Mike Masnick ✅Jul 1, 2023
This is hilariously stupid. I mean, just painfully stupid. And, yes, it's real.
Show threadAaron Toponce ⚛️Jul 1, 2023

@mmasnick APIs were created as a more efficient way of getting to data versus web scraping. So when he killed API access, of course devs turned back to web scraping to get the data.

No doubt that created additional load on the servers, so he thinks limiting access to the data via requiring an account to view tweets and rate limiting web resources is a good solution.

But now he's just limited ad exposure. Aren't ads a large driver to revenue? So, yeah, this is tremendously stupid.

Show threadCaner Öncü
@atoponce @mmasnick I think it is just a casus belli to make more money off of people. Seriously doubt it is related to scraping.
Jul 1, 2023 at 7:48pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadAaron Toponce ⚛️Jul 1, 2023

@caneroncu @mmasnick It's all about web scraping. Tweets are no longer public. They're behind a login, which means all embedded tweets in blog posts and such broke. This effectively cuts off scraping tools. Which means only logged in accounts can web scrape.

Soooo, he's rate limiting logged in accounts to also limit web scraping. The 6,000 vs 600 & 300 limits is just a perk to subscribe to Twitter Blue.

Further, requiring logged in accounts also means you can track who is scraping.

Show threadBodie 🇺🇲🤝🇺🇦Jul 1, 2023
@atoponce @caneroncu @mmasnick
I don't buy any of this. I mean maybe that's the cover story but the site is clearly broken. It's just as unusable now as when I logged in this morning. Comments do not appear. You can no longer read threads beyond the first tweet. My timeline is 'frozen' so maybe that's where these numbers apply and my set amount was like preloaded for the day.
Show threadBodie 🇺🇲🤝🇺🇦Jul 1, 2023
@atoponce @caneroncu @mmasnick Different users report different levels of brokenness, for example regardless of w/e limit (using a burner I set up very recently, unverified) I can search posts or others timelines and scroll away all day. Others cannot even if they have blue check.
Show threadAaron Toponce ⚛️Jul 1, 2023
@Bodie @caneroncu @mmasnick Oh, yeah. It's definitely broken. That's what Musk gets for firing his engineering and development teams. I suspect it'll be some time before the dust settles and it's stable.