Storify by Mathew Ingram

Evan Williams on Twitter and its ecosystem

Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi "virtually all of the network’s power and growth has come from outside the company itself"—a common myth but completely overblown
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:15:20
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev: fair enough -- would you say a majority? or any at all? I'm thinking of key features like the hashtag, @ mentions, retweets, etc.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:17:00
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi Absolutely, the ideas that led to those features came from usage (not unusual, BTW). Not sure how/if that means "power and growth."
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:32:40
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev: my argument -- and it's just an argument -- is that those features and third-party apps fueled a lot of Twitter's growth. you disagree?
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:34:27
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi "A lot" is hard to argue with. But your conflating features, which were designed and built into Twitter, not taken whole cloth...
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:38:59
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi ...and third-party apps is stretching my ability to respond in <140. In a nutshell, both are important...but widely exaggerated.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:42:23
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Anil Dash @anildash
@mathewi I think the "Twitter was made by third party things" is mostly nerd triumphalism, not factual. Shaq did more than any indie app.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:47:31
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@Besvinick @anildash: I agree -- but the influence of third-party apps, which I think was important, was only part of my point.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:50:04
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Alex Howard @digiphile
@anildash @mathewi 3rd party apps = better than Twitter's site for a long time. I prefer them, & so did the power users who sent most tweets
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:52:27
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Adam Besvinick @Besvinick
@mathewi @anildash I think 3rd party apps have been more critical to enterprise adoption, which is arguably more important than consumer
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:54:41
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev: it's possible that the influence of both those things has been exaggerated -- but I don't think they should be underplayed either
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:45:20
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi Well, there's no risk of that, given the kinds of statements you and other commentators make, which no one thinks to question.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:53:02
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev: which is why I am glad to have you question them :-) I'd be interested in a longer view from you about the topic as well
Thu, Sep 06 2012 08:54:13
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev @HilzFuld: some fairly crucial features, and all -- or at least most -- of the best apps. that has to have a pretty powerful effect.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:04:24
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Ian Andrew Bell @ianb
@ev @mathewi 3rd-party innovation doesn't just mean apps and tags. Users negotiated a raison d'etre for @twitter that it couldn't have led.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:06:31
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Anil Dash @anildash
@mathewi @ev @hilzfuld Sure, @chrismessina thought up hashtags, but others did slashtags, etc. Only Twitter's adoption made them meaningful.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:09:20
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Faruk Ateş @KuraFire
@anildash @chrismessina @mathewi @ev @blaine Similarly for @ to address users, which was common on BBS, forums & IRC long before Twitter.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 12:37:15
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FRED MCCLIMANS @fredmcclimans
@ev @mathewi Suspect that much of the push-back comes from the disruption of the Twitter ecosystem. Ironic, no?
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:12:42
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@anildash @ev: yes, Twitter's adoption made them meaningful -- but what would there be if those features had not emerged?
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:17:59
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@anildash @ev: totally agree -- I am saying one would not have happened without the other, not that one is all-important.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:25:15
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi @anildash Who knows what there would be, but it's not like we were sitting around with no ideas.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:34:34
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi @anildash This is how products evolve. You have 1M ideas—some come from usage, some from inside. You pick and choose carefully.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:36:05
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev @anildash: and I agree, that process of picking and implementing is crucial. I am not trying to denigrate that in any way
Thu, Sep 06 2012 09:42:29
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Evan Williams @ev
@mathewi It's hubristic for me to not give users all the credit, I realize. But it's naive for you to not recognize the Twitter team's role.
Thu, Sep 06 2012 10:11:34
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Mathew Ingram @mathewi
@ev: I'm not saying users deserve all the credit -- just trying to put recent events and the backlash into context, and that is part of it
Thu, Sep 06 2012 10:15:55
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