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Comment by bootload | Hacker News Reader

"... I'm starting to love using Twitter. There is something liberating about the constraints ..."

I've used twitter from Nov2006. Some of the constraints I don't like:

- how they handle urls [0]

- how they handle people who you like but talk to much [1]

The rest is pretty good. Not too much info, uptime ok (well when I use it) and api is simple & works ~ http://twitter.com/bootload

[0] I don't know a good solution but if google created their own shortcuts like tinyurl the web would be a better place.

[1] stacks of quick posts one after the other why not group them by person after a threshold of say 3?

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I can see the reason for footnotes on a long post for meta information, but why do you use them in your little messages? Why not just explain what's in the footnote when you first mention it?

Not an attack, just a friendly question. I've noticed you do this fairly often.

I agree with [1] though; Robert Scoble is the worst offender, seconded closely by Guy Kawasaki. Bundling messages together would screw up the API and break things like twitterific, probably. I wonder if there's a better solution.

"... Why not just explain what's in the footnote when you first mention it? ..."

good point, I'll see what I can do.

"... I wonder if there's a better solution. ..."

friendfeed does the obvious thing that is it restricts view to the latest 3 by person so as to not clutter the page. Another idea I can think of would be allow you to select who you want to clamp.

"... Not an attack, just a friendly question. I've noticed you do this fairly often. ..."

to stop adding ellipses (that mess up the text especially if there is a lot of them) allowing you to read. This is especially for links or side notes that relate to the main text but is added interest. Also I use hackernews as a scribble ( http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157600280904949/ ) for later posts on flickr

"... Bundling messages together would screw up the API and break things like twitterific ..."

No just the display, not the data itself. Just grab the latest submission. If more submissions occur in "N" minutes time frame just display the latest 3, have a click & fetch more if required. It shouldn't break app using the api doing this. Friendfeed does this well.

I agree.

They should get the shortest domain names possible. For tiny utls. For the web view. they should just have a single character as a link, like a #.

iv.an is available for 450 euro! Is u.rl available?

I'd like parallel streams, with people that update too much pushed to the sidelines.

You can just implement a client that does that. No need to wish, there's an api, it's use is encouraged, go hack! http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/web/...

You're right. I actually have big plans to use the API. It'll be awesome.

Jaiku had [1] sorted. Replies would be displayed as a thread of comments under the original message.

Pownce has a good approach to [0] with its enclosures/attachements which can be files, events, etc as well as links.

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