Scott, I don't think it's ludicrous to think that Twitter may eventually pull the plug on, say, statuses/home_timeline, effectively eliminating clients.
If Twitter's concern is ad revenue, all they'd need to do is add a clause to their TOS specifying that all third-party clients must show in-line ads or the quickbar or whatever else Twitter uses to generate revenue. Then the issue is very clear for developers -- either integrate Twitter's revenue-producing content into your client, or don't make a client at all. The fact that they seem to be going about this a different way, and being a bit unclear as to what might happen to a client-only app, leaves open the possibility that they simply want to close down the market so the only access to one's timeline is via a first-party app. Scott Wilcox wrote: > Hello, > > For a few days now I've read what people have said in reply to the update > from Ryan. There are some crazy reactions and responses to what Ryan has > said. In essence, the entire reaction is my opinion is completely overblown. > > Not in any sense what-so-ever have Twitter said that you can no longer post > updates on behalf of users. Its ludicrous to suggest so. What they have have > said (and in my opinion - quite clearly) is that it is better to direct your > time and effort into a product that is not just a simple client and does more > than just provide viewing and posting of tweets. There are so many half-arsed > clients out there that do little more than just show and post tweets. If by > chance a user was to use these low grade applications as their first > experience of Twitter, it would probably put them off using it in the long > term. > > I do fully believe that is why they have released their own branded clients > for iOS, Macs and other devices. It provides a consistent experience for the > end-users. > > The other thing that people seem to completely overlook is that Twitter are > providing a freely accessible API at no charge to developers. It pains me to > see so many developers standing the moral high ground. If you were paying for > access to a service or product and it changes, you have a very valid reason > to complain. To complain about a service provided free of charge for you to > use at the end of the day frustrates me to no end. No single developer has a > god given right to have access to the API, perhaps that should be remembered. > > Scott. > > On 13 Mar 2011, at 00:16, Adam Green wrote: > > > Interesting that neither Ryan or anyone else from Twitter has replied once > > to any of the questions here, (way to go on showing your interest in the > > developer community, Ryan), so I'll address this question to everyone else > > in the group. I don't read Ryan's message as demanding that apps are no > > longer allowed to send tweets on behalf of users. Is that supposed to be > > what he said? I think he is saying that apps should be more than *just* > > clients that let you read and post tweets. How to tell the difference, I > > have no idea, but I think in Ryan's mind there is a difference. > > > > I'll ask it as clearly as I can. Is it still allowed for an app to accept a > > tweet from a user and post it into their account? > > > > Is the /statuses/update api call still allowed in an app? > > > > Let's not wait for Twitter to respond, since they clearly don't want to any > > longer. Let's try and figure this out ourselves. What does everyone think? > > Can apps still send tweets? > > > > If yes, there is still a market for Twitter API developers. If not, the > > Twitter API is over. It is that simple. > > > > Maybe Ryan or anyone from Twitter can also find the time to answer this. > > > > On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Duane Roelands <duane.roela...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > Wow. "Thanks for getting so many people interested in Twitter. Now > > get lost." > > > > This is appalling. > > > > -- > > Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc > > API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi > > Issues/Enhancements Tracker: > > http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list > > Change your membership to this group: > > http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk > > > > > > > > -- > > Adam Green > > Twitter API Consultant and Trainer > > http://140dev.com > > @140dev > > > > -- > > Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc > > API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi > > Issues/Enhancements Tracker: > > http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list > > Change your membership to this group: > > http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk -- Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi Issues/Enhancements Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list Change your membership to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk
