I'm really excited about this because of where we can go with this.
The idea of a "rtip" or tip/retweet is the biggest innovation here. It's exactly how twitter is already used to disperse information, but adds a social gesture with monetary weight. That's pretty powerful. If you like a tweet, just say "rtip $1 @username the awesome tweet".
Lots of sites use Twitter credentials, and this means they can initiate payments. It also makes those payments inherently social, as they are broadcasted - so in ways it is better than an OAuth system. But we're planning that too.
We're going to open this up to an API, meaning sites based on twitter credentials can convert their whole user base to tipjoy users. I'm really looking forward to see what can be done with these tools.
The potential for this idea is what got me excited the minute I saw your post.
As an aside, I think twitter still needs to release support for OAuth, there are too many sites out there storing twitter credentials in plain text right now. Careful developers should be hashing the passwords with some secret salt so at least their users passwords aren't at risk if someone ever gains access to their db.
These aren't really your issues, but twitter needs to add proper authentication. Anyways -- this is a great from tipjoy -- looking fwd to what comes next.
welcome to the real world. i can't tell you how many times people have taken UI and concepts we spent a ton of time developing and copied them directly, even some of our well funded competitors. even yahoo (they completely ripped off our theme choosing interface). hell, we've even had direct feature-for-feature copies of weebly commissioned in india. life's not fair, and neither is business.
coming up with an idea isn't going to get you ahead, it's your ability to keep coming up with good ideas, execute on them, and make the right choices that steer the company that will. and eventually, some day, you get a big pile of users that becomes increasingly hard to lose, even if you try to fuck it up (just look at geocities. yes, it's still the 124th biggest site on the internet...)
I'm sure it wasn't. Knowing the tipjoy people, I'm sure they've been planning this feature for longer than 15 days. It's pretty obvious in their space.
You tweet sometimes. They're usually pretty funny, so you should do it more. I'm pretty sure twitter will be closer to an ecosystem of tips, considering everyone is a "blogger" - though some with greater followings.
Yet another reason on the long list of why execution matters a helluva lot more than the idea, especially when it comes to easy/simple ideas.
I'm not convinced it was "stolen", and I think it's pretty crappy of you to suggest that it was unless you know something the rest of us don't.
TipJoy almost certainly has a product roadmap of some kind. Theoretically it's possible that they pushed what they were in the middle of aside 15 days ago to attack this and managed to get it done and launched by today... But I think it's just as likely that they were already working on it.
Idk, the feature is definitely a little too obvious to call theft. Also, when you see someone launch 15 days after someone else, you can't assume copying. Features often take longer than that to develop, especially on sites that involve money transfers.
Not saying it's impossible, just saying it's far from a slam dunk.
[+] [-] ivankirigin|17 years ago|reply
The idea of a "rtip" or tip/retweet is the biggest innovation here. It's exactly how twitter is already used to disperse information, but adds a social gesture with monetary weight. That's pretty powerful. If you like a tweet, just say "rtip $1 @username the awesome tweet".
Lots of sites use Twitter credentials, and this means they can initiate payments. It also makes those payments inherently social, as they are broadcasted - so in ways it is better than an OAuth system. But we're planning that too.
We are also accepted new signups via twitter credentials http://tipjoy.com/createaccount/platform/twitter/
We're going to open this up to an API, meaning sites based on twitter credentials can convert their whole user base to tipjoy users. I'm really looking forward to see what can be done with these tools.
[+] [-] omakase|17 years ago|reply
As an aside, I think twitter still needs to release support for OAuth, there are too many sites out there storing twitter credentials in plain text right now. Careful developers should be hashing the passwords with some secret salt so at least their users passwords aren't at risk if someone ever gains access to their db.
These aren't really your issues, but twitter needs to add proper authentication. Anyways -- this is a great from tipjoy -- looking fwd to what comes next.
[+] [-] halo|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] webwright|17 years ago|reply
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/how-twitter-will-be-worth...
Or maybe it came from one of the 1.2 million pages that has the phrase "twitter and payment" somewhere in it but no mention of twitpay:
http://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+payment+-twitpay
Or inspired by TextPayMe, which did the exact same thing with phone numbers instead of twitter usernames?
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/0-blog-pics/textpayme-welcome.p...
[+] [-] ivey|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drusenko|17 years ago|reply
coming up with an idea isn't going to get you ahead, it's your ability to keep coming up with good ideas, execute on them, and make the right choices that steer the company that will. and eventually, some day, you get a big pile of users that becomes increasingly hard to lose, even if you try to fuck it up (just look at geocities. yes, it's still the 124th biggest site on the internet...)
[+] [-] bdr|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattmaroon|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] callmeed|17 years ago|reply
Unless you also have a patented technology, being first to market doesn't really matter.
Execution matters. Bragging rights don't pay the bills.
[+] [-] juanpablo|17 years ago|reply
Eg.
"I'm not going to pay @joe $1000 for an old ipod!" or
"Everyone! Give @bob $10 to buy beer".
[+] [-] ivankirigin|17 years ago|reply
So this would indeed count, "Give @bob $10 to buy beer" but that is clearly a closer to a command.
More importantly, this is an opt-in option, so it would be hard to do it without knowing.
[+] [-] Dilpil|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|17 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mattmaroon|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ivankirigin|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bootload|17 years ago|reply
Go Abby & Ivan
[+] [-] nostrademons|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smahend|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] webwright|17 years ago|reply
I'm not convinced it was "stolen", and I think it's pretty crappy of you to suggest that it was unless you know something the rest of us don't.
TipJoy almost certainly has a product roadmap of some kind. Theoretically it's possible that they pushed what they were in the middle of aside 15 days ago to attack this and managed to get it done and launched by today... But I think it's just as likely that they were already working on it.
Even if they DID steal it from Twitpay, the idea certainly didn't originate there. http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/how-twitter-will-be-worth... (from June)
[+] [-] calambrac|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattmaroon|17 years ago|reply
Not saying it's impossible, just saying it's far from a slam dunk.