why can't i follow Twitter friends from Mastodon?
This is a legit question.
If a major stumbling block for people joining Mastodon-based instances is that their friends aren't here, then why do we not yet have a way for folks to connect their Twitter accounts to fetch statuses from the folks they're following?
There's a lot of API hell, yes. But, we're halfway there with the crossposters (which provide a valuable service), so why not go further?
(Also this is not necessarily a GOOD idea, and the answer may very well be "because Twitter forbids it and it'll be API whack-a-mole once they figure out what's happening", but it's a question I've been wondering for over a year now.)
@rey other folks seem to have the technical / legal hurdles down. I'll also point out that this doesn't give a way to reply to posts on Twitter in a way that users there can see.
@memnus @rey I don't really see an insurmountable obstacle—a backend that can pull in tweets can also find @username@twitter.com in posts and route that stuff appropriately.
I'm sure it's complex though, don't mean to minimize it—it's just… I wouldn't sign up for it. 😓