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Why There Are No Good Ideas for Twitter Replacements

June 13th, 2008 by possible248

Introduction

Twitter. From the beginning, it’s had stability problems. Now that it’s popular, it’s gotten worse. We’ve all been talking about Twitter replacements, and I was going to post my own ideas here too. But there is a problem with a lot of the Twitter replacement ideas floating around. These ideas are too complex. You use a simple user interface, whether an API application or Twitter’s website, to post simple messages. If you add more features, you make it more complex to post tweets. Below are several ideas that I have had and have seen other people suggest. Below each idea is why it’s too complex.

Twitter ideas

Idea: Make it like Wordpress, where you can either use it on their servers, or install it on your own servers.

Why it’s too complex: Suddenly, you have the problems of supporting dozens of possible server configurations. Developers would have to read bug reports and then have to fix those in a new version or patch. Users would have to download new versions and apply the patch.

You also have to worry about security. If you’ve been paying attention to Wordpress lately, there have been a lot of blogs getting hacked. I bet some of the blogs getting hacked were not at the latest version of Wordpress.

Idea: Allow image uploading and embedding of Youtube videos

Why it’s too complex: This one has a third party implementation, created by Brian Shaler. It’s called Twixxer. The idea is not too bad, but you just have to worry about it’s implementation. The point of microblogging is sorta defeated if you have users uploading twelve images per message.

Idea: Add the ability to embed plugins in Twitter

Why it’s too complex: The basic idea of making an application extensible is to add functionality, which adds complexity.

Idea: Add threaded conversations

Why it’s too complex: Threading makes conversations easier to follow, but you add complexity to the user interface. You might reply to the wrong comment, etc.

Conclusion

Those that try to build services to replace Twitter will attempt to learn from Twitter’s mistakes. What those Twitter-replacers have to watch out for are the mistakes that Twitter didn’t make.

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Posted in General Code, Uncategorized |

Viewing 6 Comments

chrisbaskind 06/13/2008 06:39 PM 1 point
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The killer feature to compete with Twitter is very simple: reliability. Most people like Twitter's feature set. What they hate is downtime and latency.

The most likely Twitter competitor is a better Twitter.

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CyndyA 06/14/2008 12:03 AM 1 point
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I think you are right, Chris. The question is, if someone builds a better Twitter, will the bellyachers switch or stay with the old and keep complaining?

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Julian Baldwin 06/13/2008 08:00 PM 1 point
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I think you're right in general. One method of adding particular new features would be to completely hide the feature unless the user went to settings and enabled it. That would allow users who want more functionality to gain it and users who like the simple interface to not be bothered at all.

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possible248 06/13/2008 11:06 PM 1 point
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But isn't a part of Twitter about limits? At first, the 140 character limit seems very strict and forces you to write short, punchy sentences. If upping the limit were an option, new users might do so, and then ruin part of the point in Twitter.

There's also the issue of such a simple application with a complex settings dialog.

Of course, a putting it in a settings dialog can be applicable to many things, such as Blogger-like customization of the Twitter page, where you're allowed to move boxes around and so forth.

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Voyagerfan5761 06/14/2008 01:43 AM 1 point
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Well, there's also the little issue of Twitter already having -- what is it, five? six? -- tabs upon tabs of options. Why not simplify the interface for those, too? But I digress...

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xero 06/14/2008 10:18 PM 1 point
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The real Twitter replacement: stable twitter.

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