I am sure Jack had enough opportunity & authority in his tenure to vouch for some kind of open standard so that Mastodon, Nitter etc could co-operate on this framework & data was transparent and accountable (instead of the API throttling on several directions). Lamenting now & shadow blaming others (as well as lending support for Musk in taking over) when he has let go of the company entirely is a strawman argument.
Other large regrets he has:<p>- becoming a multi-billionaire<p>- dating models<p>- having the clout to determine the course of the culture<p>- seeing how long a goatee he can grow without risk neck injury
As much as it sounds good, there is no way a "Twitter protocol" would have had the impact as Twitter as a company pushing its product. There are a dozen great protocols posted on HN each month.
Based on its origin story, the statement "Twitter should be a protocol" is either willful misrepresentation on his part or the loudest "woosh" noise passing over Jack's head that he's ever heard.
If I recall correctly, wasn't there some sort struggle within the company between those who wanted Twitter as a product and those who wanted it as a platform, and the product people won. Followed shortly by shutting down of third party Twitter clients.<p>To me Twitter as a platform was easier to steer towards a protocol
If only he could have done <i>anything at all</i> about it. It’s just so sad that even now he has no capability of having any impact at all on this situation. So tragic.
Imagine if Twitter had been run like Square.<p>Square helped normalize e-commerce by using AI to thwart fraud and verify authenticity.<p>Twitter used AI to create an algorithmic hate machine, disseminating lies, outrage, and fear.<p>#91 – Jack Dorsey: Square, Cryptocurrency, and Artificial Intelligence
<a href="https://lexfridman.com/jack-dorsey/" rel="nofollow">https://lexfridman.com/jack-dorsey/</a><p>Dorsey's regrets about APIs indicates he still doesn't understand the harm Twitter (and others) have done.
oh comeon jack, there are many 'protocols' to share anything in any way you like, someone needs to do the work to bring the people on the platform. that s what twitter does and only a company can do that. other than that i dont think you regret the $$$
I remember Twitter being pitched originally as aspiring to be a messaging protocol. That's why the 140 character limit was in place: 140 character message + 20 character username = the 160 character SMS limit; the lowest common denominator. A protocol probably was his original vision for the product, and it didn't turn out that way. As many in this thread have cynically pointed out, he did make a lot of money on Twitter as a company. Still, I can imagine having some regret over pivoting away from the original idea.
I seem to remember in the early, halcyon days of Twitter they had quite an open set of APIs (not the same as a protocol, granted.) A rich ecosystem of all kinds of interesting tools and products grew around Twitter, enriching and contributing greatly to Twitter's success.<p>Then, once they well and truly had critical mass, they closed it off and pulled the ladder up behind them. Very idealistic.
I don't understand this. For twitter to be what it is today a lot of centralized decisions needed to be made. I don't know how birthing it as a protocol and evolving it turns it into anything like current Twitter. And if he means Twitter should be a protocol _and different_ from it's current incarnation. Just go make that different thing?
> Jack Dorsey says his biggest regret is Twitter became a company<p>I think everyone can tell that he's not into it from the fact that the company hasn't innovated in a decade.
hhahahahahaha i honestly take mark z opinions more seriously ; the best you can say about jack and still be within the norms here is that he is very disingenuous