This is mostly indirect, so it's probably stupid for me to post it here, but it's a feedback email I just sent to the creators of a Twitter client for the iPhone. Given that I just sent it now, I have not yet received a response, but we'll see what happens. Relevant bit is in the
final paragraph (
bolded).
Forewarning: this is a long email, relatively speaking. I understand you must get tons of emails every day, and thus it's easy to simply discard mail from the common user, but I plead you to read this. I mean heck, I'm sending the email because Twitter's 140-character limit cannot possibly contain all that I wish to convey. You've been highly responsive on Twitter, for which I praise you, and I can only hope that you're as responsive to email. That said, here we go.
Hey guys, just wanted to first congratulate you on the amazing work you've done with SimplyTweet. I've been a loyal follower after I randomly found your app on some "free app for a day" thing celebrating your first birthday, which was actually only a few days after I joined Twitter. It was a timing coincidence, but I couldn't be happier. I upgraded to ST 3 without question, and have (somewhat unsuccessfully) attempted to convince my iPhone-bearing friends to consider it as a good app to purchase, especially back in the time when the official Twitter app didn't have push notifications and Echofone only supported push between users of the same app. Sadly I don't think any of them actually switched, but oh well, their loss.
Regarding Twitter's latest announcement that they essentially don't like 3rd-party apps, AKA they don't like anyone who doesn't show the "awesomebar" panel of ads, well screw them. I truly hope that their announcement doesn't discourage you from continuing to work on SimplyTweet. They made an API, and now they want Emperor-level control of how that API is used? Bulls**t.
That said (aka now that I've buttered you up), there is a single feature found in other apps (like Tweetdeck) that I would like to request, and it's enough of a gamebreaker that I'm seriously considering switching apps, though I *really* don't want to. Granted this is more of a fault of the people I follow, but still. I would really like the ability to filter out certain phrases and hashtags and never see them ever again. I swear, if I see yet another 4Square checkin or Formspring "ASK ME ANYTHING LOL" message or "Daily Twitter Horoscope" thing... Well, let's just say that filtering out those posts is easier than directly confronting these people and asking them to stop spamming my timeline with their uselessness (trust me I have tried on all accounts and it hasn't worked). If I can ignore them, I will be a very happy man.
This is just a simple[1] use of regular expression, right? </pointlesssarcasm>
[1] OH GOD REGEXPS. Useful yet PAINFUL AS HELL, dear God. My sympathies for my request.
On a similar note, I follow a group off people who regularly attend various events nationwide. For some of these events, I can become somewhat jealous that I am unable to attend, and because they are usually rather diligent about using hashtags for these events, being able to filter them out would be beneficial overall, at least in preventing my own jealousy.
It's just something to think about, at least. Like I said, I love SimplyTweet (especially the conversation view, which I am highly intrigued how you managed to code up, coming from an Electrical Engineering / CS background). I can only hope that you continue releasing updates to iOS 3.x+ devices, and that you take my request to heart. If not, well then at least I still have a fully functioning Twitter app that I'm happy with, so I guess I can't complain. It still amazes me that people don't understand that running a push server actually costs time and *gasp* MONEY to maintain, and the fact remains that you've been one of the most reliable people to provide push functionality in this regard, minus your PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED outages, and for that I congratulate you.
And finally, I would like to donate some money to your cause, whether or not you implement my feature requests. I honestly don't care, and you've done enough to earn it. Do you have a Bitcoin address I can donate to? If so, I will pledge 10 bitcoins, which at the current MtGox value of ~$0.80 USD per bitcoin, is worth $8. Not much more than the standard cost of the app, sure, but I would hope that you can't give up free money, right? Note that CoinPal and CoinCard are currently the easiest ways to convert between USD and Bitcoin, and yes, I am not-so-subtly attempting to promote this alternative currency here. That said, I *do* pledge 10 bitcoins, and whether or not you choose to accept them is entirely your call. You introduced me to the world of Twitter (for which I thank you greatly), so I feel slightly less shameful in my attempts to introduce you to the world of Bitcoin, though I do understand how divided your attention may be so I will not push it. You've given enough to me as a user already.
Thanks again,
Ricochet
