Data Portability and Lies, Damned Lies
siliconangle.net
siliconangle.net
bah, that's based on the 'num_posts' param. But there is also an optional 'page' param right underneath the bit he is complaining about. You just have to make multiple calls to get them all out. Not such a big deal if you're used to using search based API's.
Doesn't look like author read the doc very closely.
Sachin defends his service Posterous because non-geeks can do everything with it without knowing how to walk and chew bubblegum.
I can't name five members of my immediate or extended family that has a lot of experience using a search based API. Hell, I'm a coder, and I don't have that much experience using a search based API.
I code when I hafta, and I don't want to write a whole set of libraries just to export my data. Creating artificial barriers to the exit door is the exact opposite of the spirit of Data Portability.
Edit: Incidentally, it isn't that I didn't read the API that thoroughly, it's that the API isn't that well documented. Pretty much what is screenshotted is what exists. It's not very well explained.
rizzn, it's true that most of our users wouldn't be able to use the export API since they are not programmers.
But we're relying on programmers to write the shims needed to go from Posterous to Wordpress, Posterous to Tumblr, Posterous to Blogger. We simply don't have the resources to do this, so we wrote export to be as generic as possible.
Other sites do export by letting you pull down an XML file with all posts. We could do this, but then what about the media? Where should we put that?
The point is, we always want to let you get your info out. We have assured our users (including Scoble and Rubel personally) that they will always be able to get their data out, including the original files they have sent us, if they ever need to.