phocks's dashboard

+1 New Zealand. I agree. Twitter's my only method of texting my friends overseas - and now that's shot. :| Maybe when they get Australia sorted out we could hop on the bandwagon, but doubt it. (crosses fingers) – fridgefayse, on September 07, 2008 00:13

+1 New Zealand. I agree. Twitter's my only method of texting my friends overseas - and now that's shot. :| Maybe when they get Australia sorted out we could hop on the bandwagon, but doubt it. (crosses fingers) – fridgefayse, on September 07, 2008 00:13

I can confirm that it seems to be fixed for me, too. – Eridanus, on September 06, 2008 14:13

Just noticed today that I no longer have the "you are following Phoenix" message in Twitter mobile web. Yay!

dead issue?

Well, at least in Germany (yes, i know it's a small country compared to australia...) you could use the SMS-All-Net-Flatrates most Providers offer. It should be not a big problem to route SMS to a locally located server which in turn sends the SMSes to german users. I think i could convince a customer of me to provide a server and internet connectivity, especially if i talk a little bit to marketing...

Ping and twittd work great, but if others can figure out how to extend Twitter's services, why can't Twitter? Should I have to put my login ID and password out on all sorts of other services to get the functionality Twitter should provide? – robotfrog, on September 03, 2008 21:35

Wow, I didn't realize that TwitterIM had been out since May. I thought it was just incompatible with iChat, so I gave up on using Twitter all together.

I guess I should give up on the IM service to ever return.

Fwiw... Although Twitter's own IM service is down, I'm able to post updates to Twitter through IM by using a third-party service called http://excla.im, as well as a service at http://ping.fm

To receive tweets via IM, I use a service called Twitt'd at http://twittd.nodehub.com – mdy, on September 03, 2008 17:23

Stefan and gya24jk:

I've already suggested to Twitter that they implement (non-SMS) instant notification via ping calls for those of us who relied on SMS DMs via Twitter's international number.

This would be the automated equivalent of the impoverished teenager who phones Dad but hangs up before Dad can answer. Dad notes a Missed call from his offspring, and can react appropriately.

Ping calls would surely be inexpensive and easy for Twitter to set up, and we'd at least know when to run to the PC or (for those of us who can) start a Twitter app. on our mobile devices.

I suspect that you, Stefan, might find this useful in monitoring potential system failures.

If such an interim solution would help you just a little, please indicate your support there, and encourage Twitter to get involved too.

I'm open to improvements and additions to my proposal, of course!

No fix yet?

Killing incoming SMS will reduce twitter usage. I understand that SMS is a scam in terms of bandwidth/cost, but fact is, most people have some SMS bundled with their phone plan. Or are able to send SMS with a discrete cost (e.g. 35¢), which is predictable and manageable.

The logical progression is for SMS to die, for everyone to pay for an equivalent data plan instead, and send/receive emails instead. Which should be more flexible. But, reality is that we aren't at the stage where most people have data plans or ability to send email on their phone. And as other people have stated, email is not instant either -- people will need to apply/buy a push email account.

So even though SMS is expensive in terms of bandwidth/cost, there are still advantages, and hopefully Twitter.com can monetise their service in some way that WILL allow us to restart using SMS.

In the meantime, at least give those users WITH data plans/smart phone/push email a "push"-like option, by redirecting tweets to email addresses instead. So far, the http://twitter.com/devices page is useless, because AIM don't work, Jabber don't work, and SMS don't work.

Which is retarded.

I've tried twittermail, and it only sends direct messages. And really, a 3rd party option for notifications is un-elegant, not to mention dangerous, having to let someone else know your twitter.com password etc.

+1 to New Zealand. Telcos in New Zealand need encouraging...a lot. – starpath, on September 02, 2008 23:36

Copied directly from the welcome email (emphasis mine):
"Using Twitter is going to change the way you think about staying in touch with friends and family. Did you know you can send and receive Twitter updates via mobile texting, instant message, or the web? To do that, you'll want to visit your settings page (and you'll want to invite some friends)."

On the other hand, honesty is displayed in the fact that I (indirectly) arrived at this thread from the help section... But the lies are more prominent.

At least fix fscking IM you muppets

I have a whole systems monitoring setup which posts to a protected twitter account which in turn sends me SMS notifications in case of system failures. Thanks for breaking this.

I, for one would be happy to pay for the SMS i receive! Wouldn't simply offering charged SMSes be better than not offer anything at all?

TwitterIM isn't totally dead. The twitter IM presence still exists and responds with "TwitterIM is under maintenance at the moment. Please check back later."

IM integration with twitter shouldn't be a particularly difficult technical problem. It might be a matter of priority, timing, and concern for feature management. They probably want it to be right, complete, working and not threaten the rest of the twitter-ecosystem if and when they do roll IM out again. Imagine the bitching white noise if they roll it back out and it isn't stable.

The lack of communication seems to be in vogue these days with net-centric companies. I guess I can understand that to a degree. I've told anxious users more than once, "It'll be done when it's done". Sometimes that's better than trying to control the message with guarded statements or being tempted to make unrealistic commitments in an effort to quell fears. Simply let the actual artifact be the message when it arrives. There's a honesty there that is stark and pure ... although a tad unsatisfying as users to be sure. Until I hear otherwise I think Jason's last post says it all and I remain hopeful.

I am using twittd successfully for the time being. It seems quite satisfactory all in all. Not as immediate as the native twitter IM but it does work rather well.

However, if we do discover that TwitterIM isn't going to come back, I intend to write a XMPP transport for twitter (suitable to plug into ejabberd) to satisfy my own selfish twitterIM needs.

It would just be faster if Twitter would buy one of the other services providing a pseudo-IM interface to their own product.

Jaiku does offer outbound SMS. There isn't as much control over which updates you receive, but it's there. – notsheep, on September 01, 2008 13:42

Jaiku does offer outbound SMS. There isn't as much control over which updates you receive, but it's there. – notsheep, on September 01, 2008 13:42

Happy September 1st.

I think we'll never have IM back. At least not before a major rewrite of the codebase. I'm tempted to take this conversation over to fred wilson on twitter AND his blog. When your investor gets harassed it should speed up the end. I'm almost weened off twitter now.