobile, largely, and asking them to log in to
> see what will amount to "comments" is asking too much.  This is more a add
> on feature that some may find value in.


Why would they want to see their own messages then?

besides that, going for @username is good in the search - except the search
has proven to provide unreliable results in the past. sign up for a service
like tweetlater and hootsuite and do the same tracking in all three
services, and notice the differences.

add the @replies on the website and it is the best to cache the results back
at your place. ;)

NIcole

[twitter-dev] legal issues - is tweet an official verb in the US language?

[Nicole Simon]

Question: is to tweet an official word in the english language
both american and english? as in widely used?

does the US and UK trademark system reject such applications?

In the german TM  system, a word which is widely used cannot
be trademarked. Like you can use Water as a image mark
(logowise etc) but not have the word trademarked.


[twit in different trademark class]
re twit from Matt Freedman

> No, the Twit trademark doesn't cover most of the Twitter-related use
> of it[1]. Although some uses (such as TwitVid) may be considered
> trademark infringement under the Twit trademark.
>

 (the link you gave matt is an expired search.)

legal systems are differnt, but in general, the western world
does use mostly the same system.

this is how this would run in the german system and
I am pretty sure it is similar in the US (=somebody with
real knowledge may be able to confirm the classes theory?)

of course the twit one is for something different. what
I meant is that i imagine that you do have the same classes
system, meaning you can have a trademark for twit as
'computer thingy' and nobody else can have a trademark
in _that class_ although it might be something totally different.

example: there is a detergent called linux. even if linux the OS has
a tm, it is in different classes. if I would like to build a game though,
or a computer device like a mouse and call it linux I could not - because
it is in the same class as the linux OS one. Neither can I have a thing
which is covered in the same class as the detergent.

but I can have a chocolaet named linux because that is a third class.
Nicole




-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: Open Auth

[Nicole Simon]

On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 22:26, Kevin Mesiab  wrote:

> The interaction seems unintuitive and redundant for users who have
> already granted our application 'trust' by installing it.



I can't understand this notion.
Every single day users are sheep enough to do stupid things -
they just need to be guided to do so. And then they will follow.

Every single day (especially the normal users) install dozens of apps on
facebook
without even thinking about that box in the middle nor reading it. And 'the
experienced
ones' who teach the sheeps make sure that "never use your password" gets
drilled
into their heads.

Before there was no alternative. Now there is a better way.From now it is
"password?
BAD. Using without password and authorize with twitter: good!"

Yes, they have granted you the trust of installing it, but could you please
set the
mindset to the goal? "as part of our x step installation step, this is what
is going to happen:
- download app
- install app
- test app
- now the fun part: making sure you get the best ou tof this experience and
connect it with
twitter itself, and this is how it looks. We are using the secure process
where you
do not need to enter anywhere your password. we never ask for your password,
because
we are the good guys!
- do this
- do that
and tada! you can start using our app! thanks for trusting us!"

Where is the problem?
It only is unintuitve when you make it as such. of course the above is too
complicated,
so the real steps only should be "3 easy steps to go - download, install,
connect, use!" or something like it.

But as long as you treat it as the ugly way you don't want to use, you will
not make
it easy on you.

Nicole



--
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: MyTwitterButler.com Legal issues Update 2

[Nicole Simon]

It is going to be interesting if they try to go after twit - as far as I
know this is a trademark which belongs to leo laporte and the trademark
department only has so many classes available.

not exactly knowing the US system but I do assume 'that computery or
internet one' is already taken by twit / leo laport.

http://twit.com is this week in tech

NIcole


-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: OAUTH: Basic Auth is simpler/more reliable/more secure/better received than OAuth!?

[Nicole Simon]

I am surprised nobody is bringing up these too points:

- people will use the more secure thing once they are educated. you know the
kind of stuff where you tell the people you support that they will not get
tech support any more if they do this.

- the argument about 'having to agree on something' is not as bad as it
sound because they do it every day on facebook. The one thing I do mind that
even I always have to search aruond to find the place where my apps are
located.


Nicole

~~~

-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] "Sign in with twitter" w/o any further rights?

[Nicole Simon]

As I undertand it, a twitter oauth process will give me as the application
either read or read write access. Which means - unless I am mistaken -
that with read access the app can read user's DMs.

If so, would there be a way to have a third status named Authenticate
or anything like it to indicate to the user that this app can 'only'
authenticate and not do anything more?

It could be used for all the "sign in with twitter" plugins on all blog
sites,
and site where you use your twitter-id just for quick registration.

In the longer run I would like to be able as a user to say per app what
it is allowed to do.

Nicole

[I have been looking through the archive to see if this was discusses
before, and
 my keywords did not yield a response to this question - if there was one,
please
 just tell me so. ;)]



-- 
http://twitter.com/nicolesimon
http://crueltobekind.org

[twitter-dev] Re: Tweet Corpus creation for NLP research

[Nicole Simon]

Anything you can do to help people determine better the language of tweets,
so search is more usable for international users. ;))

I am a bit curious about the mentioned 'costs of publishing in journals
and conferences' - don't know about the journals. but none of the
conferences I know of in Tech would charge anybody for presenting
such kind of results. As long as you are not a boring academic speaker
this should be interesting enough for some of the major tech ones.

(it makes it easier if you can bring a specific dev or biz angle)

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: sending DM to all followers?

[Nicole Simon]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Jesse Stay  wrote:

> If you don't have the time to do it, then hire somebody to do it.
>>
>
> Am I really hearing this right?  So now *I* have to lose money because I'm
> getting spam??? Yeah right.
>

If you do not know how to use the tools, then please use a manual. There are
enough
basic twitter books around.



> How do I switch off receiving DMs?  I get DMs no matter what.  I can turn
> off notifications, but not DMs.
>

Twitter really has not a lot of options. If you do not know how to do that,
you obviously never looked.

http://twitter.com/account/notifications

May I ask what you do on the _developper_ list if you do not even know this
much?


> btw I am in no way saying that I do agree with Mass DM or anything.
>> It is just that you do blame the wrong part of the equation for it.
>>
>
> It certainly sounds like you do.  What auto-DM or mass-DM service are you
> running again?
>

None. As a matter of fact, as the author of the German twitter book it
specifically
states that you are stupid to use such DM and the best way to loose your
followers,
get banned by twitter, and pointed out by people in other systems like
blogs.

also it is one of the things every single customer of mine gets to hear from
me
if they want or not (in the greater scheme of how to do intelligent social
media).

Every single time I do collect twitter users (like for example for the lists
I do
host about twitter users from certain areas in Germany) I do ask
specifically
for an email address which is then processed by double opt in, clearly
marked
as "do you understand that if you click 'inform me about updates you will
receive such notice".

Of course there will always eb people who then complain about getting
such information like yourself, but for people like you there is the "this
is where you unsubscribe from the information you actually requested".

Nicole

-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: sending DM to all followers?

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:59 PM, Jesse Stay  wrote:

> Apps have an ethical responsibility to provide opt-out, plain and simple if
> they're going to enable the sending of mass-DMs in any way.  I didn't
> opt-into getting sales advertisements from the people I follow when I joined
> Twitter.
>

It is never about the responsible ones, it is always about the stupid ones.

Even if opt out is required, then people will pay people to write the DM per
hand as there is money to make.
DM is like email and should be handled the same way.

And btw why it is okay for you to have a gazillion apps with an optout but
you cannot set up filters to filter out those messages?

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: sending DM to all followers?

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:34 PM, guruvan  wrote:

>
> Dossy, not this doesn't work for me. I don't really a) have time or b)
> want to unfollow a new follower (and likely new user of twitter)
> because of poor first judgement. I would like to simply opt-out of
> those types of messages. At even just a couple thousand followers, I
> get so many of those a day I can't see my "real" DMs from people I
> wish to talk to.


If you don't have the time to do it, then hire somebody to do it.

Or don't follow people and make better judegement.

And again; You can switch off receiving DMs.

You can provide a link to a contact form with your website.

You can even put up your email address in your profile
as the picture.

You have all the tools but you want somebody else to do the
work for you.

btw I am in no way saying that I do agree with Mass DM or anything.
It is just that you do blame the wrong part of the equation for it.

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: sending DM to all followers?

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:42 PM, Ed Costello  wrote:

> I'm fine with getting DM'd by *people* I follow.  But I don't expect to get
> DM'd by @cnnbrk or @jetblue unless I'm directly engaging them.  There's no
> granularity to separate getting DM'd by a friend I follow from DM'd by a bot
> powering a corporate account.


Then why are you following those 'bots powered by corporate account' so that
they can DM you?
Especially since every twitter account is also available by RSS?

Alternately, if you want the ability to spam DM everyone who follows a given
> account, then there must be a corresponding feature to block DMs from
> accounts one follows.
>

It is called don't follow but read the content elsewhere.

You can't have the cake and eat it.

Do you really think twitter as a company should spend their dev time in
making separation which are down to each person to decide rather than
keeping the system running?

If you want that feature, build a system which retrieves all your DMS and
allows you to set them as 'friends' and 'bad bots' and only let those
through which you want to see.

Again: this is not a twitter problem, but a usage tool.

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: sending DM to all followers?

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:12 PM, ray  wrote:

>
> I'm with Jesse on this one


This is like giving somebody the key to the house and then complain
that people can 'just' get into the house.

If you don't want to be DMed by certain people, dont follow them.
If you do get something from them, unfollow.

Use Optout lists from Services who offer them like tweetlater.

write a skript which will unfollow everyone who dm's you.

Choose not to receive dm.

Or set up a filter in your email programm to spam certain DM automatically.

At the end of the day it all boils down to: If you follow people, they can
DM you, period. If you dont like it, be more selective about who you
follow.

Nicole

[twitter-dev] Re: regex for smiley indexing?

[Nicole Simon]

I would assume that they do use a simple OR.
Nicole


-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Search for a link / no partial search

[Nicole Simon]

Please tell me if I missed something:

I was trying to figure out why the frak my search did not yield any results
as I was playing around with the Yoast tweetback plugin for WP.

And I think I have found the culprit:

A search for http://tinyurl.com/acu8rb does not bring a result back
if somebody tweeted

reading: topic blabla (http://tinyurl.com/acu8rb)

[which is how twithis posts all links).

My question is: assuming that partiel search is hard to implement, would
it at least be possible to implement a 'search for link'? you do after all
'recognize' the link so it should be searchable, right?

Otherwise I see gazillion possiblities how tweetbacks would have
to be queried and I am sure you would not like the API traffic. ;)

thanks
Nicole



-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

[twitter-dev] Re: one-click follow

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:40 PM, TjL  wrote:

> That's exactly how blocking works.
>

but blocking is a rare plus also a 'negative' action meaning it requires
an extra step because it is unusual to the users of twitter and
it should be additional to avoid mistakes.

following on the other hand is at the core of twitter and
comes right after tweeting - it is nothing where the user
really has to think about "oh how do I do this" but rather
leading to the part where they make their usual decision
if or if not to follow somebody.

I'd love to see something like:
>
> http://twitter.com/follow/confirm/NAME
>
> which would explain following and "notifications" (and give them a
> chance to turn notifications on/off right there if they have a device
> defined).


in this case I would have to go to the real profil to make my decision
and then click on follow - 3 steps instead of 2, there is not
really an advantage.

Nicole



-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Feedback for Adobe?

[Nicole Simon]

Great. Would be interested to see how much part the Twitter clients have
with the download of AIR apps.

Non standard windows behaviour on a basic level. Using AIR apps takes me out
of my ecosystem. I could are less about cross platform, that is something
hindering me promoting any air app.

Memory usage - dont know if it is the programming of the app or an air
problem.

Best practise usages / examples done by twitter or adobe would help the
community to build better apps. Supporting that will be helpful for more
spread of AIR apps.

hth
Nicole

Re: New API methods to retrieve social graph without pagination

[Nicole Simon]

Awesome. I still do downloads of follower lists because it is an easier way
to get a batch of
information from the profile data than requesting every single one, but this
already is a huge advancement.

Small suggestion: Add a last changed info to it for social graph change or a
number?

Like if I have in my db that user X has 200 follower and 200 following, and
the new number
is 300 and 210 I might say 'woops, need to check follower but not the
following'?

Speaking of dates: Is there any way the new api does not require the funny
dates or is there a method I overlooked not to need to use sth like this:

Tue%2C+27+Mar+2007+22%3A55%3A48+GMT

0703272255 i can easily build as year month day etc, but the additional
name of the month and day complicates things unecessarily.
thanks
Nicole

Re: 2000 follow limit

[Nicole Simon]

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 11:38 PM, Patrick Minton  wrote:

>
> Does being whitelisted also mean that you can follow more than 2000
> people without having 2000 followed?  Lextweet.com uses a twitter
> account to follow members of the legal community and we are rapidly
> approaching 2000
>

Build Subgroups / Sets to follow  and use the well known limit to encourage
users to tag themselves / rate each other to allow for a better matchmaking.

Nobody wants to follow all of them but everybody wants to follow the
interesting
ones.

Nicole

-- 
Jetzt im Buchhandel:
"Twitter - Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0"
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6at9c5

http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon
https://www.xing.com/profile/Nicole_Simon

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nicole.si...@mit140zeichen.de
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: checking availability of username/account

[Nicole Simon]

I assume that show user of a non existant name returns an error code?

Nicole

Re: post "countdown" as a way to promote an app

[Nicole Simon]

Even with the permission it is bad.

Automatic posting to promote an app are the surest way to go viral - and
as resulting action to make users unfollow. Unless you provide a benefit
for me the reader, this *is* blatant advertisement. Same goes for
advertisement via DM, I have set up filters to automatically delete
those DM without seeing them.

Provide an easy way for me to post from the app and I will do it if
encouraged, see twtpoll for this, i have used this and seen this
used several time and dont mind it - because it was the user
who chose to post, not the app.

hth
Nicole

-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: fyi: Get your twitter app discovered

[Nicole Simon]

> This may be a naive question, but what is a "blogformat" image?
> (defun Chad)


typical blog layouts run at a maximum width with all
the sidebars and such. It is good to have different width
available but the promoted one on your website should
be a max of 400px wide, I think 350 is more like it.

reason: If I have to think about what to do with your image
I will do one of two links: not include your image or just
put it in my blog editor who will do the conversion for me,
most likely resulting in blurry image.

I'd bet that the only reason Robin used the header of
those sites is simply because they had no logo available.

take the blog you most want to get on and take alook
at the pictures they provide and get one of your app
accordingly.

See for example
http://twitdom.com/category/web-apps/

hth
Nicole

-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

fyi: Get your twitter app discovered

[Nicole Simon]

In case you'd like some more attention for your twitter application,
Robin Wauter's did an article on TC about where to find
Twitter apps.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/10/5-good-ways-to-discover-twitter-applications/

This and 64 comments / trackbacks give you some ideas on
where to submit your app to.

Personal note:
In order to write about apps it is always helpful to have
several screenshots available direct on your site (blogformat please,
including your logo) as well as short,  functional (no marketing bullshit)
descriptions, including the "tweet about this" button.

hth
Nicole


-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Feature request: whitelist/blacklist sent for friends_timeline

[Nicole Simon]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 8:36 PM, TweetByMail  wrote:

> I have a filter set up on my end that can either whitelist or
> blacklist a set of friend usernames. A person may want to read all the
> updates on the web, but only want a select few emailed to them.


I suggest to your users to add a second user for that as per API you run
into limits. This way all can be fetched as well as the people you want
to follow can get a second follower. People know about the limitations
and the success of twitter and you can always tell them that this second
account is their secretary where they can notes to by DM as well as
is there jsut for retrieving the data and not to be twittered with.

Until Twitter implements a group feature in an enhanced version,
you will always run into that problem.

Nicole

How Twitter will be integrated in'blog design'

[Nicole Simon]

The author of http://tweetback.holzhauer.it/ pinged me for his tweetback
project and
mentioned that http://mashable.com/2009/01/04/twitter-blog-design/  inspired
him;
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/09/tweetbacks-plugin-for-wordpress/
does the same and I saw another one called chat catcher.

With everybody revamping their blog designs and the importance of twitter -
may
I suggest somebody looks into this before it is wide spread and lots of
wordpress installs get black listed because they hammer the API,
and consequently submit a lot of questions to support?

This is a fail whale waiting to happen. My suggestion would be to address
this issue maybe for the blog authors before they all start implementing
this or at least urging tweetback developpers to put in mechanisms
for throtteling, maybe having one article explaining a bit of the daily
limitations an api can have.

I assume blog integration will grow in importance and also bring back up
the question if if twitter or not should decode the urls back again to
ensure a more
trackable web - it could be that the api delivers two results as message,
one with the normal tweet and one with the complete decoded tweet.

hth
Nicole



--
Using Twitter and having a blog?
Try Tweetback at http://tweetback.holzhauer.it/


-- 
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: create friendship from URL, NON API Method?

[Nicole Simon]

On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 11:42 PM, Chad Etzel  wrote:

> I think the best you can do is just point them to the user's profile
> on twitter and hope that they login and click "follow".


You can do better.

Use the 'tweet this' code examples, programm a 'follow $username'
message and explain somewhere that sending out this message
will follow that particular user and that this message will not be
tweetet out.


hth
Nicole

ps: Resist the temptation to build something inbetween like MrTweet so
you can track the actions - people do not like being tracked  and
will circumvent this step.


-- 
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: twitter keyword tracking?

[Nicole Simon]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:45 PM, charris1980 <
christopher.jason.har...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> is tracking back in twitter yet?  i put in "track <>" and it
> didn't work, just posted my tweet.  tweetbeep.com is down so can't use
> that anymore.  any suggestions to track keywords throughout twitter?


search.twitter.com
>> feed
>> your favourite feed2email service

might need more work on higher traffic topics
>> search api as described in the documentation

I think tools like tweetdeek implement the search as well.
Nicole

Why App devs have to be careful about what their colleagues do

[Nicole Simon]

I am adding these notes because I believe every App Dev should
strongly consider the implications their app has on the whole ecosystem
of apps - and what their colleagus are doing. All it takes is one app to be
really stupid to challenge whatever you are doing and create a really bad
mood.

Want another, not directly app related example?
http://www.mytweetspace.com/

this site first got on my radar because I scan Twitter Apps for writing
about
them. It used a picture of Chris Messina for advertisement on the top -
of course without asking him and I am pretty sure the others at the
top are some users they did not ask either.

Given that I would bet that in the same way most of their offered
pictures are not  licenced either.

Why is this relevant? Well, look how they are playing it:
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/55002


Re: Displaying public user data / "tweet this" buttons only when user is
authenticated - popup issues

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:30 AM, Alex Payne  wrote:

>
> I intend to address this shortly. It's not the API's intended behavior.
>

Of course it is not. You go for the 'oh would'nt it be cool' first and have
to implement the "I can't believe people would do this' later.

Thankfully most 'security people' have a sense of honor and most
bad guys do not have the intelligence to make use of these tools.
You learn to anticipate what bad people can do and try to be one
up with them.

As for normal people there is only two ways to make them use
security: Restrict their access - which is what I bet most people on
this list do with everybody they have to 'support' - and scare the
shit out of them.

I'd love to have Chad post the proof of concept after this has been
fixed - the work is done and it would be a good example to give
to others developping apps


Nicole



-- 
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Displaying public user data / "tweet this" buttons only when user is authenticated - popup issues

[Nicole Simon]

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Chad Etzel  wrote:

> I could send a tweet from some account that says "@user hello! thanks
> for dropping by mysite.com! Hope you enjoyed it!"  How many people
> *wouldn't* be freaked out by that? (In fact, I should try that and see
> what kind of reaction it generates...)


[x] send url, will retweet.

Nicole

-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

@oauth_now

[Nicole Simon]

I thought some of you might be interested:
http://pleasetwitterimplementoauthnow.com/

"Please follow the user @oauth_now  to show
your support for a better, more secure Twitter! Once you follow
@oauth_nowyou will get exactly two
direct messages from the user
@oauth_now . One message asks you to retweet
this message  and the second message will
be sent out once Twitter finally has implemented OAuth for every Twitter
user."

Nicole

-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Displaying public user data / "tweet this" buttons only when user is authenticated - popup issues

[Nicole Simon]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 9:08 PM, Chad Etzel  wrote:

> My question, though, is whether or not this sort of behavior is
> intentional, for 3rd party sites to be able to discover the identity
> of twitter users on their sites?  Personally, I find this to be more
> worrisome than the current username/password issues.


This would run into legal problems if you use it, at least in the european
union.

without being a lawyer but it roughly goes into "being able to connect data
to a users" - german sites for example face legal implications for even
having google analytics on the site.

hth
Nicole

Re: Twitter Users Pictures

[Nicole Simon]

I'd like to add: What do the T&C state for this case for the dev. side?
For us to store the picture we would have to get usage rights
via twitter in order to display them.


-- 
Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Racking my brain to figure out how to use users/show

[Nicole Simon]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 8:40 PM, Peter Denton 
>
> $host = "http://twitter.com/users/show/$businessUser.xml";;


shouldt that be https for more secure transmission of the data`?

Nicole
--

http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Is the documentation to blame?

[Nicole Simon]

Definitely happy to make it more clear which methods require
> authentication and which do not. However, to get the effect that's
> most intuitive from calling the API methods, calling them as the user
> whose data you're interested in is the most straightforward approach.


Which is what brought us into this mess (and I am telling you that is not
getting better) I'd rather have the user 'learn' which actions require
the access to my password.

Which basically should be just two areas: sending tweets / DM
and changing settings. Most apps should not require the password
and like childreen people like Chris Brogan and co will make them
learn that this is all they should share. It is like childreen and fire.

The viral effect most devs wish for (oh they should tweet about me!)
can be reached without the users login data by encouraging the
users to spread the news.

See this result from http://twtpoll.com/r/49jw9z as an example of how
it is done in a way that I as a user am happy to spread the news in
comparison to the most often stupid automated messages.

hth
Nicole


-- 
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Is the documentation to blame?

[Nicole Simon]

Usually api are to complicated to programm without knowledge and although it
is said so in the documentation that you only need a account (not the users
account), this api is 'too easy' to attract people without much knowledge
and you see the result.

(The users of course are not any better).

It might be best to add to the wiki a flag saying

"this command needs a authentification" auth:any
"this command needs authentification from the user in question"  - auth:user

linked to a mini explanation.
Nicole

-- 
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: This is why it's Urgent

[Nicole Simon]

Cameron's comment shows why a system like Oauth is important:
Making it easy for third party developpers.
Making it easier for users to build trust.

Btw business idea, as it did work with summize:
Build an oauth service between third apps and twitter,
gain the trust from the users, "force" devs to use it. As
this can be switched on by twitter any moment:
take a small amount of money from the users
in the meantime until twitter implements it.

I'd probably pay 10 dollars a year for such an intermediary
service (so make that 5 for six months)

Business idea 2 for you so you don't canibalise yourself:
Let's use a pledge drive to put up money for you and
implement these.

Alex:

> Christopher St John's comments above accurately reflect my own
> concerns. OAuth is not a security magic bullet, and it only encourages
> phishing attacks. I feel bad for users that have given their
> credentials to a phishing site, and we'll do everything we can to
> educate them, but token-based authentication systems are not going to
> fix this particular security problem.


Of course it is not a magic bullet but let's not forget that having to
provide my
login data on third party apps because nothing else exists is really stupid.
It may not be the magic bullet but in comparison that is miles between those
too.


> Getting worked up into hysterics about boycotts is just, as security
> expert Bruce Schenier is fond of saying, "security theater". It's the
> equivalent of an apartment building's tenants telling their landlord
> they refuse to use keys because someone's place got broken into.


The equivilant you are looking  for is that in order to have operations
done in my appartment all I can do is hand out my keys instead of
being able to use the trusted third party service which will watch
them just for a bit.

Are users stupid and dont know what they do? Of course. Basically
it surprises me to see it took them phishers so long to go for it.

But you can see a clear correlation with some of the recent news
with twitter news popping up on sites like digitalpoint and co.

The ecosystem is one of the reasons why Twitter is succeeding,
interviews with users show that over and over again.


Nicole

--
Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Friends / Followers without authentication?

[Nicole Simon]

On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 11:26 PM, peterhough  wrote:

>
> How do they make requests while authenticated as their own account
> without supplying a password? Am I missing something here...


Yes. You only need 'a' username not their username.

It is not super obvious but you can ask for follower and friends
for anybody you just need to authenticate yourself against twitter.

Pattern:
http://twitter.com/statuses/friends/nicolesimon.xml?page=2
http://twitter.com/statuses/followers/nicolesimon.xml?page=2


will get you everything.
hth
Nicole

-- 
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: A nice application

[Nicole Simon]

On Dec 27 2008, 2:17 am, "dumis.admarket...@gmail.com"
 wrote:
> I would like to build an application where a twitter user can store
> the birthday date of his friends. Is that possible using Twitter API ?

Besides running into data protection issues, I do not want to have yet
another
database where I have to add sth like a date. Rather go on top of
existing
data and enhance my experience in tweeting / DM for birthday wishes.

Nicole
ps: dont forget timezones ;)


--
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

re: twitter authority

[Nicole Simon]

On Jan 2, 10:45 pm, Ben Metcalfe  wrote:
> I'm building a twitter authority bot that makes numerous calls to
> twitter to derive a given user's authority.

great. can I assume that the non monolingual perspective is
taken care of? ;) as usual happy to throw suggestions out and
play beta tester. I also have some data of a purely German
user base (~5K) which you might test some ideas against.

> PS: Do you guys have an IRC chan or something - I *REALLY* don't want
> to turn this on and give you problems so would love to have some real
> time contact (short of walking around to your offices!).

Oh yes please. I suggest the usual, making a #twitterapi
or so on freenode? #twitter already exists.

Nicole


--
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076

Re: Advice for a newbie

[Nicole Simon]

@Twittergator

You do not necessary need a programming language to play around with
the api.

Sure, if you really want to do stuff, you need the api, but simpler
stuff is possible
with command line tools like wget and Excel (excel does reads rss once
you get
the idea)

The problem  is that people with no skills are a hassle without
knowing it -
so please dont give them ideas or at least the right ideas. ;)

Example: Although it is not directly written, just seeing this entry
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/REST+API+Documentation#followers
in the doc you should be able to see yourself that you can request the
follower lists
of other users if you just combine the settings of this entry.

So let's rephrase the question:
Do you want people to be able to 'do' something with their data and
make some small
mashup or do you want them to be able to do a bigger twitter app? The
first is doable
without programming skills, the second is not and should not be tried.


Stuart
> They are aware that you guys are about to change it all right??

But it is so much fun when you write a book and they change in the
middle
so you can redo everything. ;) i had to redo all my screenshots due to
the
redesign of the interface, thankfully not as much impact as the api
changes. ;)

> > O'Reilly has the "rough cut" of their book on the Twitter API
> > available:http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596157791/.

thanks did not know that

Nicole


--
Suche Beta-Tester für Experiment:
"Journalisten suchen Blogger" - http://bloxpert.de/

Kontakt:
http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon // http://mit140zeichen.de/
http://crueltobekind.org // http://beissholz.de

skype: nicole.simon / mailto:nee...@gmail.com
phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076