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Ask YC: Is Twitter worth waiting for?

6 points by andyangelos ↗ HN
Twitter downtime and glitches continue to plague users, prompting complaints and even a Twit-Out. The majority of users, including many power tweeters, are remaining loyal to Twitter because of the large audience and diverse conversations. Leaving twitter is leaving the cool crowd. Rather than complain on Twitter during the few functional windows of time or chatter in the FriendFeed silo, maybe the Twitterverse should migrate to greener pastures. What is more important - the conversation or the platform for the conversation?

12 comments

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humanlever
I think you're spot on Andy. While I love the interaction Twitter is supposed to foster, the infrastructure problems they're having have become so frequent, long lasting, and unsurprising that I wouldn't be opposed to migrating elsewhere so long as I still had access to my most important connections.
art_wells
The twitter problems remind me of most of the internet in general ten years, or a bit longer, ago. I would never, ever, use twitter for mission critical business communication, but for following friends' moods? For tracking trivial business announcements? For publishing my own blather, for playing with announce or even interactive bots? Why not?

I imagine a better, probably open source de-centralized protocol will come, and indeed good folks are working on it. But my friends and audience are already there and I already know they're hurting, so I know it's good play.

iamdave
"the conversation or the platform for the conversation?"

Well, if no platform means no conversation, then I'm going to say platform.

andyangelos
Probably should have clarified this statement. I was suggesting that conversations occur regardless of any "Twitter" like phenomena. So, I struggle to understand why people do not look for alternatives quicker. If a vacuum only worked periodically, would consumers wait for the product to improve? Probably not...they would move on to the next brand.
iamdave
Probably because not everyone loses their mind when Twitter goes down. I mean in my respect, I've almost entirely abandoned my blog in favor of Twitter, but when it goes down I wait just like everyone else. Maybe play some Guitar Hero, maybe read a book.
colinplamondon
I don't run into the issue, honestly.

The thing I like about Twitter is that it's largely passive- I have Twitterific running in the background with Growl notifications. When the newest Tweets load, whenever that may be, they pop up in the top right corner. When I see tweets come in I usually remember to post, so then I load up Twitterific through a quick Quicksilver keystroke, type in my post, and hit submit.

Because I only message when Twitter has shown itself to be working by sending me the new Tweets I never notice the infrastructure issues outside of TechCrunch's post spam about it in my feedreader. I can see how it would be annoying for more active users, though.

andyangelos
Agreed about "TC spam" - but I still am led to click on the links by an uncontrollable force :)

The lapse time is particularly frustrating when using Twitter for Q&A or ad hoc discussions. These are exercises in which I expect quick answers. If I wanted to sift through a pile of Tweets all at once, I would just use email.

babul
It all depends on who you follow and who follows you and how you interact with them. You can meet some really cool people on twitter and keep really up to date on the latest news, but ultimately what you reap is a function of what you sow.
humanlever
So what are the alternatives? Art and Eli mentioned an open source/decentralized protocol, would anyone be willing to move to another existing service like Pownce? If no, why?
kmakice
Twitter will get past the tech issues. The community is there and well-cultivated, and any new service will have a difficult time matching it so quickly.

Twitter works for me because (a) Twitterrific is a kick-ass third-party app that automatically disappears without my needing to interact with it, (b) Twitterrific exists because of the decision to make a kick-ass API in the first place, (c) the ways in which one can participate are plentiful, and (d) the constraints and lack of functionality keep it accessible and manageable.

I signed up for friend feed because I do that for lots of new social networks. I like that there is a record that integrates lots of parts of my online life, but honestly I don't want to go to a web site to get the information. I won't spend that much time there, and if I were limited to the Twitter web site for all my interaction with that service I wouldn't use Twitter. They serve different purposes and offer different kinds of barriers to participation.

I like the idea of Twitter Love Day rather than a Twit-Out. This is largely a success based on community involvement, so lets use that collective brainpower to find ways to make the service better. Twitter is doing their part by being so transparent, and trying to be responsive ... even when they want to run away and hide.