If Twitter weren't bad enough, now there's open-source Twoorl

So, less than .0000000000000000001 percent of the world uses Twitter. Even fewer get any value from it. (Note: I am not among that group.)

Now, to make it even more obscure, there's a new, open-source Twitter called Twoorl. I have nothing against Twoorl (other than its a clone of a service that I already dislike), but given how narrow the Twitter network is already, Twoorl's will be even smaller.

With that said, at least now someone will be able to tweak the source code to turn Twitter into something useful. Like how about a better way to contact someone other than "@mjasay: Aren't eggs in the morning great?"

Open source isn't a panacea: It can't take bad ideas and magically turn them into good ideas, any more than it can take bad code and magically turn it into good code. But it can enable smart people to turn the basic Twitter idea, using Twoorl, into something useful. Like a way for me to keep tabs on my kids, or narrow my audience for certain "tweets," etc.

[mosburger]

When e-mail first came out, lots of people said "why do I need this? Why can't I just Fax a memo?" When IM came out, people didn't understand what it was capable of doing that couldn't just be done with e-mail.

It's fine that you don't have a use for Twitter right now, but lots of people do, and I'm convinced that even more will in the future. Ridicule it at your own risk, someday you might have to eat those words! :)

[mosburger]

When e-mail first came out, lots of people said "why do I need this? Why can't I just Fax a memo?" When IM came out, people didn't understand what it was capable of doing that couldn't just be done with e-mail.

It's fine that you don't have a use for Twitter right now, but lots of people do, and I'm convinced that even more will in the future. Ridicule it at your own risk, someday you might have to eat those words! :)

[akiba_freak]

hey mosburger... you aren't from Japan by any chance? I do most of my coding for my open source project inside a mos burger in tokyo. They have NTT Hotspot internet access, the staff leave you alone, and you can write software for six hours on a 140 yen bottle of jasmine tea. hmm...their burgers seem like they might be pretty good too.

I think the motivation behind Twoorl is for Yariv to publicise Erlang and Erlyweb by giving the community an example of what it can do. Replicating Twitter seems like a reasonable way to do that to me. +1 Yariv.