Retweets and the Public Timeline

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Tyson Lowery

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Nov 18, 2009, 12:11:27 PM11/18/09
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I've noticed that with the new retweet feature, retweets no longer
appear in the user_timeline API calls. Is this intentional or is this
a bug? If it is a bug, any ideas on the expected fix date? I
noticed a lot of complaints about this searching on twitter (like
"hey, retweets don't show up in my XYZ application!")

If it is intentional, there is no longer a way to get public retweets
using the developer API calls. Unless I am missing something? The
only way I see to do this is through the retweet API calls which
require an authenitcated user.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm trying to get all the
information I can before I start sinking time into writing a fix for
this for my application.

Marcel Molina

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Nov 18, 2009, 1:43:46 PM11/18/09
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They are intentionally removed from the user_timeline.
--
Marcel Molina
Twitter Platform Team
http://twitter.com/noradio

Tyson Lowery

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Nov 18, 2009, 4:29:02 PM11/18/09
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Thanks for the response.

Is there a way to get them without authentication?

Marcel Molina

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Nov 18, 2009, 8:09:21 PM11/18/09
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I don't believe so. Are you working on a javascript widget that makes
authentication hard? Why do you want to access it without
authenticating?

Jeffrey

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Nov 18, 2009, 8:48:20 PM11/18/09
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Not having retweets in the user_timeline represents a loss of
functionality.

With user_timeline you can get the tweets of any user using the "id"
parameter, but there is no way to get the tweets of another user using
home_timeline without being authenticated *as that user*. So this
limits the ability of applications to gather info for a user without
requiring them to log in. Before the retweet funcdtionality was
added, "organic" retweets were of course visible. The built-in
retweets are not.

Marcel Molina

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Nov 18, 2009, 9:46:54 PM11/18/09
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That's a compelling point. I need to think about it. We're stripping
retweets out of user_timeline because clients that don't implement
retweet have the (likely) potential of creating a very confusing
experience for users. Removing retweets from the user_timeline at the
time seemed fine because clients could merge retweets in using the
retweet timelines if they wanted to. Use cases that didn't require
authentication weren't being thought about for that scenario.

Jeffrey

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Nov 19, 2009, 8:58:54 AM11/19/09
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I strongly urge and hope for the ability to see built-in retweets in
the user_timeline as this affects my application, since these tweets
are suddenly not visible.

If that is not possible, perhaps a new API could be created that would
allow an unauthenticated view of tweets and retweets?

Tyson Lowery

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Nov 18, 2009, 5:37:58 PM11/18/09
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Thanks for the response, is there a way to get this data without an
authorization?

On Nov 18, 10:43 am, Marcel Molina <mar...@twitter.com> wrote:

MikeF

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Nov 20, 2009, 3:19:11 AM11/20/09
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On Nov 19, 8:58 am, Jeffrey <jeffreywin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I strongly urge and hope for the ability to see built-in retweets in
> the user_timeline as this affects my application, since these tweets
> are suddenly not visible.

I am having the same issue as Jeffrey. This change makes retweets
disappear from my app. This is a *major* problem.

Does anyone know what happens if we use http://api.twitter.com/1 ?

killy...@gmail.com

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Nov 20, 2009, 7:26:35 AM11/20/09
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Having the same issue as well. My application merely displays tweets
from the user to the world and I do not want to have to authenticate
to get tweets that are publicly viewable, the change has, in effect,
reduced the functionality of my app.

Tyson Lowery

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Nov 20, 2009, 3:05:56 PM11/20/09
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Let us know what you decide, I know a bunch of apps are waiting to see
what direction this goes in.

Also, I didn't understand this point, "because clients that don't
implement
retweet have the (likely) potential of creating a very confusing
experience for users." Can you elaborate with an example? I can't get
my head around that one.

I think users are confused currently, as evidenced by this search:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=retweet%20not%20showing

Thanks for your help.

Tyson

On Nov 18, 6:46 pm, Marcel Molina <mar...@twitter.com> wrote:
> That's a compelling point. I need to think about it. We're stripping
> retweets out of user_timeline because clients that don't implement
> retweet have the (likely) potential of creating a very confusing
> experience for users. Removing retweets from the user_timeline at the
> time seemed fine because clients could merge retweets in using the
> retweet timelines if they wanted to. Use cases that didn't require
> authentication weren't being thought about for that scenario.
>

Tyson Lowery

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Nov 18, 2009, 11:35:54 PM11/18/09
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Our application has some features available to users who authenticate,
some features for those that do not authenticate. I guess I'll put
this in the authenticate column for the time being.

If it is available publicly on twitter.com, you should allow access to
it via the API without authentication.

My suggestion would be to either add a parameter to user_timeline to
get retweets, or create user_retweets which mimics user_timeline
except only gives you the retweets. Or do both :)

Thanks for listening.


On Nov 18, 6:46 pm, Marcel Molina <mar...@twitter.com> wrote:
> That's a compelling point. I need to think about it. We're stripping
> retweets out of user_timeline because clients that don't implement
> retweet have the (likely) potential of creating a very confusing
> experience for users. Removing retweets from the user_timeline at the
> time seemed fine because clients could merge retweets in using the
> retweet timelines if they wanted to. Use cases that didn't require
> authentication weren't being thought about for that scenario.
>

MikeF

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Nov 23, 2009, 11:20:45 PM11/23/09
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Marcel,

Could you please let us know if you have reconsidered removing
retweets from the public timeline. It is a major issue as far as we
are concerned.

I think Tyson has suggested the perfect general rule:

> If it is available publicly on twitter.com, you should allow access to
> it via the API without authentication.

Thanks,
Mike

Abraham Williams

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Nov 24, 2009, 2:24:13 AM11/24/09
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Currently https://api.twitter.com/1 should be identical to using https://twitter.com.

Abraham

--
Abraham Williams | Community Evangelist | http://web608.org
Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham
Project | Awesome Lists | http://twitterli.st
This email is: [ ] blogable [x] ask first [ ] private.

Tyson Lowery

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Nov 24, 2009, 12:46:17 PM11/24/09
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Well this is interesting. If you use statuses/user_timeline and
specify the format as RSS or ATOM, you get the retweets. If you
specify XML or JSON, you do not get the retweets. I don't think the
format should impact the result set.



On Nov 23, 11:24 pm, Abraham Williams <4bra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 02:19, MikeF <searchtas...@optonline.net> wrote:
> > On Nov 19, 8:58 am, Jeffrey <jeffreywin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I strongly urge and hope for the ability to see built-in retweets in
> > > the user_timeline as this affects my application, since these tweets
> > > are suddenly not visible.
>
> > I am having the same issue as Jeffrey. This change makes retweets
> > disappear from my app.  This is a *major* problem.
>
> > Does anyone know what happens if we usehttp://api.twitter.com/1?
>
> Currentlyhttps://api.twitter.com/1should be identical to usinghttps://twitter.com.

Nicole Simon

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Nov 27, 2009, 8:38:23 AM11/27/09
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As retweets are such a basic feature for users, it is hard to understand how
this question could not have come up before in designing of the limitations.

I suggest you add a switch to the api call w/o authentication, then the apps
can decide what to do with this, as in once they are ready they can switch it on.

As for the users, the suggestion can only be: do not use the retweet feature
if you are interested in sharing information to your followers,
as your retweets will not be seen elsewhere.

[similar thing btw is going for the lists: tweet results for a list do not show
retweets or replies - meaning you have to advise users not to use @reply
at the beginning or the RT feature if they want their tweets seen]

Nicole

--


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http://mit140zeichen.de - http://twitter.com/m140z

Kontakt:
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phone: +49 451 899 75 03 / mobile: +49 179 499 7076


Tim Acheson

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Dec 22, 2009, 3:46:10 AM12/22/09
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I strongly agree with the OP.

Problem: Unable to get the complete timeline for a user including
retweets (without logging in)!

There is an important limitation with the API regarding retweets. With
the new retweets feature, in the current API, it is not possible to
get a complete timeline for a user (unless you have the user's
password). This is bad. Firstly, it means user timelines retrieved
from the API will always be potentially incomplete, with retweets
excluded. Yet retweets are considered part of a users timeline and
always have been. Secondly, it means I can't retrieve my own complete
timeline without logging in, which is surely an unnecessary extra
step.

The API functionality for retweets seems inconsistent with other API
methods, notably statuses/user_timeline which does not require a log-
in. It's also inconsistent with the RSS feed which does include
retweets in a users' timeline.

Solution: A new API method is required, to retrieve retweets for a
user without logging in.


DOCUMENTATION

statuses/user_timeline
Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted from the authenticating
user. It's also possible to request another user's timeline via the id
parameter. This is the equivalent of the Web /<user> page for your own
user, or the profile page for a third party.
Note: For backwards compatibility reasons, retweets are stripped out
of the user_timeline when calling in XML or JSON (they appear with
'RT' in RSS and Atom). If you'd like them included, you can merge them
in from statuses retweeted_by_me.

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_timeline

Tyson Lowery

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Dec 22, 2009, 12:34:53 PM12/22/09
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The decision to leave out retweets is incomprehensible. I don't see
who it benefits to leave these out, besides maybe the programmer at
Twitter who has to do the work to include them. The API Programmers
don't like it, the confused Twitter users who no longer see Retweets
in their favorite third party services certainly don't like it
either. Leaving retweets out of the public api certainly played a
part in the general user backlash to the Retweet feature.

> http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_t...

Tyson Lowery

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Dec 22, 2009, 12:39:00 PM12/22/09
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Raffi Krikorian

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Dec 22, 2009, 12:42:21 PM12/22/09
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i would like to stress that timelines are, of course, only "slices" of data that twitter.  API developers are urged to be creative and innovative -- come up with "timelines" that we didn't think of!  come up with other ways to present data to the user that are not just direct representations of our API calls.  new and compelling user experiences do not stop with our provided timelines.

go code something interesting, and we will be here to support you.  (of course, if we missed something, as we are arguing about in the RT case, we will work with you all to get it to be what the community needs).
--
Raffi Krikorian
Twitter Platform Team
http://twitter.com/raffi

Jesse Stay

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Dec 31, 2009, 5:24:27 AM12/31/09
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On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Raffi Krikorian <ra...@twitter.com> wrote:
go code something interesting, and we will be here to support you.  (of course, if we missed something, as we are arguing about in the RT case, we will work with you all to get it to be what the community needs).


So does this mean RTs will be restored as is being requested?  I don't think anyone is questioning that you need to be creative with the Twitter API.

Jesse 

raffi

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Dec 31, 2009, 8:09:51 PM12/31/09
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i can't speak as to whether we're going to put them into the
user_timeline or not -- although, i would suspect no, as it has the
potential for breaking legacy applications, and it is something we
could revisit in a future version of the API (e.g. a hypothetical
api.twitter.com/2). again, for clarity, i'm don't know for sure.

if developers would like the equivalent of a user_timeline that has
retweets in it, then they could easily fetch the following two
timelines:

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_timeline
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retweeted_by_me

and merge them together to form a "virtual timeline".

Tyson Lowery

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Jan 3, 2010, 2:12:22 PM1/3/10
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Two quick points.

You can't easily fetch those two timelines, unless you have been authenticated by the user - which is the point of this thread.  Statuses_retweeted_by_me requires authentication. 

Also, ironically some applications were broken by the introduction of Retweets.  Retweets used to be available in the public timeline before the new fangled RT stuff was added. 
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