Something Is Technically Wrong
I was all set to write another Twittorial…an intermediate guide for Twitter users, including hashtags, searches and APIs. I think I’ll save that post for another day. You see, Twitter is down again.
This will be short. I am wondering what YOUR answer is to this question:
What is your Twitter tolerance (twittolerance)? How long will you stick with the service while it continues to be down for what appears to be about 1/5 of every day?
This is my answer: I’m sticking with it. I know that it just got second round funding, so I’m sure (at least I hope) that much of the funding will go to fix the back end. I’m sticking with it because (so far) the service is free. How can I really get that upset at a free service?
Of course what I realize over the last few weeks of heavy downtime is that Twitter is like electronic crack. It only takes a few uses (sometimes your first "hit") to get addicted, and that addiction is strong. When it is taken away, users don’t know what to do. They freak out. They yell. They blog about their hatred of Twitter. They get headaches and start sweating. Okay, that last part I made up, but it’s not too far from the truth. There is even a site that tells you if Twitter is down. It used to simply state "yes" or "no", but now it has moved to "of course" and "no"
So even though I’m disappointed that Twitter is down right now, it’s okay. I’ve developed enough things to know that it isn’t easy to get it right. Heck, I’ve never ever come close to the user base that Twitter has with any of my sites, and I’ve experienced more downtime than I care to think about.
So for now I’m sticking with the crack Twitter. What about you? What’s your tolerance?
UPDATE: Logging in tonight I saw a new screen…over capacity! Here it is:
