Yeah an increase in API requests would be nice to have with the addition of new API features. I would almost like a solution where twitter sets a "guaranteed" hits/hour soft limit. By soft limit I mean if you go above this limit you "may" be rate limited if the twitter cluster is currently under heavy load or you are being too rough with the API. If the cluster has unused capacity, why start limiting users? For non-whitelisted applications a guarantee of 250 would be nice. Whiltelisted apps would get a higher guaranteed limit still to meet their demands.
I'm sure twitter has floated this idea around. Not sure how big of a technical hurdle it would be to implement. Just my two cents on the subject of API rate limits. Josh On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Eric Woodward <e...@nambu.com> wrote: > I will come straight to the point: we need to an increase to the API > limit to properly implement Twitter within a desktop client > application given the addition of: 1) three retweets timelines; 2) > checking the account's saved searches; and 3) up to 10-20 Twitter > Lists timelines. > > Twitter Lists alone are causing real problems if a user follows more > than 5 or so. We cant poll Twitter List subscriptions with one API > call that combines them altogether, which we could then split apart > client-side with some attached meta-data. That alone would have been a > big help, and without it we are left polling each List as if it was a > separate timeline, since that is what they are. > > Implementing proper Lists management is a non-starter within this > limit, so is regular confirmation of a relationship between two users > when asked for by the user (on Lists or search results). There is > simply a lot of stuff I cannot do properly that is standard on > twitter.com, all because I am subject to the API limit while > twitter.com is not. Users simply do not understand this distinction in > possibilities. > > I would like to formally ask on behalf of all client developers that > the API limit increase to 250, from 150, for all applications whether > they use OAuth or HTTP Basic Authentication. We are simply not able to > implement Twitter properly within a limit of 150, but dont need a lot > more, only another 100-200 API calls or so. > > If Twitter can even technically contemplate a 10x API limit increase > to 1,500 for OAuth applications, surely an increase to 250 based on > the addition of core features like official retweets and Lists is a > reasonable request. A limit of 150 is simply obsolete, and has been > for a long time. > > I do not want to wait for the UX repairs around OAuth for desktop > applications, and I dont like being forced into OAuth sooner than we > are ready just because we need the extra API hits just to do basic > features properly. And besides, that was announced as two weeks away > three weeks ago. I dont want to wait any longer. I want to properly > implement the basics, like Lists polling, now. > > This is a considered email because I care about the quality of our > Twitter implementation and I care about the Twitter ecosystem. I would > appreciate a considered reply. > > --ejw > > Eric Woodward > Email: e...@nambu.com >
