# I am the Watcher. I am your guide through this vast new twtiverse.
#
# Usage:
# https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/users View list of users and latest twt date.
# https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt View all twts.
# https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/mentions?uri=:uri View all mentions for uri.
# https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/conv/:hash View all twts for a conversation subject.
#
# Options:
# uri Filter to show a specific users twts.
# offset Start index for quey.
# limit Count of items to return (going back in time).
#
# twt range = 1 6
# self = https://watcher.sour.is/conv/gyneajq
> Twtxt was made for nerds, by nerds.
I'd like to change that. It's by nerds/hackers, for nerds/hackers and friends of these. It doesn't have to be hacky all the time, as you don't need to be a nerd to have a blog.
But, for that to happen, someone has to build the tools to improve UX.
> by design there really is no way to easily discovers others
Yeah, I agree, and although there are directories of email addresses, usually you don't want that, unless you are a 'public figure'.
I couldn't say that a microblogging is a "social network" by default, as a blog is not either. At the same time, people would expect to find new people and conversations, as you'd do in a forum.
I think of two features on top of the current spec:
- Clients showing a few posts of what your following are watching but you don't, so perhaps you find something interesting to follow next. Or that feature of "Your 'followings' are following these accounts/people". (Hard to explain in english, but I hope you get the idea)
- Sharing your .txt into some directory, saying "Hey, I have this twtxt URL, I want to be discovered". I'm thinking of something like the Federated tab on Mastodon.
somehow I forgot that existed.
Perhaps it was its mention of being a demo implementation here:
https://twtxt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/registry.html#registry
So I though it wasn't really active.
Anyway, I think that's a good idea.
Is there something similar available on Yarn? Sorry for for asking if that was mentioned recently.
I think that the clients may help you to submit your URL to these directories, and also to get a view of the twts in them.
thanks for sharing @xuu!
Checking for example https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt or https://registry.twtxt.org/api/plain/tweets, I don't know whether this syntax is being used by clients or by people. Is it integrated on Yarn in any way? Genuinely asking to know more about it.
If I might throw a quick thought to those working on the registries, it would be nice to have an endpoint with a valid twtxt output (perhaps cached or dumped to a static file) which a client could point to, helping to discover it's content in a way which is compatible with the twtxt spec.
Taking the first twt I found in https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt as an example:
reddit_world_news https://feeds.twtxt.net/Reddit_World_News/twtxt.txt 2025-03-28T00:29:25Z **China bans US logs. 3 billion dollar[...])
it would be something like
TIME <@NICK URL> TWT
2025-03-28T00:29:25Z <@reddit_world_news https://feeds.twtxt.net/Reddit_World_News/twtxt.txt> **China bans US logs. 3 billion dollar[...])
That way you could watch the latest twts with your client, something similar to what we find on Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/public/local
Some support from the clients to separate these 'discovery' content, from your following timeline might be required. 🤔
Registry format is its own thing. It takes the regular feed and appends nick \t uri \t to it. Its something that existed before yarn got big. There is still a bit of work but I will put together a ui for it to make it easier to view and navigate.