Twine Traffic Falls - New Version Coming, But it's Make or Break Time
Since it was first unveiled to ReadWriteWeb back in October 2007, Semantic Web application Twine has traveled a rocky road. The product is a knowledge management service, in practical terms similar to social bookmarking site Delicious. However, almost from the start there have been vocal critics of Twine.
The latest critique is a scathing post by Semantic Web consultant Greg Boutin, entitled Twine in Freefall?. Boutin argues that Twine's traffic has taken a dive recently. We followed up with Twine founder Nova Spivack for his response. He admits that traffic has declined "20-25%," but says that Twine is focusing on an all-new version of its product.
Over the years Nova Spivack hasn't been shy about hyping his company, sometimes dissing other products in the process. On that note, we should note that Spivack and Boutin appear to have had a personal squabble. In Boutin's post he says that earlier this year Spivack "decided to libel me on twitter, through tweets he has since deleted." We don't know the specifics of this, but clearly this battle with Spivack has colored Boutin's view of Twine now. Nevertheless, the statistics Boutin points to are valid.
The premise of Greg Boutin's post is that Twine had earlier in the year trumpeted passing Delicious and Friendfeed in traffic - ReadWriteWeb was the first to cover the Delicious trend, back in March. However now Boutin points to statistics from Compete, Alexa and Quancast showing a marked drop in traffic. Compete was the source we used in our March post, so below we've pasted comparison charts from then and now:
Compete chart from March '09 showing that Twine was trending upwards, while Delicious growth appeared to have tapered off.
Compete chart showing that Twine did indeed pass Delicious in March '09, however over June-July Twine's traffic has plummeted but Delicious held steady.
Twine: Yes Traffic Has Dropped, But We're Focusing on Version 2...
ReadWriteWeb questioned Twine about these statistics and the company admits that "our internal data shows us down 20-25%."
Twine appears to put some of this down to problems with version 1 of its product. The company told us that it is putting all of its focus and marketing efforts into a brand new version (more on that below). Therefore the drop in traffic is something Twine and its investors are comfortable with, for now.
Nova Spivack also told us that Twine had indexing problems with Google over the summer. If this was the case, that may be a big reason for the decline in Compete. Spivack explained that "we have about 500K pages that should be indexed. They [Google] are only indexing 140K pages, but we're basically not worrying about it, since T2 [version 2, see below for details] will change the game and the way we deal with Google anyway. . ."
Twine 2.0: Make or Break
Twine says that it is busy working on a new version of its product, which is why it hasn't been active on the PR front in the last few months. The company is hoping the new version gets its momentum back.
Nova Spivack elaborated on the new version to ReadWriteWeb, which we'll quote in its entirety because it illuminates Spivack and company's marketing approach:
"In the last 9 months we have made a breakthrough with the new version of Twine that changes the economics of vertical search and navigation on the Web. This new technology enables Twine to provide Web-scale faceted navigation and search across numerous vertical search categories. We are able to index structured data (like recipes, products, reviews, or any kind of database driven or XML content) with search-engine performance and scalability. This is a huge leap beyond what we were able to deliver in the first version of Twine."
"As a result of this breakthrough, we have made a strategic decision to focus all of our resources on bringing Twine version 2 (T2) to market by the end of the year. Version 1 of Twine will remain online until we are able to cutover to version 2. We are doing no further work on version 1 and no marketing for it, either. We are of course still supporting it from a technical and user perspective, however. But all our focus is on T2 moving forward."
Twine also told us that it has signed deals with nearly a dozen major content providers and brands to integrate the new search capabilities into their online services. See our March post for more context about the new version.
So what do we think about this latest twist to the Twine saga? With language like "breakthrough," "changes the economics" and "huge leap beyond," once again Twine is hyping itself up. While there have always been signs that Twine is at least partly delivering on its clear promise, the fact is that Twine continues to struggle to deliver a product the market wants. This accounts for its inconsistent growth and much of the criticism of usability which Twine has endured.
We continue to cheer for Twine, but it does seem that version 2 is make or break for the company.
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I'm sorry to say that I never was able to understand what Twine was trying to do or why it was lauded by all the blogs. But these traffic charts seem all too clear.
Comparing Twine to Delicious is enough of a statement in itself, really, seeing as Delicious has been over the hill for quite some time now.
Perhaps Version 2 will come up with some kind of value proposition for its users that makes sense, but I never saw one in Version 1. Surely there are enough social bookmarking services already?
Thanks for the clarifications, Richard. Twine spinning? Hey that's new ;)
One mystery remains: Compete.com, which so far has been reliable and relied upon, shows a 85-90% drop in traffic, and so does quantcast. Twine says 20-25%. Seems to me like that might be a case of downplaying it - as a 90% drop would most likely means the end of Twine's support from its investors (my faith in the VC world would reach new lows otherwise). Since compete.com presumably has no bias, I'd say the ball is in Twine's camp to provide proofs - and in the meantime I'll believe Compete.
Regarding the reason for the drop, it sounds like something happened with Google, since presumably Twine's many pages were indexed prior to the drop, and now they are not (unlike Nova's spin in the article, which seems to imply they were never indexed... huh?). A change in algorithm, presumably. Now, that opens a whole other debate, which is the impossibility of relying on Google Ads for monetization past a certain size. Recall Geosign? They were making >$100M and went to zero overnight when Google pulled the plug.
As a sidenote, yes, my vision has certainly been colored by the reaction of Nova to my post at http://www.semanticsincorporated.com/2009/02/as-promised-interview-with-twine-on-the-usability-question.html, but at least I am aware of it and trying hard to "compensate"! I'd like to go beyond that and would point to the part in my post that praises twine as the poster child of the semantic web trend. It's sad to see what's happening to this app, and I did try to remain as objective as possible, but the data simply points to the fact that it is poorly managed and it spins faster than an Exxon!
- Not to dwell on it, but I would have liked to see some reflection as to why this has not been covered by any of the major IT news outlets, whereas they have spoken to length about the ascension of the company. I imagine it's simply because "investigative journalism" is more expensive - companies don't send press releases to highlight their drop in traffic. Still, I think that shows the power of crowdsourcing.
New post following up on the discussion above: http://www.semanticsincorporated.com/2009/09/twine-confirms-traffic-drop-on-readwriteweb-but-spins-it-out-of-control.html
Seems like they forgot that behind the fluff and hype, you a product that provides value.
Its pretty astonishing that for a company based in the SF bay area they weren't able to find to a crew that "get" the need for a friendly design. Oh, maybe that's not necessary for a "Web 3.0" company, or perhaps the geeks rule the roost at Radar Networks.
Greg re "why this has not been covered by any of the major IT news outlets, whereas they have spoken to length about the ascension of the company."
I think that's simply because they dropped off everybody's radar for a while, however a site like RWW picks up a lot of news from other blogs - hence I found out about it via you. Happens a lot in the tech blog world anyway.
Re the stats, my reading is that Compete stats dropped 85% odd due to Google indexing issue. So I *think* what Twine is saying is that they dropped 20-25% in actual PV (which they monitor) but they're attributing the rest to Google issues. I haven't seen Twine's official stats, but I'm not sure I really need to. The bottom line is that they're struggling even with 20-25% dip, so version 2 is 'put up or shut up' in product market terms.
From the beginning I wondered what 'semantic' [the magic word back in 2007] consisted in. I kept and maintained an account on Twine until I realized it was nothing more than any other online bookmarking website. As it failed to allow true/easy cross-posting I killed the account after several attempts at aggregating its content on Friendfeed [nail on the coffin there].
Twine is declining? That I don't really wonder why.
Richard, the article is great, that's my take. I want to say that first so it's clear that's 95% of what I think.
Having said that, I do think the quoteon the stats is misleading. You report, quoting Spivack, that "traffic has declined 20-25%". That doesn't mean traffic from repeat users, that doesn't mean "excluding Google drop" (easy to add), that means traffic. I don't recall Twine differentiating between their traffic sources when they were trumpeting their traffic growth. Traffic is traffic, a drop of 85% is what matters, wherever it comes from, so let's call it as it is. I know you were very careful for the article to be balanced, and you managed it, but this fact - the main one in my argument - is presented in a distorted light, and that's the critical argument.
Your logical conclusion, based on a 20-25% dip, is that we need to wait patiently for Twine 2.0. At an 85% dip and with the track record we know of, the logical conclusion I would make is quite different. Unless investors fall for the sunk cost, I think they would certainly consider calling the whole thing off and cutting their losses. Note: I am not advocating for it, I do hope to see v2.0 for the sake of the semantic web, I am just saying that based on my experience that's what would happen and they probably had the discussion. If they saw the traffic data. That makes for a different sort of conclusion than just "hype". Which it certainly is.
On the journalistic matter, I agree they were pretty quiet and it would have taken some proactice effort to keep monitoring them, since as I wrote they clearly didn't mention the dip after trumpeting their traffic so much in the previous months... which only adds to my lack of trust in their PR. It may sound utopian to some, but I have seen enough examples of companies proactively and effectively announcing and explaining their problems that I think this is the better way. More than anyone else, I'd hope a web 3.0 company would dare to invent the 21st-century way of doing things, and in my mind that includes transparency and open communication (this will increasingly become an issue with the rise of open data, as people start asking for non-selective data reporting).
Likewise, I'd expect that after having relayed the Twine message (although skeptically in the case of RWW, while the others completely fell for it. I have tremendous respect for your work), the main channels would recognize they've "dropped the twine" and do better at monitoring company's claims. Having said that, I know it's a resource issue, and it's also not that gratifying of a job. I too prefer reporting positive things, it's just that that job is generally already taken.
Richard, you nailed it with "Twine continues to struggle to deliver a product the market wants".
I registered on Twine when you first covered it, couldn't figure out what it's good for and didn't come back for a while. Then there was some more coverage, plus they started sending me emails about the new stuff they got, so I signed in again, still couldn't figure what it was good for, and never came back.
If someone asks me today what exactly Twine is, I couldn't answer. I just signed in again, played around for a bit, noticed that they've added all sorts of pointers and contextual help items, and still couldn't figure out what the hell it was good for.
In the absence of a clear value proposition, how can they save it with Twine2? A few more features won't make much of a difference imho.
So that spin about them maybe surpassing delicious turned out to be more of nothing (again)
* http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twine_could_soon_surpass_delicious_prepares_ontolo.php
For the last 2 years the company's been promising its users, "The next version, the next release is gonna be better." They make a new release almost every month, saying they're fixing bugs and UI non-usability and it's the same story time and time again. It's gonna be better.
Except they don't deliver. UI and usability and basic functions still suck.
The talent's just not there. Management. Technical. Marketing. PR. Community management.
2 years, all that user feedback, all those chances and their uniques are falling to the floor?
It is quite common to see a drop in traffic when launching a new feature or site. However a site with "members" having this trend is especially troubling since obviously they aren't returning to use the service.
Its hard to argue that the PR talent is not there. Twine is up there with Cuil as one of the most over-hyped offerings since the crash of the 90s. Seems like the talent dwindles towards zero in the area product strategy and design though. The betting is that they just have bunch of engineers cooking up features are "so cool", but not well though out and clearly not understood.
If the role of PR is get the brand known at any cost, then you're right, Stuart. If it's to create positive, sustainable buzz grounded in reality, as I think it is, then I'm afraid not. Ultimately not that many people came to Twine from the buzz factor, given the drop once Google turned off its tap. I'd say they had talent in SEO.
Completely in agreement with your comment on the engineering cool-feature-based approach, though.
Talent in SEO? Nah, talent in SHIT. Their marketing knows that word well.
They launched themselves with it. WE ORGANIZE THAT SHIT!
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/21/twine-we-organize-that-shit/
Maybe they couldn't organize their own shit or stepped into it, big time.
K.A.R.M.A.
Nova's a Tibetan Buddhist so he should have gotten the enlightenment and jumped the singularity long ago. Or maybe he's not as smart as the spin.
Treat your users like shit and keep giving them SEO spam?
The great Google in the sky will rain shit down on you.
K.A.R.M.A.
Other stats: Sign-up, join 4 twines and bookmark 6 URLs and you get to make it into the top 100 users. Hardly the sign of a thriving community.
http://www.twine.com/explore-top-members
Looks like Twine's hit its own shitberg. Abandon ship, crew!
Hey isn't the company called RADAR Networks? A 'smart system' and they didn't spot the shitberg on their radars?
+1 Greg Boutin, - 2,000,000 Twine.
LMOA about their launch video!"Can I haz a shitburger?' Candice Nobles really knows her shit and what users want (--- nah, not). Maybe that's why Twine lost millions of uniques and even more 'What's it supposed to do? Twine sucks we ain't going back' users.
Oh an' nice touch by Radar to put "(joke)" in the video title in case we couldn't tell.Yeah, joke's on them or is it.....they made themselves a joke? They are the joke?
So wait almost a year after launch they have the same (less?) uniques than when they launched???!!!
Greg Boutin wrote about 'sunk costs' in his link. Appropriate since this may be a shipwreck and Radar are steering?
I haven’t been following or interested in Twine for over 6 months. Some friends flagged me on this post and whilst it's sad to see Twine in this state, none of us are surprised.
This R/R/W article is a VINDICATION FOR TWAIN against Twine and its team (Radar Network’s) stupid attempts to vilify and smear her good name and smart actions on Twine as well as in the blogosphere.
Greg Boutin’s estimates of an 85-95% drop in Twine's metrics, based on compete’s analysis, are more credible than Twine team’s spin. Greg has an MBA from Stanford (Fulbright scholar) whilst Nova doesn’t. Greg’s trained to analyze the numbers in a way that tech journalists and PRs are not. I know this because I too have business school --- instead of BS --- training. Plus I’ve been a tech investor and a corporate strategist, so we know how numbers can be sliced and diced.
People also need to examine the average time users stay on Twine. That will also tell a story about whether the count includes spambots or real user engagement.
No, Greg and I are not and have never been working in concert. We have our own independent analysis, methodologies and reached the same conclusion: Twine is not succeeding and it’s the management.
It’s interesting that RN are saying T2 will solve their problems since the most recent and sharpest fall in their metrics still happened after they overhauled their Interest Feed and UI in July 2009. They're now at a uniques count which is not that different from just pre-launch during Sept 2008, so don't seem to have made any progress on that front in a year --- despite all the many releases and UI fixes.
In any case, the “rocky road” Twine has traveled is the responsibility and fault of the Twine team and no one else’s. Twine insiders know well that many highly intelligent and collaborative users and I provided a lot of insightful feedback, valuable user support and --- in my case --- personal strategic advice to Nova. We did this on private twines (Product Community, Power Users, the Lounge) and on public twines (User Feedback --- beta and post-launch versions --- and Users’ Forum).
Twine insiders are also aware that my emphasis was on 3 simple rules:
(i.) Respect, credit and incentivize users.
(ii.) Deliver on the UI and usability to meet users’ needs.
(iii.) Cut the s***, the spam and any stupid SEO chasing.
Instead of listening to my advice, Twine team excluded me from Twine on false grounds and stabbed me in the back. I have the screenshots of Nova personally promising me that he would kick out another member who was being a troll and libeling me, whilst the other core users and I were engaging in good community management and trying to champion Twine and handhold newbies.
The Twine team later had the gall to say that there had been a vote by the Power Users to exclude me. THERE WAS NEVER ANY VOTE BY THE POWER USERS AND WE ALL KNOW IT. That’s another example of Twine team’s untruths, twists of reality and spins.
Twine team is also responsible for deleting and decimating our content from the public domain, and stealing my personal content and IP. Plus invading our online privacy.
Moreover, Nova Spivack libeled and treated me with a lot more maliciousness, nonsense and cowardice than he did to Greg Boutin. So cowardly that even after exclusion, they kept some of my comments and yet deleted my name and my avatar. Nova is a Tibetan Buddhist and he knows what the Chinese did to the Dalai Lama’s name and image after his exile, so it’s quite strange that he did this to my name and avatar. It was, frankly, a pathetic judgment on his part and showed lack of honor as well as disrespect for the digitally deceased.
ALL BECAUSE I WAS FIGHTING FOR USERS’ RIGHTS TO HAVE A SMART, INCLUSIVE, OPEN AND DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM INSTEAD OF ONE FULL OF SPAM, S***, A NON-OPTIMAL UI AND WHERE TWINE TEAM DISRESPECTED INTELLIGENT USERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS.
They excluded me so that there was no one with the strategic nous (and importantly, strength of character) to object to their ridiculous marketing or half-baked UI implementations.
Instead of taking my strategic advice seriously, Radar Networks gave me and other constructive users a lot of s***, a lot of spin and a lot of spam (or as one core user calls it “TWAM”). This in return for everyone’s hard work and good will towards building a strong advocate for the Semantic Web.
Instead of being a positive poster child, Twine ended up fostering spam, s*** and stupidities --- the very antithesis of what the Semantic Web should be about which is SMARTS and contextualization to surface QUALITY connections and collaborations.
The Twine team seems to have decided that inflating uniques by counting their spam and SEO clickthroughs from Google was better than BUILDING GENUINE UNIQUES, by improving UI and usability and helping users to stay sticky with seamless tools and engaging content.
*****************
WELL, TIME HAS SHOWN WHO'S SMART, SPOT-ON AND STRATEGIC (Twain) and who's not (Twine team).
Look at their metrics freefall. That's what happens when you go for temporary Band Aid fixes without proper think through.
*****************
Their uniques, most likely driven by spam inflation and now switched off because Google is auto-correcting it, is……..SINKING (and faster than the team can spin it).
As for T2, T1 wasted 18-24 months of core users’ time (including the year of beta). They are rightfully sick of and disillusioned with all the non-working features. They’re seriously disappointed that all their support for Twine is resulting in this freefall. Most importantly, they’re unlikely to provide feedback or have goodwill about T2 in the same way they did for T1.
****************************
LET ME BE OPEN AND CLEAR ABOUT MY ADVICE TO CORE USERS: RADAR NETWORKS NEEDS TO PAY CORE USERS IN ADVANCE (not in T-shirts or coffee cups but in cash) FOR ANY FOCUS GROUP OR FEEDBACK THEY PROVIDE since it’s their expertise and their valuable time.
This payment will be compensation to them for all the nonsense they had to endure throughout T1 for supporting the platform and handholding the Twine team, plus to account for their consistently invaluable contributions to the community.
****************************
Recently, I read a post from Josh Dilworth (dated May 2009) in which he gave attributions to the Twine team for successfully “shepherding” the users. That made me almost puke, except I didn’t want to spoil my nice dress.
Yeah, great “shepherding” and this is why insiders and outsiders alike have been complaining about Twine, its UI, usability and more. This is why Twine’s metrics are in freefall.
Here are the facts for the record:
(1.) The core original members shepherded the Twine team and the users. It was them who posted the smart content and nurtured the conversations --- not the team.
Twines operated by Twine team was labeled a “nursery” by core original members.
(2.) It was the core original members who thought up and trouble-shooted the better features that actually work on Twine --- not the team;
(3.) It was the core original members who provided user guides, smart support and handheld newbie’s --- not the team;
(4.) Radar Networks closed User Feedback not once, not twice but over THREE times which alienated users. That channel had been one of the ways in which core original members had shared their tips and tricks to help others navigate the Twine system;
(5.) The core original users are the ones who asked for comments moderation tools and the ability to flag unsuitable content. I know this because after a flame started by another user, I was constantly on Nova’s case about comment moderation tools.
(6.) When the core original users were running community management, threads ran to 150+ comments with multiple participants, high view counts, high user stickiness and it was FUN. When Candice or any of her team tried to do community management, threads rarely got no more than 10 comments, had low view counts (0-5) and it was ridiculous waste of time.
RN’S NONSENSE TOWARDS ME
===================
Amongst many untruths and smears, they wrote:
• Twain, grow up.
• You’re deluded, a "legend in your own mind". You were just some random person.
• Go back to banking (ha ha).
• If Twain would apologize……blah blah blah…..
Grow up? Hmmn……..Who launched themselves with an immature and unprofessional “We organize that s***!” video which was an insult to the users and their intelligence, plus a slap-in-the-face to the community’s values? Who took an ignorant and non-thinking approach to UI design and usability? Who adopted juvenile worship of SEO and spam chasing and counting?
Answer: Twine team.
A random, deluded person? No. Twine team are the deluded ones. They deluded themselves that the artificial inflation via spam and SEO clickthroughs mattered more than servicing their user base and respecting and crediting their smart contributions. Then they tried to delude users that UI improvements were coming and these didn't materialize despite users' patience and tolerance.
As for randomness, didn’t they learn in school that it’s the random events and people who either catalyze a positive revolution or precipitate the biggest bubble bursts? I catalyzed a positive revolution; during my time on Twine the core users were encouraged to engage in good community management, to be innovative in the content they were posting and to collaborate on serious projects in a witty way.
Not a "legend in her own mind" as much as someone who was literally trying to "show+twain" system improvements that would get Twine to work on behalf of users instead of alienating them the way Twine team did.
As for RN’s cheap and ignorant shot about banking……..Hmmn, well the bank that didn’t implement my strategic advice and instead opted for others………..They got WRITTEN DOWN BY U$50+ BILLION during the financial crisis. Plus they experienced a reputational loss which is immeasurable and will take years to regain.
THAT'S RIGHT, US$50+ BILLION IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMPLEMENTING TWAIN'S SMARTS + STRATEGIC ADVICE compared with others (and they had platinum-standard Ivy League educations).
So now we can add 2 million uniques in 3 months and the loss of Twine + team’s credibility as the difference between taking on board Twain’s strategic insights or going with Twine team’s short-termistic, half-baked tactics.
As for apologies……..NOVA SPIVACK OWES TWAIN 2+ MILLION (and counting) APOLOGIES.
CONCLUSION
=========
The only thing Nova was ever right about was Twain’s “phenomenal brainpower”. The fact is Twine didn’t “tie it all together” in the way they hoped or marketed. It’s the core users who are the smarts of the system and Twain spotted that from the outset. She consistently championed this.
Twine team didn’t. They seemed to care more about chasing spam counts and shit content and spewing that back at the users.
Nova’s grandfather, one of the pre-eminent management gurus of C20th, coined the term “Knowledge Economy”. It’s unfortunate that Nova’s judgments with Twine indicate that he’s not got the same talent in management or knowhow as his ancestor nor the vision of realization of others.
It’s not particularly difficult to grasp:
(i.) Respect, credit and incentivize users.
(ii.) Deliver on the UI and usability to meet users’ needs.
(iii.) Cut the s***, the spam and any stupid SEO chasing.
Actually I have NO plans to return to Twine. There are better ways to allocate my time, smarts, sense of humor and collaborative knowhow. I am concerned and speaking out purely because the content of my friends matters. They can't openly speak out about the spam and s*** out of the threat of exclusion or retribution by Radar Networks.
Yet this goes to the core of Twine's problems and the Google indexing counts for Twine (now the pipeline's been turned off it appears).
Twine’s investors would also need to pay me US$1+ million plus 3-5% of stock and give me complete final veto rights over stupid “We organize that s***!”-type user marketing and community management like the Lounge which the core users likened to a "nursery"; stupidities and insulting users' intelligence in that way would NOT be allowed to be made much less be released into public domain --- if I was involved in steering the ship.
Most importantly, investors and the BoD would need to give me carte blanche over a system of rewarding users for their smart contributions.
As I noted, US$50+ BILLION is the difference between my smarts and someone else’s.
As it is, I’m already advanced on an application (my original idea and IP) which will disrupt the online advertising and business models to its core --- at semantic level. Plus a documentary in which I’m one of four interviewees will appear at international film festivals shortly. Additionally, a key BBC production celebrating the Web's 20th birthday is taking on board my suggestions on suitable content and contributors.
The BBC crew openly credit me with helping to make their series more inclusive, more democratic and setting a contextualized challenge about what we're doing to harness the Web towards smart collaboration and aims (economic systems, climate change, educational development etc.)
THAT, in my books, is more valuable than having my time wasted by Twine and its team.
Twine = in freefall, Twain = flourishing.
Smarts triumph over spam, spin and s***.
***********************************************************
Here’s the Venturebeat thread where RN tried to smear me:
* http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/06/twine-explosively-growing-is-an-early-success/
Everyone will excuse me if I don't wish them "Good luck." All the goodwill the core users and I gave got trampled on, written out and s***ed on/spammed over.
Not only was that not smart on Twine team's part, it was also not nice.
I'm smart and I'm nice. I can go and share on platforms that foster those qualities instead of ones which believe SEO spam inflation on their metrics, spin s*** and disrespecting users makes them smart. It doesn't.
Gotta go. A smarter, brighter, more democratic and more inclusive future beckons Twain.
Here's an interesting question: "WHO at or connected to Google is responsible for severing Twine's core counts artery in this way?"
Hmmn.....Maybe if Twine and its team had been smart, good, respectful to users and observed Google's first law "DO NO EVIL," then it might not have happened.
Be guardians of the good and don't give users spam or s***, people. That's the moral of the story!
The person posting as "Twain" aka Twain Luu was kicked out of Twine for breaking rules, harrassing other users and threatening them.
But that was like a year ago already. Get over it!
Twain, you are mentally unstable and obsessed with revenge. You're not a banker -- you don't have a job -- you just sit at home and pretend to be an authority and mostly you just try to get revenge on all the people who wronged you blah blah blah. Seriously, get a life.
Poor Twain Luu. Still can't think about anything but revenge. Pathetic.
Please see my reply to the person impersonating DSL and anyone else attempting to libel me here:
* http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/screencasts_of_twines_facelift_does_it_live_up_to.php
As I note: ONLY THE MARKET CAN GET REVENGE ON ANY COMPANY.
I'm happy and I have better things to do with my time than bother further with Twine, the team (including if they decide to impersonate others) or wannabe flames.
"Watch the Semantic space and enjoy the tools coming up," is all I want to say.
I saw an article today that hopes these types of devices or applications may be the saviour for the newspapers. I still have my doubts because you don't need a kindle to get your news, it's still free online.