Scripting News - Latest Comments in The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Tony Rycyk — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:22:50 -0000

Top man I`ve always wanted that and thanks for telling us I`m off for the s60v3 down load, yippy

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Jay — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:05:00 -0000

Just got done listening to this podcast using my Nokia N95 with Symbian s60 v3 and I am downloading more podcasts right now using home WiFi so I can listen to more of them in the car tomorrow. Ironic, do you think? You talked about wanting a device that downloads your Podcasts by WiFi and then also plays them and I listened to that show on a device that does that.

Jay

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

James b — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:20:22 -0000

i'm sorry. i clicked on the pownce link and was directed to an invitation to subscribe. I subscribed. i went back to the page to see the post only to be informed that i did not have access to the page. Cute. i saw the screen shot. it is indeed nice.

okay one day i might read and try to decipher but for now since i obviously missed a step. neither twitter nor pownce works better than email for me. until i grow up. thanks for the tip!

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

donpark — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:01:15 -0000

Leah, last time I tried send/message.xml, note_to value 'all' didn't work ('public' works though). Might be a bug or logic error somewhere.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

vrypan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:07:51 -0000

Hi Dave. I've been thinking a lot about payloads and twitter (and I've posted here a couple of ideas you didn't like :-)

Here is one more. I like the way twitter has defined the @namespace. How about a url1|url2 namespace?

To be more specific, url1[|url2], where the |url2 is optional, to keep backwards compatibility with existing posts. url2 is the link to a thumbnail, or any alternate representation of the content of url1 (ex. a speaker icon in the case of an audio link, a still frame of a video, etc.).

Would this be a good enough solution?

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Leah Culver — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:51:45 -0000

By setting the send_to parameter to "public", you can send links that everyone can view. By default the API will post to your default setting, which by default is "all" - all your friends (but not your fans). Whew. Thanks for the nice review!

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Brij — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:18:09 -0000

Dave - been following your Twitter love for some time. Learned a lot from your observations.

On this particular thread, we are USING Twitter API to do exactly that:

iPhone > MessageDance > Twitter (not only Twitter, but Facebook, Blog etc)

You can check pictures and their Twitter status:

http://www.messagedance.com...
http://twitter.com/brij/sta...

We even put a small indicator [i] to tell Twitter users about payload type. ( for eg [v] for video etc)

Brij

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

donpark — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:59:22 -0000

Dave, you are overlooking the fact that 1) Pownce data format is completely undocumented, 2) Pownce API doc has many errors and confusions, and 3) Pownce API behaves unreliably.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Eric Friedman — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:32:17 -0000

I do not have access to your pownce account - but looking forward to seeing this in action.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

playerx — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:43:44 -0000

hmm, that's a bit of a fail.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

playerx — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:23:46 -0000

It would really be nice if Pownce had RSS feeds of friends or people you follow like Twitter.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

christian — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:46:18 -0000

sms is a huge cost to the people running the app. Pownce doesn't need to be twitter. It is great at what it does. Enjoy it for what it is, and use twitter for what its good at.

Jaiku has yet to get a US Shortcode for SMS. I think that they are planing on skipping it. No need for sms when we are online.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

AC — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:42:04 -0000

wordpress > blogger > tumblr > pownce > twitter

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

dave — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:18:10 -0000

I'd just truncate at 140 characters and be done with it.

And don't send the links over SMS.

But I wouldn't necessarily trust my judgement on this -- I don't use the SMS features of Twitter. I come in strictly through the web interface.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

AC — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:59:14 -0000

pownce just needs sms do get people to start moving. It would be interesting if you had any ideas about the best way pownce could add sms. I'm thinking: split the standard message into 2 fields - a required 140 character max 'status' field and an optional unlimited 'body' field.

Once this was implemented twitter fans could switch without much problem.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Rex Hammock — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:10:53 -0000

I agree with you, Dave, with a slight exception. I hate to use a military metaphor, but there are times with generals lose wars because they are re-fighting the previous one. The challenge here is to learn from the past, but they (we?) should be aware that sometimes the lessons learned previously may not be directly applicable in the current context. One thing is for certain, however: The exciting part is having the flexibility -- and API -- to experiment with ideas to see if they work, or don't.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

btucker — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:31:21 -0000

Dave, I'd be interested in your opinion of tumblr. Their API (which has been around for awhile) is as good, if not better, than Pownce's. And their user base is exploding afaict.

http://www.tumblr.com/api

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

dave — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:57:11 -0000

Rex, the market is cruel, esp when it comes to free services, and esp when there's compatibility. Very few people use Radio today, even though at one time it led the market for blogging tools, and created the market for RSS feed readers. That may happen to Twitter too. They should learn all the lessons that others have learned. I think so far they've been wrongly assuming that they have the full set of features they need. Now with the Pownce API supporting the features I've wanted from Twitter, I have a chance to prove it.

My piece last night is totally about my interest in these services as development platforms. I've wanted these features for quite some time, and my development has been held back because they weren't there. Now I have what I wanted, and there are definitely enough users on Pownce to develop it.

At some point some service will emerge that has the reliability, simplicity and API features that allow the market to really develop, the one we intuitively feel should develop here. It might be Twitter, Pownce, or someone else. We're still forming the basic idea, and what Pownce gave us helps us advance that formation, so I find it exciting. :-)

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Rex Hammock — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:20:42 -0000

Speaking strictly as a "user" and not a developer here. However, I know an "innovator's dilemma" when I see one. What's more critical to the future of Twitter? Adding new features or getting the ones they have now to work? Or is Twitter's success tied less to features and more to the network effect that means you (Dave) are "followed" by close to 6,000 people here and a few hundred on Pownce. Is pleasing the early adopters more important than building the network of users? I have no idea, no answers and no insight. However, I know I'm suffering from platform fatigue.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

esjewett — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:03:18 -0000

I second the vote for Twitter staying simple.

Dave, you make much of APIs (rightly) and the vast majority of Twitter traffic comes through their API. Rather than asking that Twitter implement better payloads, why not target this type of feature for an API-based interface?

Personally, I'd rather not see pictures in my Twitter-stream anyway, but there's nothing stopping someone from creating this feature by following links in the Twitter-stream and identifying "payload"-style content.

Sorry if I sound grumpy. I'm breaking my no posting before 9am rule :-)

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

PhilWil — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:10:02 -0000

I am sort of new to all of this stuff you speak of... Pounce? I barely understand twitter (but slowing getting its appeal) and yet Pounce is somehow better because the link is smaller (and better looking I must say)?

lol

BTW, I came her because of a link from TechCrunch and I have to say I like your blog, but what's up with all these ads? ads on a blog is just wrong
;)

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Ben — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:59:56 -0000

Give Jaiku a go too. It's much more 'twitter like' than Pownce in my opinion, and flickr integration is nice: http://beng.jaiku.com/prese...

Unsure about true payloads, but it is intelligent in the way it handles links.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

Damon Clinkscales — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:30:18 -0000

Hello Dave, I wanted to tell you about an app I wrote called SnapTweet ( http://snaptweet.com/ ). It is sort of similar to what you built for yourself I guess, except it only tweets your latest when you tell it to. Please try it out sometime if its of interest.

Thanks, Damon

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

christian — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:24:13 -0000

Posting to pownce works like sending to a group. If you send a private message to 20 friends, those friends can comment knowing that they are the only ones in that conversation, and they can see who else is in it.

Re: The verdict is in: The Pownce API kicks Twitter's ass (Scripting News)

christian — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:16:58 -0000

I would try and go to you pownce pref page, http://pownce.com/settings/... and change your default setting to public and try it again.

Pownce spent their first months really listening to ideas from users and getting as many features would make sense. The look and style is awesome. The blend of public / private / groups has so much potential.