Si Jobling's dashboard

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

It's somewhat comforting to hear that you're still working on this. What I'd love to see is some sort of semi-regular status updates. I'm not asking for a weekly report or anything, a sentence or two at the end of blog-posts to let us know, even roughly, how things are coming along... – shinmai, on October 03, 2008 22:47

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

I'm sorry you're disappointed but I'm hopeful that the eventual results will be worth waiting for :) – crystal, on October 03, 2008 20:51

crystal replied on October 03, 2008 20:49 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Thanks for your feedback. It may seem like we're not doing anything, but we are actively working on this project.

Not everyone is aware of this, but getting international numbers in place and ready for use is no small project. It takes time to get new numbers for international use set up in other countries. There are many steps that have to be taken by many different entities to get the proper international permissions to obtain phone numbers. Following that, multiple entities must then build the infrastructure with which to support the numbers. Carriers in every country are different and there are numerous small projects within the larger project. All of this means it takes awhile to get everything in place. In this case, the time it's taking is the bad news.

The good news is, we should have local numbers ready very soon. We're also in the process of bringing our India short code up to speed as well. We're working on getting international numbers to you guys as soon as possible, and have been on task since the initial announcement was made. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

shinmai replied on October 03, 2008 19:58 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Are there no news on this matter? You said you'd be negotiating deals with local operators, yet nothing has been announced, and equally little has happened. Was the announcement made to silence people from smaller countries, while "the big boys" (germany, australia, india, UK etc) actually get service?

It would be better to just come out and announce that you're cutting the service down on low-costeffective areas, rather than feed us a cock-and-bull story that'll never actually fan out to anything more than empty promises..

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Yeah, I second the password concern - if oauth would be back, then this would be a non-issue. ;)
http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/to... – till, on September 09, 2008 11:57

till replied on September 09, 2008 11:52 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Sorry to be negative, but this was one of the useful features left.

I mean, I see the costs and I'm kinda amazed that you guys did not cover this before. I honestly have a hard time believing you couldn't do a better job negotiating deals with local carriers.

Also, a 1,000 USD for 12,000 messages/user/year - shouldn't that be way more affordable? That's over 8cent/message?! Did you guys get ripped off? Even premium direct termination is cheaper at that volume.

Costs in the U.S. should be next to zero (txt can be faked via email), and I think the same applies to Canada. Many other companies make use of those services.

And a couple providers in Europe offer similar services (email to txt) to users. You might have to do more research though and/or educated your users on how to enable it for them (problem solved?). Also lots of people over here have "free" email on their phone while all other data is pretty pricey. Maybe you guys could start offering more export formats - such as, recently updated (= useful) feeds, maybe email notification etc..

Also, you might want to optimize the entire thing anyway. Sometimes you did send two messages when one was enough - just because e.g. you added a "Twitter-footer" to the message etc.. This sort of optimization could probably really save you guys money. ;)

If your API was less of a under construction thing, people could probably build apps on it to help other users. But, nah... ;)

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Haha... you demand 24 hour notice from a free service? Get real. – till, on September 09, 2008 11:29

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

@Jack, can you please go a little into detail here? You guys like to be vague by using phrases like "soon" and "working on". Kinda like, "We're working to restore IM services to all users. Thanks for your patience!" - err.... yeah, only been there for six months. – till, on September 09, 2008 11:26

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

+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

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

+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

cwandel replied on September 04, 2008 11:31 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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...

Eridanus replied on September 03, 2008 12:36 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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!

gya24jk replied on September 03, 2008 11:37 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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.

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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

BungHole replied on September 02, 2008 14:57 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

At least fix fscking IM you muppets

Stefan replied on September 02, 2008 12:31 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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?

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

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

Trialia Xua replied on September 01, 2008 02:39 to the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Bleh. No longer of much use to me, then - I can't use WAP during the day and the only real advantage I saw in joining Twitter was that I could get and send instant updates to online friends from my mobile phone, including those friends out-of-country.

Oh, and Thomas, I'm another UK user who knows nobody who uses Twitter for 'free group texting' as you put it - and I know a lot of people in my home country who DO use Twitter. It's far more widely spread over here than you seem to think, in my experience.

A comment on the discussion "Changes for SMS users: the good news and the bad" in Twitter:

Seriously? I doubt Twitter really, REALLY cares about most of their non-US users, but as substantial amounts of people use the service in some of the more populated countries, they pretty much have to do something.

They've already got deals in place for all but one of their important areas. Canada, India and the US are happy, now they just need to shut up the Aussies and possibly the UK, and enough of their user-base will be happy so they can continue claiming they're "working on it" and get to the other countries once a rep. from an operator contacts them with a deal... This way they can just wait for their users to pressures mobile operators to offer deals to twitter, instead of having to beg and plead themsleves..

Some might say I'm pessimistic and cynical, but having been through many similar "service-nerfs", I'd say I'm just being a realist. – shinmai, on August 30, 2008 23:11