It most likely goes with out saying, however Elon Musk’s present tenure as Twitter’s CEO has been fairly chaotic, and never within the enjoyable method. Between consistently altering issues with none actual warning and attempting to get cash any method attainable, the favored social media website feels prefer it’s about to crumble at any second now, and he’s solely been CEO for three months. And it’s much more noticeable as a result of the person is desperately trying to discover a strategy to pay again his $44 billion acquisition any method attainable.
Therefore the brand new change hitting on February 9, whereby Twitter will cease giving free access to its Utility Program Interface (or API). As a substitute, researchers, app-makers and the like should pay a charge to entry what was beforehand a free, however restricted model of that interface. (As of 2022, entry to different options was priced at $99 or $1,899 a month, relying on the tier.) For the typical Twitter consumer, which means third-party apps like Tweetbot could find yourself forking over money to proceed functioning; some have already mentioned they gained’t be paying the charge for their very own particular causes.
This additionally implies that a number of bots that you simply typically see on the location could find yourself going away as effectively. Bots have been why Musk was attempting to get out of shopping for Twitter within the first place, however a whole lot of them are innocent, goofy accounts that don’t have every other objective past being informative or humorous. (As a fan of the Unhinged AO3 Tags and Dimension20 Quotes bots, I’m giving a tearful salute to them each.) They assist make Twitter what it’s, and it’ll be unhappy to see a few of them go.
For this week’s io9 Open Channel, we wish to know what Twitter bots you’ll be mourning in a post-February 9 world.
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