Twitter® Application Development for Dummies®

Chapter 19. Ten Traits of a Respectable Twitter Developer

In This Chapter

• Gaining the respect of your peers

• Gaining the respect of your users

Twitter's API is open, which means anybody can start developing a Twitter app. This has led to a multitude of applications and a flourishing community of Twitter developers. Just like any other community, there are highly respected members, and there are those who are considered a burden on the rest of the community. You should strive to be a respected, contributing Twitter developer.

In this chapter, I list ten traits of a respectable Twitter developer. Follow these traits and your peers and customers will hold you in high regard.

Ask Permission

Don't perform any action on users' behalf without first getting their consent.

• Don't send a tweet on users' behalf without first getting their permission. Just because they authenticated with your application doesn't mean they gave gratis to post whatever you want to their Twitter stream.

• Don't make users follow your application's Twitter account without first asking for their permission.

Read the Documentation First

Before you ask a question in the Twitter API Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk), make sure you first

• Look for an answer in the Twitter API wiki.

• Search previous posts in the Google Group.

Note

The developer community is a great resource, but they frown upon unnecessary queries. Nothing is more agitating to community contributors than answering the same questions ...