I started to think of Twitter in between SMS and E-mail as I think a lot of people did. To me Twitter is more of a protocol or even a modality than a platform. That's the brilliance of it: it's a speed and length of communication that feels very natural. I have no objections to these rules in terms of Twitter growing as a company. I think there are a lot of applications that can be built aside from clients and it makes sense for them to steer people in that direction.
As a user, however, I feel attached to the idea that data and application are separate. I would like to think that I own my Tweets, but most of all I just want to _feel_ like I own my tweets — like I can _do_ whatever I want with them and see them however I want. A short, passive message that I put out in to the world is a great thing and it seems unlikely that a single company can own that idea.
Comments
I started to think of Twitter in between SMS and E-mail as I think a lot of people did. To me Twitter is more of a protocol or even a modality than a platform. That's the brilliance of it: it's a speed and length of communication that feels very natural. I have no objections to these rules in terms of Twitter growing as a company. I think there are a lot of applications that can be built aside from clients and it makes sense for them to steer people in that direction.
As a user, however, I feel attached to the idea that data and application are separate. I would like to think that I own my Tweets, but most of all I just want to _feel_ like I own my tweets — like I can _do_ whatever I want with them and see them however I want. A short, passive message that I put out in to the world is a great thing and it seems unlikely that a single company can own that idea.