Twtxt

Productivity

microblogging

SHOW HN2016

Twtxt

Decentralised, minimalist microblogging service for hackers

github.com

#microblogging#decentralised#plain text#twitter alternative

154points
65comments
#209of 2,264 in 2016
Top 10%of 2016 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

3 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 9 critical, out of 36 comments about the project. Thread score -0.18.

Idea: 2 for, 6 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Nostalgic, reminiscent of finger .plan files

    From 2 comments
    • I think you're being DV'd because people think you're saying "this is just finger." But I think you're actually reminding people of that old service, which won't be familiar to…
      kzhahou on HN
    • I still remember reading John Carmack's _amazingly_detailed_ and interesting .plan files back when I was in college.
      gknoy on HN
  • Plain text readable by any browser or tool

    From 1 comment
    • A bunch of game developers had .plan files back in the late 90s, but we Windows users had to visit a third-party site to view John Carmack's .plan because Windows didn't have a…
      adiabatty on HN

Objections

  • Large data files must be re-downloaded in full for updates

    From 2 comments
    • is it me or is this going to result in massively long data files that you KEEP having to re-downloading in their entirety every time you want to get an update from someone you…
      masukomi on HN
    • It can help to avoid re-downloading a timeline that didn’t change but you’ll still have to re-download the whole file for each new status.
      hk__2 on HN
  • No clear benefit over existing platforms or RSS/static sites

    From 3 comments
    • Yeah. What is the benefit of using twtxt? Ok, it's decentralized, but what actual benefit does that bring? Just anybody can't see what you are saying? But is the communication…
      746F7475 on HN
    • "Decentralised"? How is this different from a static site generator and an RSS reader?
      nyan4 on HN
    • I don't understand why anyone would want to go to the trouble to do this. It feels like a huge step backwards.
      optimuspaul on HN
  • Global @replies and discovery are hard without a directory

    From 2 comments
    • Yes, it’s up to each user how he names the URLs he’s following. This makes it hard to implement global @replies, therefore there’s no recommend way of handling those at the…
      buckket on HN
    • It would be great if there was a directory of users. I'd use it if I knew people in my network or people I'd be interested in following were already using it.
      chishaku on HN

Requests

  • A user directory or discovery mechanism

    From 2 comments
    • It would be great if there was a directory of users. I'd use it if I knew people in my network or people I'd be interested in following were already using it.
      chishaku on HN
    • I like this too, but it is pretty hard to use without a directory, so I created a simple one here where you can register your username: http://twtxt.reednj.com
      reednj on HN
  • Standard way to handle history rotation and @replies

    From 1 comment
    • The problem is that if you didn't fetch the file at the right time, you will lose some history after rotation happens. At the very least, it needs a standard way to deal with…
      toyg on HN

Questions

  • How do nicknames and @replies work across users

    From 2 comments
    • Are the nicknames created by each follower independently? In other words, would http://bobsplace.xyz/twtxt be bob for me but bobsplace for somebody else? How do @replies work…
      akkartik on HN
    • I see. So by default all @mentions show up on all followers' timeline, just like regular tweets?
      akkartik on HN
  • Can old entries be changed or back-dated

    From 1 comment
    • It's really cool. What happens if you add a new tweet with a date in the past? Isn't a bit weird to be able to change the history?
      d0m on HN

Alternatives named

  • Freenet Sone

    From 1 comment
    • Check out Freenet (https://freenetproject.org/), it is the perfect platform for implementing static content social media like this. There is already a decent microblogging plugin…
      blorgle on HN
  • GNU Social / StatusNet

    From 1 comment
  • Twister

    From 1 comment
    • So how does this compare to Sone and Twister? I know both of those services are P2P but beyond that not much.
      synchronise on HN
  • dis (git-based)

    From 1 comment
    • Similar, but based on git: https://github.com/wilhelmtell/dis
      vr_ on HN
  • IPFS

    From 1 comment
    • Seems like something like this would be a perfect use case for IPFS[0], although I bet there already is something similar for it out there. [0] https://ipfs.io/
      detaro on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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