What is particularly galling is that Twitter has been saying for years that they want to monetize without slapping ads over everything. Now they're monetizing by... slapping ads over everything. And ensuring that no one can threaten the business model they supposedly didn't want to use.
All of this would have been better had Twitter just started off by slapping ads on their service and making it clear how they were going to protect it. Instead, they've grown their userbase (at least among the technorati) by asserting that they weren't going to pursue the exact model they seem so ardently chasing now.
Sure, 3rd party app devs might be "suckers" for having latched on early, but I don't think that excuses Twitter for such a (to use a Gruberism) dick move.
People love useful, friendly accounts on Twitter. My wife and I built up a community of 250K followers just by following that simple formula. If Twitter had a several useful, friendly accounts that every user was forced to follow, they could run the occasional ad, if no single account overtweeted.
While there is no proof that this would achieve a required level of success, had Twitter been doing it for years, they would have learned a ton, and made a lot of money.
Using Twitter accounts to connect to their community and run ads could still be tried, and a level of balance found. (They can respond to inquires from a separate account that accepts no followers so it's replies don't show in anyone's timeline.)
All of this would have been better had Twitter just started off by slapping ads on their service and making it clear how they were going to protect it. Instead, they've grown their userbase (at least among the technorati) by asserting that they weren't going to pursue the exact model they seem so ardently chasing now.
Sure, 3rd party app devs might be "suckers" for having latched on early, but I don't think that excuses Twitter for such a (to use a Gruberism) dick move.