These days Twitter is gaining more attention. First there were rumors about Twitter getting $15 million funding. Then many bloggers had raised an issue regarding Twitter service being often down. Now Twitter answers to all its critics. A post on Twitter developer blog says:

Twitter is, fundamentally, a messaging system. Twitter was not architected as a messaging system, however. For expediency’s sake, Twitter was built with technologies and practices that are more appropriate to a content management system. Over the last year and a half we’ve tried to make our system behave like a messaging system as much as possible, but that’s introduced a great deal of complexity and unpredictability. When we’re in crisis mode, adding more instrumentation to help us navigate the web of interdependencies in our current architecture is often our primary recourse. This is, clearly, not optimal.

Our direction going forward is to replace our existing system, component-by-component, with parts that are designed from the ground up to meet the requirements that have emerged as Twitter has grown. First and foremost amongst those requirements is stability. We’re planning for a gradual transition; our existing system will be maintained while new parts are built, and old parts swapped out for new as they’re completed. The alternative - scrapping everything for “the big rewrite” - is untenable, particularly given our small (but growing!) engineering and operations team.

We’d like people to know that we’re motivated by the community discussion around our architecture. We’re immersed in ideas about improving our system, and we have a clear direction forward that takes into account many of the bright suggestions that have emerged from the community.

To those taking the time to blog about our architecture, I encourage you to check out our jobs page. If you want to make Twitter better, there’s no more direct way than getting involved in our engineering efforts. We love kicking around ideas, but code speaks louder than words.

From the lines “To those taking the time to blog about our architecture, I encourage you to check out our jobs page. If you want to make Twitter better, there’s no more direct way than getting involved in our engineering efforts” I now feel that Twitter is now taking this issue more seriously. And of course they should. I have been an active user of Twitter and Pownce for a long time now. And very often have noted that when Twitter is down people are switching over to Pownce. This is surely a bonus for Pownce.

Well the fact is that in present situation Pownce does not stand anywhere when compared to Twitter in terms of users. But it has a bright prospect. Many people claim that it is a Twitter clone. But it really does not matter to people who love powncing. Two things that I really like about Pownce are:

1) Pownce does not have 140 character limitations like Twitter.

2) It displays all the pics and videos that users share with public.

Now moving away from Twitter, Pownce comparison we have some more Twitter stuff for you. The official Twitter blog has responded to discussion going on in their forums regarding their official policy you can read it here. This is what Twitter replied:

Some people think we should ban one person if another person is unhappy with the content—or more specifically, if they personally define that content as “harrassment.” In the case being discussed, we didn’t perceive a violation of our Terms after a careful review.

This speaks to our larger stance that Twitter is a communication utility, not a mediator of content. For those who are interested in this debate, please note that we are engaged in editing our ToS so it more clearly states the scenarios in which we will take action. The revised ToS will reflect this earlier statement of our policy on abuse.

I will love to know your thoughts about this. Anyways you people can catch me on Twitter and on Pownce too.

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