Another question occurred to me as I think about this more and start designing the code that I will use with my site (http://twxlate.com).
The statuses/retweeted_by_me method complements the statuses/ user_timeline method: user_timeline "Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted from the authenticating user."; retweeted_by_me "Returns the 20 most recent retweets posted by the authenticating user.". However, with the user_time method, "It's also possible to request another user's timeline via the id parameter.". The retweeted_by_me method does not have this option, and I think it should. Can this be added? I think maybe the statuses/retweets_of_me method should also have an optional id parameter, but I could be wrong about this. The statuses/retweeted_to_me method also does not have an optional id parameter, but the absence here is, I think, correct. Comments expected and welcome. Jim On Aug 18, 7:35 pm, "jim.renkel" <james.ren...@gmail.com> wrote: > Marcel: thank you for the quick response to my questions. > > Not surprisingly, your answers have raised a couple of more > questions. :-) > > 1. What happens if I give aretweetid number to the status/show > method? An error? The retweeted status message is returned along with > information about all of its retweets? I'm really hoping for the > second option here, and, if that is not the case currently, I would > encourage twitter to make that enhancement. It seems to me to be > natural to want information on one specificretweet, just as one can > get specific information on one specific status update. > > For the next 2 questions, assume A is following B and C, that B has > retweeted a status update say two days ago, and C has retweeted the > same status update yesterday. > > 2. In the response to a statuses/home_timeline request for user A, > will the retweeted status update and all its retweeting information be > duplicated at the two appropriate places in the timeline, once for B > and once for C? Or will one or the other be elided? > > 3. If the answer to 2, above, is "the retweeted status update is > duplicated", does the retweeting information reflect the state of the > twitterverse as it exists at the time the request is made or the state > at the time theretweetwas created? Specifically, will the retweeting > information for B'sretweetshow that C has also retweeted it, even > though C hadn't yet retweeted it when B did? > > 4. Assume count=20 is specified on the statuses/home_timeline request. > Does the retweeted status update and all of its retweets count as just > 1 of the 20 status updates in the response (i.e., the response could > have more than 20 elements, potentially way more, but all of the > retweets of a status update would appear in one "page" of the > response)? Or does eachretweetcount as 1 of the 20 (i.e., the > response will have only 20 elements, but the retweets of a single > status update could be spread across many, potentially very many, > pages)? I think it would have to be the former, as "Clients may [only] > request up to 3,200 statuses via the page and count parameters for > timeline RESTAPImethods." (Quoted from theAPIdocumentation under > "6) There are pagination limits".), and if it were the latter ya > couldn't even return all theretweetinformation for a status update > that was retweeted more than 3200 times (Which DOES happen.). > > 5. "statuses/home_timeline" is like "statuses/friends_timeline" but > with retweets. There is no method that is like "statuses/ > user_timeline" but with retweets. It can be synthesized by merging the > results of statuses/user_timeline and statuses/retweeted_by_me method > requests, but only for the authenticating user: the statuses/ > retweeted_by_me method does not take id and user_id parameters as the > statuses/user_timeline method does. I think there's something missing > here: if I can see any users status updates, why can't I see their > retweets? > > 6. There are no methods like "statuses/mentions" and "favorites" but > including retweets (Or do those methods' results now include > retweets?). I see no way at all of synthesizing these. I think these > need to be provided for completeness. > > 7. Similarly, I'm guessing that "statuses/friends" and "statuses/ > followers" responses don't include retweets (But if a user's last > update was aretweet, what do they report? The last update that wasn't > aretweet?). Again, I don't see a way of synthesizing these, and I > think methods that do include retweets need to be provided for > completeness. > > The reason for wanting the completeness is to avoid user confusion. > Users will get used to seeing retweets, when they exist, when the home > timeline is displayed, and assume that if none are displayed, none > exist. I fear that they will then make that same assumption when > mentions, favorites, friends, and followers are displayed: no retweets > displayed, ergo no retweets exist. That may or may not be correct. > > 'Nough for now. > > Comments expected and welcome. > > Answers demanded! "-) > > Jim Renkel > > On Aug 17, 1:56 pm, Marcel Molina <mar...@twitter.com> wrote: > > > Thanks for your questions. Responses inline... > > > On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:31 AM, jim.renkel<james.ren...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > I have both practical and philosophical concerns and questions with > > > this proposal. Since I'm a little late in commenting on this, some of > > > these have already been raised. Where I know that is the case, I'll > > > keep it short, but include it to show my support (or not) of the > > > issue. > > > > This post contains practical issues. A companion post will contain > > > philosophical issues. > > > > 1. When aretweetis created it is assigned an ID number, just like a > > > status update. Are retweets and status updates numbered from the same > > > sequence of numbers, or separate ones? I mainly ask out of curiosity, > > > but there are some implications as shown below. > > > Tweets and retweets are currently numbered from the same sequence of > > numbers. > > > > 2. Is there a limit on the number of times a status update can be > > > retweeted? Again, curiosity, but with implications. > > > No. > > > > 3. In the UI, if a status update is shown that has been retweeted, are > > > all retweeters of the update listed, or, e.g., just ones that I > > > follow? If all retweeters are listed, what if the status update was > > > retweeted, say, 1,000 times? 10,000 times? If just retweeters that I > > > follow are listed, can I somehow see a list of all the retweeters? > > > The UI concern of indicating who has retweeted has been addressed, > > though it isn't displayed in the sample screenshot. It is collapsed > > into a count of the total number of retweets with a summary after a > > certain threshold. > > > > 4. The response to the status/retweetmethod provides details about > > > theretweetthat was created. Does it also include details on previous > > > retweets of the status update? > > > No. > > > > 5. In the response to the statuses/home_timeline, statuses/ > > > retweeted_by_me, statuses/retweeted_to_me, and statuses/retweets_of_me > > > methods, how are multiple retweets of the same status update encoded? > > > I far as I could see, none of the examples addressed this. Is the > > > status update repeated once perretweet? Or are multiple retweets > > > listed under one instance of the status update that was retweeted? In > > > the latter case, the response would presumably look like: > > > <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> > > > <statuses> > > > <status> > > > ... > > > <user> > > > ... > > > </user> > > > <retweet_details> > > > ... [details of 1stretweet] > > > </retweet_details> > > > <retweet_details> > > > ... [details of 2ndretweet] > > > </retweet_details> > > > ... > > > </status> > > > </statuses> > > > I could be wrong, but I don't think this is valid XML. I think ya need > > > to have another level of grouping, as in: > > > <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> > > > <statuses> > > > <status> > > > ... > > > <user> > > > ... > > > </user> > > > <retweets> > > > <retweet_details> > > > ... [details of 1stretweet] > > > </retweet_details> > > > <retweet_details> > > > ... [details of 2ndretweet] > > > </retweet_details> > > > ... > > > </retweets> > > > </status> > > > </statuses> > > > "Is the status update repeated once perretweet?" Yes. > > > > 6. Each XML retweet_details "section" takes around 100-200 characters > > > to encode. If a response that includes retweet_details only returns > > > retweets for those I follow, if I have 20 retweeted status updates > > > each with, say, 20 retweets, that's 20*20*100=40000 plus characters > > > required for the response. Even if the response only includes 1 > > > retweeted status update, but it has been retweeted 10,000 times (Not > > > unheard of! And IMHO it's more likely to happen once this is deployed > > > and folk start writing "retweebots"), that's 1*10000*100=1000000 plus > > > characters. I think there's a problem here that needs to be addressed. > > > Here you are trading off payload size with number of network calls. > > Rather than exposing IDs pointing to the author of theretweetand the > > tweet that is retweeted, we've opted to include the data inline. More > > pathological scenarios involving retweetbots are mitigated with a > > combination of measures outside the purview of the platform team. > > > > 7. If retweets and status updates are numbered from the same sequence > > > of IDs, then presumably statuses/destroy can be used to delete a > > >retweet. If retweets and status updates have separate ID sequences, > > > then I don't see any way to delete aretweet. I think the ability to > > > delete aretweetis essential! BTW, I don't see any delete capability > > > in the proposed UI. > > > In the absence of an obvious use case for including theretweet'sid, > > we were omitting it. Deleting theretweetvia theAPIis a very > > reasonable use case. Thanks. We'll add a 'retweet_id' to the > > retweet_details section. > > > > 8. If a protected user retweets a status update of a non-protected > > > user, will the protected user always / sometimes / never be listed as > > > a retweeter of the public user's status update? > > > > 9. Conversely, if a > > ... > > read more »