Greg Tracy

I build stuff all the time. Sometimes it's just for me but most of the time, if I think the work I've done would be useful to others I open it up and share with others. For free. And a few of these projects have been very well received.

One such project I've shared is Ringerous. A simple tool that lets you blog to your Posterous site via a telephone call. It was the very first Twilio app I ever did after I discovered that lovely API. I use Ringerous on my own site and my family uses it on a private site. Very few people - 26 to be exact - have signed up to use it. It was never a company or marketed and it has its own share of flaws. Most notably those related to authentication in the Posterous API.

But it's there for others to enjoy. Like all the other projects I've shared, I try really hard to support it when I get questions. I've even added some features for a couple of users. The support part is really the most fun because I usually learn a lot from those interactions. Who doesn't want to make a product that delights people?

Then I got a trifecta of emails from a disgruntled person last week. I'm doing the only thing I know how to do. I'm sharing them. Because as much as people get pissed about poor customer service from AT&T, the TSA or the local cable company, there is such a thing as a poor customer. I won't say the world doesn't need them, but I will say that I don't need them. 

Next time you want to "provide feedback", here's a playbook for doing it badly...

Email #1 at 4:53pm : User is clearly running into a sub-optimal implementation (on my part) for discovering the posterous site, but also fails to read the instructions on the site)...

Ringerous is SHIT.
  I've tried *every way I know* to get it to work with my posterous, and it fails EVERY TIME.

   "Oops..configuration problems" can basically suck it.

Email #2 at 5:02pm : User must have a bad monitor or a funky browser theme because I can't figure out how "background-color: white;" turns into pink. I want to know. Sort of. But I can't get over "is SHIT" and "suck it" in the first email to want to dig in.

1. change the colors.  tiny grey writing on that godawful pink(????) background is *impossible* to read under even the best of circumstances, so putting your "helpful" examples of what to enter into the fields in a way that people can't actually read is.....sub-optimal, at best.

  2. "oops...configuration problems" has *got* to be the shittiest, *least* informative error-message I've ever seen in my life.  How about maybe having the error message list what was *wrong* with what I entered, instead of making me end up with a photosensitive MIGRAINE from straining to read the bloodydamn, invisible grey-on-pink print, hmmmm?

  3. Better yet, how about making whatever setup you have over on *your* side be able to deal with the posterous host-name OR your posterous site-address?  That would even eliminate the need for the godawful tiny, unreadable GREY PRINT that I mentioned earlier.

   Three words: BAD INTERFACE DESIGN.

Email #3 at 5:16pm :  Apparently not content with the first two assaults, he came back with more... Snarky? I think he rounded that corner in line one of the first email. I'm mildly amused that I might have caused a migraine given the flogging I've taken at this point, but know deep down that migraines are likely a part of his daily life independent of Ringerous.

Not to sound snarky here, but:

      1. Ringerous (or something like it) *could* very very useful for the blind or visually-impaired in particular.  Unfortunately, because you decided to use really tiny fonts, and a REALLY bad color-choice (gray on pink?  Seriously????)  I now have a photosensitive migraine from straining to look at your godawful mess.

    Please study up on how to make this *more* readable for the folks who would actually benefit most from it, okay?   Between that, and the *totally cryptically unusable* error-messages, I wouldn't be surprised if a proportion of your potential users just wander away in disgust after trying -- vainly -- to get somewhere with the thing.

   Seriously: change the pallete and add some actual helpfulness to the error-messages, or at least make the "example" lettering bigger, and NOT grey on pink.) :(

    Haven't actually tried to phone in yet, but given your web-based signup interface, I have my doubts.  (Plus, I'm waiting for the damn migraine to go away, thanks to you!!!!) :(

To kill the suspense... yes, he did phone in and successfully posted to his blog. Unfortunetly, there were no fireworks in that post. That makes sense, it was his blog after all. He's saves his best stuff for his service providers. That gave me an idea. I should really setup a Ringerous account for Ringerous. That way people could provide feedback directly over the phone. Ahhh... a project for another time.

My response was short and simple. 

I have very little motivation to help you. Your tone is laughable. There are a few nuggets in there that I can take away from this, but I'd actually prefer that you didn't use the service.

It's worth pointing out that there is no pink on that page. So you might need to check your monitor.

Your loyal free service provider

I've been building a number of different applications with the Posterous API over the last few months. I've written about most of these experiences here before.

I've used the reading API primarily within Sharendipity, but have also used the posting API with the Ringerous application that lets you post to your Posterous by phone.

The API is very easy to use and works as advertised. And while the simplicity still offers plenty of access to the Posterous platform, I think there are some really wonderful opportunities if the API continues to evolve and adds functionality.

Posterous is proving to be the Uber-Twitter platform, and one of the ways to accelerate the growth and diverse uses is through advanced applications that interface with Posterous content in new ways.

Based on my experience with the API, here's what I'd like to see be improved:

OAuth support for user authentication

This is by the far the most important feature and is really a core requirement for any application using the posting API.

One of the big problems when I built Ringerous was that it required every user of the service to give me their password. I have to post on their behalf on the backend so there is no way to prompt for a password while the user is using the app. Giving up a password is a tall order.

OAuth makes this problem go away.

A search API

Content is king. But only if you can find it. Posterous is a constant stream of great new and timely posts. For applications that are not revolving around a single user, a search API is needed.

A public timeline feed

I'd like to see Posterous add an "explore" call that is equivalent to http://posterous.com/explore/ which is available via the web today.

This page is a fun way to explore the diverse body of content being shared every minute by the Posterous community.

A user subscription feed

Similar to the explore feed, it would be nice to provide an API call for the user subscription feed so it would be possible to present a user's Posterous network of blogs.

Enable granular control for autopost

Currently, the autopost feature is either on or off when posting through the API. Just like email, there are use cases where the user may want more control over the services being updated. It would be nice to provide this feature in the posting API.

Hook up Posterous notification emails

This is likely an easy one. For whatever reason, the email notification system for subscribers is not hooked up for posts that come via the API. This significantly limits the communication benefits of Posterous for group sites.

Provide access to user profile data

The API is missing a user profile call. Providing access to details about the user such as description, thumbnail, and favorites adds a personal touch, a sense of community, and a method for exploring when third-party applications need to provide content navigation tools.

The current API is a great start, but it is clearly geared toward mechanical tasks. It's no mystery that so many of the existing API implementations are utility tools for porting blog content from other vendors.

But there are great opportunities for Posterous and its developer community to add new functionality and experiences to the platform.

(download)

Click here to download:

Posterous_API_A_wish_list_tagp.zip (116 KB)

If you've ever wanted to display a photo slideshow of your Posterous media inside your Facebook feed, here's your chance.

Sharendipity recently released support for an embedded play mode for Facebook feeds. That means you can play interactive content - like a slideshow or game - directly from the feed. You no longer need to link out to a different page. You can read the full story on the Sharendipity blog.

Here's how I did it...

1. Create the slideshow app
Using one of the easy wizards, you can customize existing Posterous apps and make them your own. There are a couple to choose from, but in this example, I used the simple slideshow template that transitions through all photo media in a particular Posterous.

2. Share your slideshow from the app page
You can share your new application in one of two ways. You can either use the built-in Facebook share functionality that can be accessed by clicking on the Facebook icon on the app's homepage. Or you can copy the app's URL and use Facebook's post feature to post it by hand.

3. Post it to your Facebook feed
If you choose the "post" option by copying the app's URL, simply paste it into the text box on your Facebook news feed or profile wall. Facebook will automatically recognize it and insert the applications icon.

4. Feed preview mode
When the story appears on your wall or your friends' news feed, it will look just like a video post. The icon will have a blue play button to get it started.

5. Feed viewing mode
As is the case with videos, when you or a friend play the app, it will auto-expand in place and the slideshow (or game) will start!

Go get started...

Filed under  //   posterous   sharendipity  

This implementation of the Posterous API uses the new Google Translate Text-to-Speech capability to announce the photos being shown. Good fun!

Want your own? Use this wizard to customize your Posterous slideshow.

UPDATE: There appears to be a problem with the audio for Mac users. Feel free to comment on your experience and configuration below if you're a Mac user. It will help Sharendipity track the problem down. Thanks!

UPDATE: The audio will work for Firefox users regardless of OS.

To celebrate being named one of the Best New Mashups over at Programmable Web this week, I'm going to list the top five use cases for Ringerous.

Family blogging

Now my kids are calling in to the blog from their sporting events and from the backyard to announcement their latest and greatest personal achievements. All in their own voices.

Mobile blogging (for the rest of us)

Podcasting in the classroom

Combine this with the drop-dead simple podcasting you can do with iTunes, and you get a great distribution model for the students and teachers as well.

Bring emotion to your posts

Public voicemail

How are you using Ringerous?

http://www.ringerous.com

What I'd really like to do (some day) with the Posterous API is build a Brizzlyesque client for surfing Posterous blogs. But given the complete lack of free time in my life, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

But... I can whip out applications using the API inside of Sharendipity with remarkable ease. I've shown this before with games, slideshows, and other general goodness.

This time I created a widget that lets you take your entire Posterous anywhere. This widget has a nice vertical scroll effect to navigate all of your posts. Each post can be seen in its entirety if you click on the entry's panel.

Want your own? Use the customizer and configure your own Posterous hostname. Then use the embed code to insert your Posterous content anywhere!
 

 
Thanks to Dale for creating the Sharendipity framework for this widget.

Building on top of the Posterous API, I created a simple memory game that uses the image media in my Posterous posts.

 Want your own? Go here and set your Posterous hostname, and embed your game anywhere.

As I mentioned earlier, it's pretty easy to access the Posterous API from within Sharendipity. Not only can you take advantage of the Posterous wizard to build your own embeddable widget that streams your photos, but you can also build your own Posterous applications from scratch!

I've published the core components used in the original slideshow widget which means you can operate with a new layer of abstraction that removes the need to understand how their API operates under the hood. Just search the explorer for "posterous" and you'll find the following components that can be reused by simply dragging them into your application.

• Posterous Service - blog reader is the primary web service component that interfaces with the reading API. This service has one method, getPosts(), which will return an array of blog posts. When you initially use the service, you will be prompted to identify the Posterous you'd like to read. This value - along with the number of posts to read - can be configured programatically as well.

• Posterous Blog Post is a data structure that encapsulates the post elements returned by the Posterous API. This includes the title, description, post date, an array of media elements, etc.

• Posterous media is a data structure that encapsulates the media elements returned by the Posterous API. Currently, this data structure only supports the media of type "image".

Currently, these three components all work together. The getPosts() method of the Posterous Service - blog reader service will return an array of Posterous Blog Post objects and each of these may contain an array of Posterous media objects.

I'm hoping to add support for video and sound elements as well, but right now there are some limitation within Sharendipity for how these are played. Send me your thoughts and let me know how you'd like to access your Posterous outside of their website.

I'm not sure if i'm more jealous of their success or the simplicity of their product.

 Regardless, posterous kicks ass.

I love APIs. And I have a particular affinity for using APIs within Sharendipity applications. Garry, Sachin, and the fine team here at Posterous have a great API for posting and reading from your Posterous.
 
I took advantage of the reading API by creating an embeddable widget that streams my Posterous photos.

Would you like to create your own embeddable Posterous widget? You can use this Sharendipity wizard to personalize the stream for your own Posterous and take your Posterous media anywhere on the web!