Yesterday we talked about whether Twitter really ever need to be reliable or not ... some said yes, others contend that it's not necessary.

It's been bugging me for awhile that something this popular ... and Twitter is so ... just keels over as often as it does.

Anyhow, the whole argument turned into a bona-fide debacle this morning when GroupTweet (a relatively new feature that seems to have been confusing) was at the heart of disclosing private messages (DMs in tweet-speak) to tons of folks.

Oops.

So now it looks like Blaine Cook is out as chief architect, and Michael Arrington is calling it the end of amateur hour. That's probably a bit harsh, because my (limited) interactions with Cook have been pretty decent.

Btw the comment thread on that last post is going crazy. My favorite so far is a short video comment from a Loren Feldman (warning ... his language is a bit over the top, but you do know where he stands!) Btw, check here if the first link to the video doesn't work.

Moving On
Having said that, we just have to build apps that act like real, grown up (and you can call that boring if you want) apps ... taking care of the data entrusted to them, working as expected, and working when we need them to work.

So I'm thinking that the answer to yesterday's question is ... YES. Twitter does need to figure out how to be reliable ... and secure, scalable, and all the rest.

This is exactly the point that I've been making for awhile ... why build to POC quality when it's now possible to ensure reliability, scalability, and so forth from the beginning?

People are Still People
I don't care if this is Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, or Web 10,000,000,000.0 ... consumer or enterprise ... people are still people. They still care about their privacy, the reliability of stuff that they come to rely on, basic stuff like that. No free pass.

Even consumer oriented web 2.0 apps need to ensure this, from the beginning.

Pretending that innovation in communication, biz, or technology somehow exempts us from the basics of social interaction is just ... well, it's just wrong.

This lesson is for our whole industry. Those who learn it will prosper, those who don't ...