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By on March 1, 2010

Twitter Engineer Deletes Tweet to Avoid Developer Backlash?

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Twitter Engineer, Alex Payne, has inserted his foot in his mouth. Actually he inserted a big chirping bird in his mouth and ended up with a fail whale of backlash. This tweet started it:

That apparently caused all kinds of angst among Twitter developers, concerned that third-party apps–such as Seesmic and Twhirl–would become obsolete.

So much angst that Payne has apparently deleted the tweet! You’d think he of all people would know that deleting tweets just stirs things up more–and tweets never fully vanish from the web, as the above screenshot proves.

Payne also had to kiss and make up with those that flooded him with @replies:

Still, there’s one sure way to take the heat off any impending new features for the web interface. What’s that, you ask? Simple! Go ahead and launch the Twitter ads that are rumored to be imminent–that will give users something different to complain about. ;-)


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8 comments on “Twitter Engineer Deletes Tweet to Avoid Developer Backlash?”

  1. Frank Reed Says:

    March 1st, 2010 at 9:42 am

    It’s been pretty remarkable how Twitter has been able to keep most of their “issues” at the Co-founder level. It’s about time someone on the Twitter staff screwed up and let the world know that people work at Twitter too! Will Twitter intro a Fail Whale that only the employees can see as well?
    .-= Frank Reed´s last blog ..Franchisees Get Short End in Internet Marketing =-.

  2. Ed Says:

    March 1st, 2010 at 9:53 am

    I think Twitter has bent over backwards – for free – to make their
    platform available for developers
    (who have had a history of whining since day one)

    If this *Internet Technology and communications company*
    wants to update their CORE WEBSITE, I say bring it and Thank You :)

    Joe Hall Reply:
    March 1st, 2010 at 10:02 am

    I agree Ed. As a developer that uses the API, I am constantly surprised at how little restrictions they place on their API. And, even more surprised at the failure to enforce the restrictions they do have!

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