Twitter removed API endpoints without any prior communication | Hacker News Reader

Twitter removed API endpoints without any prior communication

twittercommunity.com

60 pointscheeseface12 comments

Well at this point no-one is really surprised.

I think what is surprising is Musks blatant disregard for Twitter as a platform. I’m not the expert of this but my understanding is that a platform strategy brings a range of other companies and offerings that extend your ecosystem and offer value to your users beyond what you need to build out yourself.

Twitter was an anomoly in my mind but now Reddit seems desperate to follow Musks magical playbook.

How much is a platform play worth in 2023? Was it all just hype or are Reddit and Musk reading it wrong?

I think Reddit and Twitter are both exploiting the notion that they have so much network effect capture that they can focus on short term profit even if it requires hostility to users and weakens the platform long term.

They both were barely profitable right? So focus is on long term profitability. The eat the rich thing is blinding you guys.

Just because they are incompetent at extracting a quick buck from developers doesn't mean they are thinking "long term." Both are cases where the CEO is desperate to show they can transform the business. In both cases the CEO's ideas have gone very badly. In both cases these are private companies, so the CEO is on a long leash, with investors that loathe going hands-on. But don't mistake the lack of immediate consequences for approval of their supposed ong term thinking. If either of these CEOs had been hired by the board of a public company, they would already be fired.

Ever since Twitter started killing off 3rd party apps all those years ago, the writing has been on the wall for all of these "platforms". They need to serve ads to make money, so closing down all API endpoints was destined to happen. The only thing that surprises me is how long it's taking.

You have to remember that most of these tech companies haven't been profitable for decades, they've been living on investment money. The problem is that you can't have infinite growth.

It's not Elon's fault and it's not Spez's fault. All of tech is becoming walled gardens in order to become profitable. The idea of 3rd party apps and available APIs was only there to build an audience. Once that audience gets locked in, once the market is cornered, it's time to go all-in on monetization. Especially now that interest rates are going back to normal levels.

Reading through that thread is just sad. So many people desperately clinging to the graces of Twitter/Elon – even paying money for the privilege – just to get the rug pulled from under them day after day with no recourse.

It's like watching a couple in a toxic relationship who refuse to split up. It's hard to sympathize with either side.

Well, Google gets away with it all the time. Nobody should depend on closed source code, but people do. It's just another case of people being okay with the system until they get shafted by it. What's going to change?

Sorry but why are these people still putting their dollars in the hands of Musk at twitter at this point in time? You're asking for trouble.

It seems like they’re trying to prevent people from building “friend finding” tools using Twitter?

Twitter’s data export feature already barely gives you a copy of your graph ha.

Seems like they want to own that at all costs

I like the guy trying to get it to Elons attention, a 2023 version of "if only the Führer knew"

The change-log of when they removed features: https://developer.twitter.com/en/updates/changelog

Is this related to the update, that now login is required to read twitter?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com