News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by chipgap98 on Monday July 13, 2015 @03:14PM (#9880337)
There is a list[1] of things you can't start tweets with

[1] - https://support.twitter.com/articles/14020

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by Dylan16807 on Monday July 13, 2015 @04:02PM (#9880662)
The fact that "D Name" starts a direct message doesn't explain why "D. Something" gives an error, except for shoddy coding.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by burke on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:08PM (#9881104)
It's probably so that people don't accidentally publish something they intended to DM by tapping the spacebar twice after the command. It'd still imagine it should be allowed from a full keyboard, at least.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by darklajid on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:31PM (#9881262)
Nice idea, but 'internal server error' (per the linked tweet, didn't try it) isn't exactly a good reaction. IF someone thought that this might make sense, the result should not/would not be a 500..
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by glass_of_water on Monday July 13, 2015 @09:39PM (#9882339)
It could be that an internal service is returning an error, which the externally facing server is not handling properly.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by logicallee on Monday July 13, 2015 @08:10PM (#9882031)
yes, absolutely! It has to be this. Plus, a tiny little period is really hard to miss on mobile (where the shortcut you mention applies). it's almost justified.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by personjerry on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:12PM (#9881128)
That's an interesting idea but very speculative.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by Dylan16807 on Monday July 13, 2015 @06:45PM (#9881667)
Allowing multiple spaces makes sense, I suppose, but why support a dot stuck there? Seems like an oversight.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by Maome on Monday July 13, 2015 @06:51PM (#9881688)
On many mobile keyboards double space turns into '. ' as a quick way to begin a new sentence.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by msftie on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @03:20AM (#9883284)
"d. something" is not the only offender. I suspect it's a badly written parser. "m. anything" also breaks. And for fun, without the following word ("something"), the tweet just vanishes with no error at all.

I tried all of the non-space non-alphanumeric characters on my keyboard. Some worked, most caused an error.

d` d~ d$ d% d^ d& d( d) d- d+ d[ d] d{ d} d| d; d' d" d, d< d. d> d/ d?

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by hasenj on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:22PM (#9881208)
I typed 'WTF' and it got posted as a tweet, even though it's on that list:

> SUGGEST, SUG, S, or WTF - this command returns a list of Twitter users we think you might find interesting and would like to follow.

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by beobab on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @04:01AM (#9883419)
Ah, I see. "Who To Follow". Mental acronym disconnect there for a moment. :)
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by raverbashing on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @06:11AM (#9883832)
Nah, the other meaning of the acronym usually fits as well
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by JacobAldridge on Monday July 13, 2015 @08:33PM (#9882125)
Curious - via the web, an app, or SMS?

I got the impression those were SMS commands only, but it would be interesting to learn they'd shut down some of the functions but not all.

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by hasenj on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @01:32PM (#9886582)
Via the web - the same input box that would error out on "D. <any-word>"
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by justizin on Monday July 13, 2015 @03:40PM (#9880515)
It's not clear why the SMS codes would be restricted on the web, but good to know.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by ahmetmsft on Monday July 13, 2015 @03:41PM (#9880519)
Because they are still used on the web as well. I still use "D {handle} {message}" to DM people.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by Touche on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:06PM (#9881098)
Seems like a mistake waiting to happen.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by oaktowner on Monday July 13, 2015 @07:38PM (#9881870)
Anyone remember Anthony Weiner? His infamous tweet (that ended up with him resigning from Congress) was intended to be a direct message but he started it with @, not D, so it went (briefly) to his public timeline [1].

And it seems that, when you're a congressman, posting a dick pic even briefly is enough to attract some attention.

[1] http://www.nationaljournal.com/how-weiner-fell-into-the-twit...

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by dandelany on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @02:43AM (#9883209)
It's so ironic, the whole thing could have been avoided if he'd given her the D... (sorry)
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by lewiseason on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @06:44AM (#9883920)
You're not sorry.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by tehwebguy on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:31PM (#9881258)
Yep, it has already happened!

A few years back you could tweet FOLLOW USERNAME and that username would follow you

Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by taftster on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:47PM (#9881373)
Yes, but only in Soviet Russia.
Re:You cannot start a tweet with “D. Tusk” by taftster on Monday July 13, 2015 @05:52PM (#9881398)
For @chucknorris this feature has always existed.