on March 5, 2010 by Justin in Uncategorized, Comments (17)
I’m playing in Twitter’s sandpit, and they’re playing fair
In case you didn’t know TweetMiner was suspended from the Twitter API yesterday. For more on that, see this thread here. This was as a result of TweetMiner breaking a few of their automation related rules determined by the API policy team.
I believe that TweetMiner hit Twitter’s radar due to this rather pompous and self righteous post over here that gained some traction on the interwebs yesterday. Prior to that Twitter had probably never heard of TweetMiner.
Twitters immediate reaction was to suspend TweetMiner without warning. This was devastating for me, my 3000+ registered users, and my 94 paying customers. I honestly felt that everything I’d been working toward for the past 5-6 months was going all going to be in vain.
I’m playing in Twitter’s sandpit and they have the rights to play and treat me any way they see fit. As far as I knew – at that point – Twitter did not care about me, my business or my users.
So then some interesting things started to happen.
Firstly I was just amazed at the support that my customers sent my way. They even set-up a funny hashtag #FreeTheTweetMiner3000 and a tagal.us page about it!
But then after submitting an appeal to revoke application suspension and waiting for a grueling 24 hours Twitter responded via their zendesk help system. It essentially said I was in breach of a number of technicalities according to their API policies. For the full transcript see yesterdays post.
I didn’t care about or mind removing the “Friend Finder > Follow All” which was almost but not quite automated friend adding. I also didn’t mind removing the rather clever “Custom Signature” feature that allowed people to register an app and plug it into TweetMiner so that they could have a custom signature on Twitter (in place of the app name). Both of these features were just add ons and not part of the core value of TweetMiner.
However this was the item that deeply worried me The Scheduled Automatic RSS Feature is still in violation of our Automation Rules
Scheduling tweets via RSS is the very reason TweetMiner exists and the reason that I have 94 paying customers. It is the foundation of my start-up. My USP.
So. I made all the changes that twitter requested and then sent them back a response saying and I quote..
The core aspect of my business revolves around this feature. My entire start-up revolves around it! Not to mention the promises I’ve made to my wife and my techzing listeners of being able to build a sustainable start-up based on twitter.
If you can’t definitively tell me that I am allowed to have an rss scheduling feature in tweetminer then I will have no choice but to shut the business down.
For example it wouldn’t be acceptable for you to just, turn a blind eye, and allow me to use RSS scheduling. I need to know one way or another (in writing) in order to make a definitive decision whether to continue to build my start-up on twitter or not.
Twitter sent back the following response…
I appreciate your willingness to cooperate with us, as such we can allow you to have the Scheduled RSS feature under the condition that you ensure that your users are not using your application to spam Twitter. If we start noticing too many posts sent through TweetMiner being flagged as spam then we will have to suspend the token again. So if you notice spammers using TweetMiner it will be in all of our best interests if you report them as it will improve the overall Twitter ecoysystem. Thanks, and we apologize for any headaches today may have caused you. I look forward to working with you going forward.
This signifies something quite remarkable for a company with a one billion dollar valuation to do. With this message not only are they intoning that they value what I do, and that they care about my customers, but they are willing to go against their own rules and take a risk on me and my business.
In this instance Twitter has shown understanding that rules and policies do have grey areas and that not everyone should be tarred with the same brush. That doesn’t sound like the kind of corporate line that I’m used to.
If Twitter can maintain this kind of integrity over the coming years then, perhaps, they may be able to run with the concept that Google championed (and lost) “do no evil”.
I’m surprised and impressed with Twitter today, and I’m glad to be playing in their sandpit – they play fair.
Austin Rails Developer
March 5, 2010 @ 8:59 pm
Glad to hear it worked out!
I have newfound respect for twitter.
Afonso
March 5, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
Congratulation Justin. Hence the reasons why you couldn’t answer my queries about the signature. Fair play to you for trying to improve our experience; for putting up all accounts and process of your business on the blog and been transparent with your work.
One has to conquer one’s space by showing some work and in this case I salute you!
Afonso
Mark A. Andrews
March 5, 2010 @ 9:48 pm
Great news and really decent of Twitter to allow the deviation from its policy based upon common sense.
Since using TweetMiner, I have been sending out 5-6 scheduled tweets daily, most of which have been RSS feed articles which I have read and think my followers would appreciate. Based upon the response, I think my intuition is correct. I have had nothing but positive feedback from those who cared to comment. Scheduling a few well researched tweets throughout the day is much better than some who send out 8,10 and sometimes 20+ all at the same time; those are the people I quit following. Mr. Dominic Jones falls into this category based upon what I’ve seen on his Twitter posts.
However, here is what Mr. Dominic and Twitter fail to process. Twitter is basically self policing. If I think someone is abusing my graces by sending me tweets that don’t interest me, I can quit following them. Mr. Jones has the same right. Instead of crying to Twitter about spammers, maybe a more liberal use of the unfollow link is in order.
Mark
Crash
March 6, 2010 @ 12:21 am
I read this post several times. Twitter suspending Tweetminer (the way they did it… no warning, nothing) was probably the last nail for this user. I’ve had too many personal let downs in dealing with Twitter directly. And I arugued their own TOS to no avail or satisfaction.
I’m not quite sure who Twitter values, but (after 1 year on Twitter in a few days), I’m beginning to realize it is definitely not their users. In my opinion.
It’s not who you know at Twitter, it’s who you blow at Twitter.
By the way, define “spam”, Twitter. Ask 10 people on Twitter what they think is “spam” and you’ll get 20 different answers. Sorry Justin… I think they continue to be vague. To you, to us, and surely to their investors.
Terri Zwierzynski
March 6, 2010 @ 12:33 am
I take back my comments on the other post about Twitter. They really *are* real people who are willing to engage and even change their minds.
Kudos to Twitter…and to you, Justin, for having the cojones to stand up for what your business means!
Imad Naffa
March 6, 2010 @ 12:43 am
Although it was painful to have TweetMiner down, it appears the experience for all of us to see how this played out with Twitter may have been worth it, and educational of the process.
Justin, great job sticking with it until it got resolved almost all your users/clients were pulling for you. From my experience with your customer service, I was betting that you would see this through and take care of your supporters. Your wife should be proud of you today (Im sure she already is).
Continued success!
dbear
March 6, 2010 @ 3:16 am
I can’t tell you how much I admire the openness and honesty with which you handled this whole situation. I hope you get terrifically rich and influential, because I’d like to see other businessmen emulate you by embracing these same values.
Faceman5050
March 6, 2010 @ 2:24 pm
Oh boy more fun with the twitter api! Lastnight many twitter apps and programs couldnt connect to the page. Even the safari browser on my iphone just couldnt connect to there servers but you know what could tweetminer thats right. I love twitter but sometimes twitter goes thru growing pains. If you havent noticed the email that every twitter user has gotten from @Biz about the up and comming twitter (woodstock) where all the twitter designers come together and showcase there apps, then quickly check your spamfilter its there. I would love to see tweetminer there altho im not going to the show cause its well out of my area and paygrade, but to see tweetminer on the list would be cool. At least brag with the few apps that can brag about going thru the api growing paines. Maybe some designer would take there frustration out on them i dont agree with violence but im a user of twitter and if i get frustrated sometimes just using twitter then i can only imagin the highs and lows that you guys go thru. So please i say make it like monday night raw steal chairs and folding tables for all to enjoy! Just kidding Faceman5050
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Peter Zhang
March 15, 2010 @ 7:46 am
I been through the whole process of banned and unbanned. Honestly when my spam accounts been suspended by Twitter, that really hurt my business and I am not happy about that because there not even a place that I can send them a ticket. But anyway, they’re the ones who’re in control, what we can do is follow the rules and play our best. It’s good to know the RSS function can be admit by Twitter, that’s a very good news for all our users. I tried to upgrade but after I saw the member offer I felt that there’s nothing better that non member. So my suggestion will be add more suitable functions for the member area to attract more payed users. If you want to get money from this business. But anyway I think Tweetminer is a great tool and I shall promote that to my clients and friends always.