Please retweet this so everyone who uses TwitApps finds out this is happening. Thanks.

It is with some regret that I am announcing that I will be shutting TwitApps down at the end of this month. I would like to say this has been a difficult decision but that’s not accurate.

I love Twitter and use it a lot, but I’m tired of developing for the API. It’s not that I don’t think the API team over there do a fantastic job, or that I think the API is bad, it’s a personal thing. It no longer excites me the way it once did, and this is part of the reason it’s taken a long time for me to get v2 finished, and it’s still not ready.

So I’ve decided to shut it down rather than continuing to fire-fight problems and pick away at the new version. I’d rather tell the several thousand users of the service have to find alternatives where the developers are more committed to it.

I’m sure I’ll continue to tinker with the Twitter API – I do find it fascinating, but that’s not the same as maintaining a quality product with users to answer to.

So here’s the plan…

• All emails the system sends will contain a prominent message pointing at this blog post. I will not be emailing all users to let them know because bulk email is something I promised not to do in the T&Cs.
• The website will continue to work until the end of this week, Friday, September 18th.
• Both the replies and follows services will continue to run until the following Friday, September 25th.
• After the 18th I will publish the source code on my github account.

This is somewhat disappointing but I feel confident it’s the best thing for the 4000+ users of TwitApps as well as my own sanity.

Update [14/09/09]: I’ve had a huge amount of feedback from people saying how sad they are about this, and I understand but nothing will convince me to keep it going. It’s my hope that by releasing the code the functionality will be available elsewhere in some shape or form.

I also want to categorically state that I will not consider releasing the source to anyone early, or allowing someone to take control of the site and service. This is something I’ve promised users since day one and I will not budge. I will also not entertain selling the user base for the same reasons. Please do not bother to contact me if this is what you’re going to ask.

Update [15/09/09]: I’ve had a number of people ask under what license I’ll be releasing the code. It will be in the public domain so there will be absolutely no restrictions on what you do with it. I’m not releasing it with a view to having people contribute so I see no need to control it.