'Brittle' Twitter suffers bad case of the Mondays: Links, pics, vids fail
- Reference: 1678128332
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/06/twitter_features_outage/
- Source link:
Starting around 0830 Pacific Time, [1]according to DownDetector , clicking on links in Twitter posts resulted in an error message: {"errors":[{"message":"Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information","code":467}]}
Clicking on images produced a similar error. And users [2]reported that videos and TweetDeck were also broken, not to mention t.co, the biz's link shortening service. Meanwhile, page load times [3]appeared to have increased significantly.
"Twitter that is broken enough to joke about but just functional enough that we can joke about it *on twitter* is the platonic ideal of hardcore software," [4]quipped Benedict Evans, a technology analyst, via the unstable social media site.
"The icing on the cake is that everyone is posting screenshots of the error message, but images are also broken," [5]wrote Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton University.
[6]
The company's notional [7]API status page showed no sign anything is amiss. "All systems operational," the page confidently declared on Monday morning.
[8]
[9]
Twitter, which says it has more than 230 million daily active users, has no public relations department since the mass layoffs so there's no one to ask about the intermittent errors. And attempting to click on the [10]Twitter Comms account of yore also returned an error.
Musk, busy running five companies, at 0923 acknowledged the issue and promised to address it.
[11]
"This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly," he [12]wrote using his very own social media service.
[13]Outage-hit Twitter muddies violent speech policy
[14]Twitter rewards remaining loyal staff by decimating them
[15]Twitter algorithm to be open sourced 'next week,' says Musk
[16]Dish multi-day outage rolls on as ransomware fears grow
A visit to [17]Twitter Support at 0943 produced a similar error. But earlier, at 0919, the account proclaimed, "Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed."
The deep and repeated staff cuts at Twitter following Musk's purchase of the bird site in October elicited concern among technical types that the social media network would collapse for lack of engineering ministrations.
That hasn't happened yet but technical problems continue to dog the service. Users reported widespread problems [18]less than a week ago , an incident that also not mentioned on Twitter's status page.
Availability problems also surfaced [19]at the beginning of February , and in that instance, yet again, Twitter's status page gave no indication of any problems.
[20]
On a related note, more than half of Twitter top 1,000 advertisers have [21]reportedly stopped buying ads on the social media platform.
At the time this story was filed, things appeared to be on the mend, but problems are still being reported by a few users. ®
PS: Twitter insiders [22]claim the biz is no longer able to effectively tackle trolling, state-backed disinformation, and child exploitation, following layoffs, overhauls, and cut backs under Elon Musk.
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://downdetector.com/status/twitter/
[2] https://twitter.com/tobydoyhowell/status/1632792595465207809
[3] https://twitter.com/Pete_Brown/status/1632469888819232769
[4] https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1632793632313950209
[5] https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/1632788837536796672
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZAZwl-9ad35wozuCpLIWkQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://api.twitterstat.us/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAZwl-9ad35wozuCpLIWkQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAZwl-9ad35wozuCpLIWkQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://twitter.com/twittercomms?lang=en
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAZwl-9ad35wozuCpLIWkQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1632794008060567552
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/01/twitter_violent_speech_policy/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/twitter_latest_layoffs/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/22/twitter_algorithm_to_be_open/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/dish_outage_ransomware/
[17] https://help.twitter.com/en/forms
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/01/twitter_violent_speech_policy/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/twitter_glitches_raises_tweet_limit/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAZwl-9ad35wozuCpLIWkQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/tech/twitter-top-advertiser-decline/index.html
[22] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64804007
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Getting it wromg
Until Elon sacks the right people the service will keep coming back....
Re: Getting it wromg
Brilliant! Even the typo in the header ends up being a case of falling down in the outhouse and coming out smelling like roses!
Because Twitler is such an authority on these things.
https://news.yahoo.com/flustered-elon-musk-flips-jackass-210802495.html
I'm just asking...
for a friend...
When will Twitter die? It needs putting out of its misery now.
wtf?
This pasty-faced idiot makes even Ballmer and Ellison seem normal and that is saying something.
I wonder if hs murkiness/muskiness has some get out clause in the loans he used to buy shitter that he gets all his money back if he kills the "service."
What a pedo-guy.
Brittle?
You bought it, you broke it, you git.
Has anyone read "The Machine Stops" by E M Forster?
I can only upvote once, thanks for the reminder of this great, prescient story.
Has anyone read "The Machine Stops" by E M Forster?
I have now - because of you! Thank you for mentioning it and enabling me to find and read it.
yeah, kind of frames the wisdom of people/businesses/government relying on Twitter
Empty promises from a post dot-bomb company that tweets will provide a resilient and lasting platform of record. A "digital commons" or "town square". Instead it is just another headless statue lost in the blowing sands of the wasteland that is Silicon Valley in hindsight.
In reality, they wanted us to rely on it to make it harder to abandon, like all the similar platforms before it. In reality it was no different, other than leaving a scum ring a little higher up in the bathtub.
Government agencies in particular should take this lesson to heart and stop pandering to platforms like Metaface, Googlebet, and MuskTwit. They should really own their own platforms and communications, and leverage tools that one person can't shutdown, take away from them or erase. The news media also bought into that Faustian pact, with decades of content reliant on Twitter shortened URLs and embedded references to tweets instead of direct quotes and screen shots. That journalistic record is now in danger of being erased at any moment. All so Twitter could drive uptake and "engagement" and steal eyes and advertising money from the publications that pandered to it for likes and follows.
/s Anybody from the Reg can feel free to chime in if the are feeling particularly hollow or bitter in hindsight, or if their longstanding deal with the old man at the crossroads kept them out of, well that PARTICULAR kind of trouble. :) s/
"The Machine Stops"
A set text for English lessons - at age 12 we didn't think it would be so relevant in later life!
Re: "The Machine Stops"
Not everything was that applicable to later life, though - take gerunds. Yes, we were taught how to hunt them, but as boys didn't do Home Ec back then, we never learnt the proper way to cook them and now they just go straight into the garden dalek.
"We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences."
Aka "We've fired all the guys who knew how it worked, and are now learning as we go. If we ever get close to figuring it all out, performance reviews will ensure we fire the guys who have just about finished mastering it and replace them with new guys who have to start from scratch. Thank you for your patience."
I Came To Say the Same
"We made an internal change* that had some unintended consequences. We’re working on this now** and will share an update when it’s fixed."
*Getting rid of everyone who knew how it all worked.
**Trying to rehire those that knew how it all worked, who are extremely pissed & now want more $$$$$.
"We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences"
I do hope the unnamed scribe survives retribution for this sly reference to EM.
That's probably not what they meant
but it probably IS what literally happened.
Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint
This looks very much like Musk's crackdown on external services using the Twitter API has also cracked down on Twitter's own services using the API. Perhaps they solved the issue by buying access to their own API for themselves.
Re: Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint
EM figured out the road to profitability! Every homepage render by Twitter is 1000 API calls to Twitter (as established by prior work by EM). Start charging for every API call, take say 2x as much as each call costs.
Now do the math: every time Twitter renders its homepage for a user, it performs 1000 API calls. It pays for each of these. So for every cent Twitter receives from itself for API calls, it pockets a half a cent profit. Now sure, Twitter has to pay that cent, but since it paid itself it certainly lost no money.
Re: Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint
> Twitter has to pay that cent
But, as it is a Major Client of Twitter, Twitter has very favourable terms, 60 days to pay the invoice, so for two months it can borrow against its invoiced income before it has to worry about being required to pay itself. That takes care of running costs for April and May.
In 45 days time, Twitter will raise the cost of using the API and invoice Twitter for the larger sum to cover June and July, thus giving an increase in invoiced value, extrapolated out to show an above predictions annual growth. Such growth, in the current global climate, makes Twitter a Good Bet for investors and the creditors take over the June invoices to clear the borrowings from March, with interest (surprising how high API prices can jump). Repeat with the July invoices, and separate lenders, to take care of June and July.
It's August! Silly Season in the media, ignore anything you hear on the news! Summer Holidays are here, we're all on a cruise to the Cayman Islands.
"I don't usually test, but when I do, it is in production"
concern ?
".. elicited concern among technical types that the social media network would collapse for lack of engineering ministrations."
No, it elicited schadenfreude (or the wish to experience it).
Re: concern ?
I though you can just fill open space office with bums on seats straight off the coding bootcamp and get the money spinning, no?
Billionaire tax
Imagine that it would be illegal to have more than £100m - anything over that would have to be taxed at 110%.
Musk would have to work together with hundreds of people to buy Tw@ter.
This means there is lesser likelihood that those hundreds of people would exhibit the same personality disorders and would probably lead to better outcome for humanity.
Twitter is brittle
and thanks to Elon, more full of nuts than ever before.
Timeline
The Twitter timeline has been royally bollouxed for weeks now. Seeing random posts showing 1h old then the next is 10h old then the next 3 min.