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
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