Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Ecommerce — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:59:47 -0000

Nice post, thanks for updating all the informations. Still now i didn't use Twitter but i am thinking of using it.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Taxman45 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:02:49 -0000

I was able to scroll back to 2/12/08 on tweetree.com. Have you tried that?

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

josephgelb — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:22:56 -0000

It seems like Twitter is a lot like Google in that it tries to vibe out on its thing but is pretty tied to a political game. That sounds like a tipping point that could hurt the company.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Linked Media Group, Inc. — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:03:26 -0000

I'm not defending Twitter, they are clearly experiencing some growth pains and if you read the TechCrunch materials some of the conversations were pretty "out there" in terms of strategy and tactical execution. But, if you look back over the years at "third party developer programs" and relationships (ne Sun, Autodesk, Apple, etc.) there were a lot of rocky times for third party developers. The trade off is you get to jump in a tide that is rising quickly; but, it ain't easy and it won't be over until the fat lady sings the blues and someone buys them. And, then you'll see another wrinkle in their API/Developer relationship. Pete Townsend said it first ......"meet the new boss, same as the old boss!"

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Chris Saad — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:03:09 -0000

Actually with JS-Kit Echo both direct and social comments are imported into the WP database ;)

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

jufemaiz — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:49:34 -0000

Of course the API is the first thing to go down. It's "hobbled mode" - when the servers are under severe strain you reduce the non-priority tasks.

Flickr does this (talk to John Allspaw about this one).

The electricity industry does this ("load shedding" of non-essential load from in order of increasing priority to maintain connectivity).

Both in real time.

Both to prevent the undesirable consequence of failure and a black start.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

jufemaiz — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:44:48 -0000

Agreed.

Flickr's ToS is fairly obvious about the fact that if your pro account isn't up to date you aren't able to dive into your archives using their API. The links still work. The images and pages are still there, but they're not linked nor shown in results using the API (either them internally or the externally facing one).

The plus side is that they *do not* destroy those assets that you've uploaded, nor the additional meta. They just remove it from viewing.

Consider it like not being allowed on the road until you pay your registration and other requirements (eg: insurance in some countries).

As always, it pays to read your ToS when signing up to any account.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

andrewmueller — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:12:25 -0000

Robert, following on Twitter is a misnomer and the use of this term is diminishing our ability to truly understand the interactions that are taking place on Twitter and our ability to deliver value to the our "followers" and in your case the brands that you align yourself with. We don’t follow people on twitter any more than we follow a TV or Radio station. We tune in from time to time and hear what’s on the air, but for the most of us we miss most of what has been broadcast.

The simple fact that a follower doesn't click on a link doesn't mean that they are worthless. It may be that the particular link just doesn't interest them or that they don't have the time to act right then when they see it. This doesn't mean that something else wont interest or they wouldn't have acted if they had the time. The real power of having influence is connecting people to brands that add value to their lives and the true measure of this is not clicks but conversions. If you or anyone else is going to be valuable to a brand you will need to be able to impact conversions and this will likely take place in both visible and trackable ways (tracked clicks moving through the conversion process) as well as, unseen ways (actions taken because you influence them through your communications and alliances).

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Ami — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:36:32 -0000

Surprised no one has mentioned Magnolia (ma.gnolia) social bookmarking service that had a massive data loss. They lost all my bookmarks.

http://mashable.com/2009/01...

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Ian Betteridge — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:35:59 -0000

Why should Twitter care if geeks love it? With god knows how many million users, it's gone way beyond the point when early adopters can affect it.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

cherylharrison — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:13:42 -0000

"These are mostly fake followers cause they only cared about bumping up their follower numbers, not in listening to anything you had to say (which is provable because if they had listened to me over the years they would have joined FriendFeed cause I’ve talked about that so much..."

Just because I don't want to be your friend on FriendFeed, Scoble, doesn't mean I don't listen to you :)

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Anthony Farrior — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:12:57 -0000

Friendfeed just "drove a truck" thru twitter http://su.pr/2n1ht5

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Ken Kennedy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:37:18 -0000

Robert,

At the risk of getting in the middle of what is obviously pretty personal for you here, I'd suggest you're conflating two different issues with Twitter and Flickr. I'm there with ya on the Twitter thing...in particular, since the "I Want Sandy" shutdown fiasco, I've been VERY leery of trusting the management team at Twitter to keep the users/developers interests in mind...well, at all, much less as a priority. Twitter is a crummily necessary evil at this point, in my mind. I'll be happy to move on when I can.

The Flickr situation sounds different, however. I can only imagine your frustration at not being able to get at your photos for a couple of days...but didn't the renewal of the Pro account take care of that? They didn't delete the photos...they became unavailable. It's very clear when you purchase a Pro account how things will work, and yes, you're committing to a long-term financial relationship with Flickr, for $25/year. But IMO, it's a great value (I have a pro account as well)...any service providing that level of storage, accessibility (via powerful search), collaboration tools (for allowing others to tag, etc.), is worth $25 bucks a year to me. And Flickr, unlike Twitter, hasn't stabbed me in the back (yet *grin*).

So I feel your pain, but I'm thinking that comparing the two is doing a disservice to Flickr, honestly.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Matthew Kettlewell — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:31:40 -0000

Has anyone seriously considered buying tr.im? I mean, what sort of "token sum" are they talking about.

I would love to buy tr.im and monetize it, get the stats back up, and make a long-term commitment to loyal fans.

Integrating this with an app that stores tweets back past thousands might be nice too ;)

I seriously think that tr.im was just not well prepared with a business plan for monetizing it ... I've thought about this a lot over the last 24 hours, and have found several monetizing plans for a URL shortener, so I'm not sure what happened with tr.im.

Almost seems as if he thought he could sell the system to someone, but forgot that people want to buy something that makes money, not something that is designed to eat the money.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Ashesh — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:19:38 -0000

From URL shortening to URL de-digestion - http://bit.ly/436emK

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

YouPage @youpage — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:14:19 -0000

Great post and refreshingly objective. In this case I don't see why they can't just include an additional text box for links a la YouPage. Here at YouPage we have taken this approach which means the main message text box is used for it's communication primary purpose

@YouPage

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Apostol Apostolov — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:31:39 -0000

If that is going to make Robert Scoble get over it, we all could ChipIn.com
a dollar and he could afford a Time Machine 2Gb.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

disqus_n5j7jNaPkL — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:18:50 -0000

Sorry Granny, but in the long run your approach will result in more data loss than putting your content up on the cloud.

Very few people have the discipline to migrate their archives to the latest technology as they upgrade their systems. I personally have lived through several storage media format changes: mag tape, floppies, SCSI drive, etc. Due to laziness, most of the files stored on these media did not survive the transition.

People forget their home is also a single point of failure. Theft, earthquake, leaky roof could wipe out your entire archive.

I suggest doing both: putting content up in the cloud and storing it locally. It is cheap and getting easier synchronize both every day.

I'll plug Smugmug for photos, Google / Yahoo for email, and Amazon for blobs.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Anthony Farrior — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:06:40 -0000

Yes, I know...
AnthonyF.
Solacetech-IT Professional
http://myphillynetwork.com
http://twitter.com/myphilly...

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Scobleizer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:34:21 -0000

I follow thousands of early adopters and regularly go to conferences and meet up with innovators, developers, and others. And I talk with thousands more over on FriedFeed. I get to see new things that are getting adoption pretty quickly.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Anthony Farrior — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:23:05 -0000

That's a curious comment there Robert. What early adopters do you follow that's on something before you?

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Scobleizer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:04:49 -0000

My response to Herschel WAS rude and it was because he was so wrong it isn't even funny. So are you. Come over to my house and find the baby pictures I took of Milan. I already have them all backed up on some hard drive somewhere. But I can go to Flickr (now that I've paid again for my pro account) and search for them and find them in SECONDS. You CAN NOT DO THAT ON YOUR OWN FREAKING HARD DRIVE!!! Why? Because all my file names are DSC001 or something like that. This is why I get rude. Flickr is useful BECAUSE OF THE METADATA THAT PEOPLE PUT ONTO MY PHOTOS!!! It is clear that YOU have nothing useful to say here either, so why don't you stay out of it, please? Thanks.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Paul — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:55:41 -0000

Robert,
Maybe you're the idiot.
I used to think that you had something useful to say but no more.
Your response/attitude to Herschel is just downright rude.
He has a valid point.
How can you possibly communicate in this way with people who have a valid point?

10,000 photos is nothing. I have MUCH more than that and I can find exactly what I want when I want.
I agree with him totally. You back up everything multiple times yourself and even have an offsite back-up. To use Flickr as your primary is just plain mad.

Don't bother replying because I won't be back.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Louis Gray — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:47:46 -0000

So should I interpret your first comment as my being slammed, that I'm always wrong on tech? What I am saying is that even if someone like Robert (or me) gets frustrated and we see it through our lens, that the public doesn't always do so, and time may go on to show us wrong.

I don't care so much about the old links I have put into Twitter because Twitter can't let people easily find them. I mentioned specifically tr.im and bit.ly to illustrate how I had not chosen one for all my activity, and even with the recent news, am not "impacted" much by tr.im going away. The message is that Twitter has a lot of growing up to do in the search and discovery and records retention department before we can rely on any of it.

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

Louis Gray — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:45:03 -0000

I like your note saying "if even YOU are agreeing with most of my points". Ha.

I have a long track record of agreeing with 95% of all your commentary, and often get knocked for our overlap. That we disagree on some things and talk about them publicly is part of the fun of blogging and social networking. You can trust what I write.

I think the celebrities "today" are locked up. I wouldn't see Oprah's use of Twitter as a success, and I wouldn't see Trent Reznor leaving Twitter as a success - or Kanye West saying other people tweet on his behalf (like Britney does openly). There is some serious real adoption to go before saying the battle is over.