Auto-split and Anonymization Features
We have rolled out two new features in the past 24 hours. The first is an auto-split feature that will enable your bot to split up tweets that would be longer than 140 characters into multiple tweets. In the past, if a tweet was longer than 140 characters, Twitter would simply dump the tweet and nobody except the poster would know that it vanished. Now, enabled by default, these tweets will no longer be dropped and instead split up until multiple tweets and automatically add a “(1/2)” or “(2/2)” to the end of those tweets. The format of the split delimiters is completely customizable as well, but we felt the example above was a pretty safe default.
The second new feature is a special request from a friend of ours to allow a way for users to post to bots and be anonymously retweeted. With this enabled, the user’s Twitter account name would be replaced by a consistent anonymous identifier like “U1234″. The consistency is that the user will always keep that anonymous name with that particular bot. This allows the users to keep an anonymous identity and still be able to carry on a conversation where people can still identify each other without actually knowing who the other person is. The reasoning behind this feature is to allow a bot to act as a virtual support group or 12-step program. We do not, however, impose any way that this feature should be used as long as it is not used for nefarious purposes. If a problem arises, we do have the ability to revoke any and all rights of this feature. Our stance is to err on the side of caution and maintain a fair degree of privacy for all involved. Should we be made aware of anything illegal or questionable by the proper authorities, we will cooperate with the authorities assuming official procedures such as warrants and/or subpoenas are produced (please don’t make us do that!). Please note that in order to allow this, the anonymous feature is not 100% anonymous as we do have to keep track of the user’s Twitter ID number to maintain the pseudo-identities. We do our absolute best to make sure this will remain as anonymous as humanly and technically possible. We take no responsibility with how you or your user’s use this feature and cannot be held liable for any breaches of privacy that you or your users may expect. Use this feature at your own risk and make sure your users are aware of this fact.
We hope you like and enjoy the new features. If you run into any bugs or have special feature requests, please do not hesitate to let us know by sending us a message via our Contact Us page.
Thanks!
Paul & Garrett
The Twitfinite Crew
New Site, New Domain, Same Geeks
We may be two weeks late on getting the new site rolled out and changing up domain names and whatnot, but the service has been running smoothly ever since the big changeover by Twitter. Many thanks to any and all that helped beta test the updated service on such short notice. Everything went very smoothly and no hiccups or complaints by any of the bot users or their users!
Due to the inability to keep the “ReTweetBot” name under Twitter’s new applications system (someone had already taken it), we came up with a new name, Twitfinite, and new domain, twitfinite.com, to keep things consistent. One thing hasn’t changed, it’s still the same two geeks as it always has been. We have also rolled out a new site to make updating things a little easier for us.
We apologize about any delays regarding getting new accounts signed up or new features integrated. Both of us are running low on the spare time needed to grind out anything new. We’re still keeping things going and working on new features and updates when we have the energy. Unfortunately, things may still be a little hectic in our personal lives for the next several months. Bear with us and we will do everything we can to not disappoint! In the meantime, keep an eye out for a couple of new features in the coming days!
If, for some reason, you can’t find something that was on the old site, you can still find it running at old.twitfinite.com. Nothing there has changed except for the link! If you have it bookmarked and it goes away for any reason, just check back here and you will find what you’re looking for. If not, drop us a line.
Thanks, as usual,
Paul & Garrett
The ReTweetBot Twitfinite Crew
New Code and Need Beta Testers
Hello fellow tweeters and ReTweetBot users!
Due to Twitter’s recent changes in how application authorization works, we have been hard at work rebuilding our beloved ReTweetBot to support this new method as well as improve efficiency, performance, and reliability of the service. We’re approaching the finish line, but could use some extra help.
The deadline for us to make this change is August 16, 2010 (see http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/c03fa2b1ae90d2a9?hl=en_US). We hope to have everything in full swing by mid-July August.
Most of the current functionality has been built-in to the new code base, with just a couple of minor, straggling features yet to implement. The missing features are mostly housekeeping things done on the back-end and should not affect your account at all. However, since it is new, and Twitter is a live system, it’s difficult to test real-world scenarios in a test environment. So, we’re ready to open up the beta to all of our current users!
Some new features that have been added to the new code base are:
– New hash tag management commands. Just send “hash+|#YourNewHashTag” to add a new hash tag, or “hash-|#OldAndBusted” to remove a hash tag.
– Faster retweeting. If there is a lively conversation going on, the service will automagically scale down to posting new tweets every
15-30 seconds instead of every minute. We have also scaled in the opposite direction, increasing the time between checks for accounts that have not tweeted in a while (weeks to months). However, the maximum amount of time you would every have to wait is 5 minutes.
– No more stale tweets. If your account has been disabled for an extended period of time, the service will not pick up old tweets and retweet them. This mostly applies for accounts that disable their service for weeks or months at a time (usually around an annual event).
– Geo-retweet! If a tweeter sends an @reply to your account, any geographical information that tweeter has made available will be passed straight through. Don’t worry. We’re not invading privacy. The information is only used if the originating tweeter has made their geographical location information publicly available.
There are other features that we have put up on the drawing board that will make it into the mid-July target date and will let you know as they are made available.
But wait! There’s more!
We are also working on a new web site. It will be a bit of a face lift that will also go along with the name change. Yes, we’re changing “ReTweetBot” to “Twitfinite” (for now at least). Long story short, we couldn’t register the “ReTweetBot” name under Twitter’s new application system. Unlike most dot-coms, this change is simply just a changing of the name. It’s still just a couple of geeks wanting to build a good service for themselves and share it with the world (yes, we use it quite extensively with @PredFans).
One more thing …
With the new site, we will also be developing a new admin site (or two). The work on this will start after the July August launch. The current site will work just fine with the new code, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to spruce things up a bit. After that, we will begin work on a mobile admin site for iPhones and Android devices. Outside of those two platforms, your mileage may vary (sorry BlackBerry and WAP folks).
I think that covers just about everything. We’ve been busy over the past few months trying to make things better for everyone. If you’re interested in helping us beta test, you can log in to your ReTweetBot account and click on the “Edit Bot” link to enable the new settings.
Thanks!
Paul & Garrett
The ReTweetBot (or Twitfinite) Team
info@retweetbot.com
