Comment by fjk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fjk | Hacker News Reader

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I think the statement "if you're building your platform on another platform; you're at the mercy of the underlying platform" is more accurate.

Facebook and Twitter have changed their Terms of Services/APIs multiple times which has resulted in bad times for Facebook applications like Vintage Camera and MessageMe[1] and Twitter services like Flattr[2].

However, Tapbots has been successful in adapting its Tweetbot client to comply with Twitter's API changes[3]. While the API changes cost Tapbots extra development time to bring Tweetbot up to snuff, their core business was not adversely affected. I don't think Tapbots has a bad time because they make Twitter clients that rely on third-party API access, but they are at the mercy of Twitter continuing to allow third-party API access.

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732439280457836...

[2] http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/16/flattr-twitter-paym...

[3] http://tapbots.com/blog/news/dont-panic

So I love TapBots and I have paid for all of their mobile apps. When you look at their Twitter products, the amount of software they can sell is restricted by Twitters API limit. If you look at the Tweetbot For Mac[1] post it says:

> If you’ve used the Alphas/Betas and have decided not to purchase, please do us a huge favor and Revoke access; that frees up extra tokens for potential customers.

I don't think it's good when you have an awesome development team like TapBots who makes products that are, in My opinion better than Twitter's native clients, and you're capped to 100,000 device installs "just because". I know it's not "just because"; Twitter needs to become a business and generate revenue, but the same companies that helped build the brand and popularity are now punished.

[1] http://tapbots.com/blog/news/tweetbot-mac

Great point. The API access restriction hasn't stung TapBots yet but the token caps are frustrating and potentially stifling to future growth.

I'm interested to see what Twitter will do when Tweetbot starts to approach the maximum number of tokens allowed. My guess is Twitter will grant Tapbots extra tokens. I think the API restrictions are geared towards preventing new companies from using Twitter's APIs in unintended ways (like Flattr) than shutting down established Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Echofon.

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