Twitter Relaunches Dev.Twitter.com For A Friendlier Ecosystem

This is the first post on the new dev blog:

Today we’re launching the new version of our Twitter Developer Site. With over 1,000,000 registered applications and 750,000 developers building on the platform today, we needed a new home to support the Twitter community better. So, we listened to everyone and gathered your ideas. The new site enhances communication channels, offers improved reference material and documentation, and will foster better interaction for everyone who visits it.

As you dive in, you’ll notice a number of changes. We focused on tightly structuring the content so it is more easily discoverable and understandable. Because the site will have to change over time to serve the needs of our evolving community, we relaunched it using Drupal, which provides more flexibility, better tools than we had, and a large developer network with whom we can work more closely. The new dev.twitter.com also includes the following highlights:

• Discussions – We need a place to talk with each other that gives us more functionality than we have now. So, it’s time to move away from the mailing list. In the new discussions section, you’ll find “Hot Topics” for the most popular conversations. And you can subscribe to the categories and threads that interest you most. Lastly, we created a “Dev Teatime” section to focus on a more social side of the community. We hope to get to know more of you through this feature, so please check it out.
• Developer Blog – The new blog provides a place to learn about important API announcements, events, tips and how-tos, case studies on great apps, product insights, and more. We’ll be featuring content from a variety of different teams here at Twitter, as well as highlighting great applications built on the platform. We’ll also be featuring guest blog posts from community members.
• Better Documentation – The docs have better structure and searchability and should feel more intuitive. They are easier to update, so you’ll know you are always reading the most up to date information when you’re looking for what you need.
• Improved Apps Management – The new app manager has a streamlined design that provides more comprehensive information for your app.
• Enhanced Search – Powered by Apache Solr, searching the new dev.twitter.com also got a boost. We have a unified search engine with filters and expect results to be more relevant. Also, we can search the archive from our Groups mailing list.

Most importantly, this is just a starting point and we really want to hear from everyone. We will continue to add new features based on what we need and what we learn. The site will be an ongoing effort and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the Feedback section of our new Discussions area. We hope everyone enjoys the new site and look forward to making this the best developer site it can be.

I had a look at the new forum and posted in it, and Twitter is definitely trying to get involved.  Ryan Sarver and the gang have already done some direct interaction with the development community.

There’s also already a fair amount of spam littering the threads, but that’s to be somewhat expected. As much as I’d like to read about “L’il Kim” when I’m searching for threads on API policy…

Here’s hoping that the Twitter team stays involved in this new community beyond the launch week, and that this truly is an olive branch to devs who have felt disconcerted, or even completely exasperated with the changing ecosystem. It seems like a good start.