DISQUS

Piers · 2 years ago

Was also mentioned on the twitter-dev mailing list here: http://x98.us/qg

Tim · 2 years ago

When I used to run a small web hosting company I would normally do OS upgrades and server maintenance in the middle of the night so any outage would not really be noticed by anyone, except other night owls like me. So I think their timing could have been a little better.

But.. on the other hand.. It's a completely free service, so I don't feel like I have any right to complain either. I'm not paying for it. I enjoy the service for free, so I have to cut them some slack.

dave · 2 years ago

Yes, it is a completely free service, and I appreciate Twitter, and try to let them know every way I can. I'm not so much complaining about it as trying to help them get to the next level, and at the same time, thinking about where the community is going, long-term. Right now we're getting both the good and bad of a single-vendor market. The good part is that there is a uniform API, all the vendors are 100 percent compatible with each other (there's only one, so that's easy). When there are two there will be variables, inevitably. Even Compaq was slightly different from IBM. The bad part of being with a single vendor is that when they go down, *everyone* goes down. Long-term that can't work, because Twitter won't be around forever. If this is really going to be a robust activity, in order for it to scale there will need to be many vendors. Now the challenge is to try to have that happen and preserve as much developer momentum as possible. Not exactly sure where Twitter comes down on that, but I am very clear on where I am -- I want compatibility.

This came up in a session on social software at LeWeb. Scoble kept asking the vendors his very pragmatic user questions, and they kept telling him that solving his problems wasn't on their radar. Oooops.

I hope to talk with Scoble later this weekend and continue this thread. I think he can do some good here by organizing the user's perspective on this stuff. Put the vendors in the audience and let them listen for a while. They have a lot to learn, imho.

Not talking about Twitter here, by the way -- just rambling...

Tim · 2 years ago

Looks now like they decided to do the right thing (probably due to feedback, heh) and have re-scheduled their downtime for 10pm to 2am PST Sunday evening. Much better choice I think. :)

Connie Reece · 2 years ago

There's been a lot of grumbling among my tweeps about the 12-hour outage, with many agreeing to meet up on Pownce during the down time. I only keep a Pownce account for just such instances.

The amazing thing is that we keep coming back to Twitter, even with its long history of unreliable service and unheard-of 12-hour down times. Why? For me it's a combination of Twitter's flexibility, portability and, above all, the community. I have 700 people in my circle there, most of whom I do not connect with in other venues.

Cameron Watters · 2 years ago

12 hrs does seem like a long time. According to at least one Twitter employee, they're switching datacenters, and moving a massive database is one of those things where you have to take it down during the move.

As for doing it in the morning on a Saturday -- I'm sure Twitter's audience may be mostly in the U.S., but it DOES have an international audience. Keep in mind that "middle of the night" isn't "middle of the night everywhere".

kosso · 2 years ago

yes. 12 hours does seem a long time doesn't it?
I wonder if it's a big datacenter move? Possibly to Amazon EC3? (As they use S3 for storing our avatars and backgrounds now)
I suppose that rather than risk people 'losing tweets' during the 'flip' to a new system, it might be better/less painful for them and us, to just take it all down during a specific time.

But still. 12 hours does seem rather a long time.

fanless · 2 years ago

Purportedly, they're moving data centers.
http://twitter.com/al3x/statuses/502387252
(via http://blog.twitter.com/2007/12/twitter-mainten... )

Levi Figueira · 2 years ago

First time I hear of a 12h dowtime for a data center change!!!!!

I've done that with (virtually) no downtime!!!
A little downtime could be needed for a service like Twitter, but... 12h???

Not a reason I hoped to hear, that's for sure...

pwfenton · 2 years ago

How about writing an client application which would write (and read) short 140 character text messages as items in a personal RSS feed (readable on the user's computer). User's could subscribe (follow) any friends they wanted to. It could work just like Twitter, yet be independent of any big corporate server... and it wouldn't go down for maintenance. You could also save ALL messages instead of a limited amount.

Or is that just a stupid idea?

Levi Figueira · 2 years ago

P2P Twitter? ;)

But don't use that name or the RIAA/MPAA will find a "good" reason to sue you!! :p

tapps · 2 years ago

i agree... to a point. but i have to take a step back from the situation and ask myself... if I don't have a day of twitter... will I die? no. I mean, yes, twitter is a great communication tool... but is it required in my life? what did we do before the Internet was developed? we talked to people. I think we will live through this 12 hour outage.. and maybe have an extra REAL cold fasioned conversation with someone. or at the very least we have more time to poke people on facebook ;)

nicoladagostino · 2 years ago

Question: is Twitter an essential service or means of communication as the other one you mentioned?

nda

Levi Figueira · 2 years ago

In a certain way I'm glad there are no Twitter-clones roaming around the internets. I'd stay with Twitter anyway, because that's where I have a real communication line open; it's where I have my friends!
As to the downtime I agree with you 100%. It would be very beneficial for them to let their "customers" know! If they were a PLC, they'd have to consider their stock holders and in those cases *sometimes* silence is the best option...

I hope you keep up this conversation and bring Scoble's insight into it!! :)

c0d3w12 · 2 years ago

I've heard the same regarding the data center move. But never have I seen anything be done during customer productive hours. This could have been done @ night and early morning hours so the customer is not bothered.
But we must remember, this is a free service and there isn't ads so they can do what they want!

rbazinet · 2 years ago

Do we really need Twitter anyway? I have been using it for a couple months now and still trying to see the value in it. It seems like a huge waste of time. Come on, how important are you that what you say any given minute really needs to be known by your pals? Try IM, that works.

Also, if you really needs something so you can get out that you are eating a truffle and having a $25 cup of coffee in Paris, try Pownce.

Adam · 2 years ago

Meh.. Is it really a huge deal Twitter is going down? Is there not anything else that one has to do on a Saturday? At least they're doing it on a weekend. Though, they should probably use the methods we use in the broadcast world... There is a reason why if maintenance has to be done that requires going off the air, it's done at 2am on a Saturday/Sunday morning.

Rachel Clarke · 2 years ago

It's a data center move and apparently there are more customers outside the US than in the US,(http://twitter.com/ev/statuses/501732452) so the timing is done for minimal disruption for the most customers. It was originally going to be 4 hours, then kept being extended.

But why they don't just put that on the blog to stop speculation I don't know. far easy to just say it.

Tom · 2 years ago

If you check out some of the Twitter developers' feeds you can see what's going on. They're moving datacenters. Not the most obvious line of communication, but certainly better than nothing.

Connie Bensen · 2 years ago

Hey Dave,
We're moving to Pownce again for the outage. (one of these days the move may be final & where will Twitter be?) If you need a pownce invite I'm at conniebensen@gmail.com
And connect with me/us at http://www.pownce.com/Connie_B/

pwfenton · 2 years ago

Do we need ANY form of entertainment? Twitter is personalized entertainment. I "follow" folks that I find interesting and/or entertaining. I follow Dave, for example, because I ENJOY getting a link to a picture of his Paris dessert... not because I NEED it. Would I be disappointed if I couldn't get it? Yes. But I could live without it... just not as enjoyably.

Corvida · 2 years ago

My 2 cents?

If there's an UPGRADE going on, I really don't mind because it's long overdue for Twitter. Hopefully, this will have some perks at the end of the day.

Ben Tucker · 2 years ago

It's things like this when I hope it becomes clear just why centralization sucks. Why are we relying on a single company to be the basis of a communication medium? My answer would be that it makes it easy, with a low barrier to entry. But I would propose this is a solved problem.

I've been working on and off on a little open source side-project called OpenConvo. It doesn't have a website yet, or any releasable code, but here's the basic concept without going into too much technical detail:

* dead simple to install php script that sits on your server and provides your access point to the network
* Twitter API compatibility so you can seamlessly switch from Twitter to OpenCovo and your tweets will continue to flow to all your twitter followers (as well as you still getting the tweets of everyone you follow)
* each node would be able to host multiple people very easily. So if you have non-technical friends, you can host them.. or services could spring up to host people (a la wordpress.com)
* all data is exchanged with RSS + a simple pinging protocol
* following/follower relationships are represented in xfn and/or foaf

Anyway, I think I've worked out most of the technical details, but would love help to get this off the ground. Email me if you're interested in getting involved: ben AT btucker.net

KMTO · 2 years ago

Ok, it's about a new ISP. However, the night of Dec 31 would be better - even to avoid tons of twitters with the same content ;-) But if it leads to a new clone (maybe in europe) it would be perfect!

allen stern · 2 years ago

Dave - it's called Twitterdiction and from what I can tell, you have it. I've worked up a post that might help to explain the disease and some help. :)
http://www.centernetworks.com/dave-winer-dealin...

GregTallent · 2 years ago

Talking of clones, I've got a few, but focused on some real important issues:

www.HelpWorldClimate.com
www.HelpWorldPoverty.com
www.HelpWorldPeace.com
www.HelpWorldWildlife.com

Digeratist · 2 years ago

I don't understand the appeal of Twitter yet, and probably won't ever if their requirement for finding other people is to give them my password so they can scan my email account. Not cool.

pwfenton · 2 years ago

No such requirement. You are confusing Twitter with some other service... maybe "Quechup".

Joe L. · 2 years ago

I've been thinking about building a "clone" for some time now, as a research project at work. There would be several items to explore & learn, and a the same time, provide a free service.

If I can get my BIG employer to lend support to such a project--as open collaborative research, no proprietary/commercial interest--anyone interested?

-- Joe

Scott · 2 years ago

I have been thinking for a while about doing this with a friend. Hit me up at breakall@NOSPAMgmail.com and let me know what your thoughts on this are.

knewman · 2 years ago

And now T-Mobile is apparently blocking subscribers from sending txt messages to Twitter.

http://getsatisfaction.com/tmobile/topics/t_mob...

Matt Harwood · 2 years ago

Probably done in the day as they know us geeks are mostly up using it at the "dead hour" 2am.

Roger R. · 2 years ago

"but it's not good enough when the service takes a 12-hour break while many of the humans that depend on it are awake and working."

If you depend on a service like twitter, you need to get out more.

Offbeatmammal · 2 years ago

I think they're moving ISP so the extended downtime would be to ensure no data loss (I guess)
... it's either that or try to sync the two and probably generate more complaints ;)

At least they're doing it late Sunday night now (sorry rest of the world... it's all about America!)

C.Miller · 2 years ago

Problem is that there are humans depending on it.

Will · 2 years ago

Looking for a twitter clone... I assume you heard of Jaiku. You know, the twitter clone that Google bought.

Sebastian · 2 years ago

Jaiku does similar things like Twitter, but it's definitely not a clone that does exactly the same and supports all the applications.