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Vendor lock-in sucks

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My rant on not being happy with Twitters newsletter option lock-in

23 Jun, 2022 · 2 min read

I don’t often do rants, but this problem grinds my gears. We all know Twitter can be a fantastic place to receive and share knowledge.

Recently Twitter acquired Revue. A Dutch startup focused on making newsletters easy for Twitter users.

And don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty cool system. … That is, if you don’t already have a newsletter.

And that last part is where I got a bit annoyed. It happens a bit too often when new startups arrive, and they do one thing pretty good. You might want to give them one finger, but they all want your whole arm.

What’s so wrong about that?

I’ve worked hard to set up my mailing list with some form of automation, custom layouts, and subscribe flows from different places.

I don’t want to throw that away and move over to Revue, where I have to start with this stuff.

(And some things like custom layouts are not even possible at the moment)

Don’t use it then

This might be the Dutch person inside me, but why complain? Just don’t use Revue, then.

And yes, that’s what I’m doing now. However, I miss out on a unique way of getting newsletter subscribers.

If you are opt-in for Revue, you get a lot of cool new features on your Twitter profile that can enhance your existing newsletter.

Newsletter subscribe widget on Twitter

For example, the newsletter subscribe widget you see in the image above. This super cool element could help get new subscribers more easily.

So, what then?

First, I would have loved it if I could sync this widget with any other newsletter service.

That doesn’t sound too complicated, yet it seems to be.

A second-best could be us simply building this ourselves, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.

Follow along if you want to join me on this journey of syncing Revue with Sendy, my newsletter system.

I’m looking forward to hearing how you all feel about this vendor lock-in.

Thank you for reading, and let’s connect!

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