The ideal solution is for Twitter to "change the system" and allow each account to have only one screen name, all the time, forever, with no changes. Then a separate "id" value is not required because all account identification will be done by the original screen name.
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REST and SEARCH would finally be consistent. No extra calls to figure out who the user really is. Users would complain until they got used to the fact that they cannot change their screen names on a whim anymore, but they will learn to deal with it soon enough. Email doesn't just let you change your address whenever you feel like it, and I see no reason why Twitter should allow screen name changes either ... except that it takes more work to standardize the system in this way than to continue with what already exists. But with only the screen name as each unique account identifier things would certainly be much simpler. Many fewer requests to the server. Less data storage. And being that Twitter is supposed to be simple this seems like a goal worth pursuing, at least from my point of view. Owkaye > >> When i request friends (or followers) from the Twitter > >> API i want to get the screen_name's based on the id's. > >> > >> I use users/show for this, inputting the id and > >> getting back de screen_name. > >> This costs ALOT of API calls and i run into the API > >> rate limit fast, especially with many friends. > >> > >> Is there a better way of getting screen_names for > >> friends / followers? > >> ( Better, meaning in fewer API calls.)
