Introducing “Twitter Join Date”
I built a fun little app called Twitter Join Date. Twitter Join Date prompts one to enter a user’s Twitter handle, and returns the date of when that user joined Twitter, their first Tweet, and what The New York Times headlines were on that date. I had fun time building this app, and would like to share how it came to be.
Background
A few years ago, I discovered a small web app called whendidyoujointwitter.com (sadly, it no longer works). The premise of this app was very simple. You’d enter a user’s Twitter handle, and the app would return the date of when that person joined Twitter. These were the days before Twitter began including this information on one’s profile page, so it was a pretty novel feature. However, one day I visited the site and it no longer worked. I was curious as to why this was, so I tweeted to the app’s creator:
Later that day I received a reply.
Ah well, I thought and I didn’t think much of it.
Fast Forward to 2014
In September 2014, I graduated from The Flatiron School and was looking for projects to build. I remembered whendidyoujointwitter.com and decided to create a similar app. However… life happens, and although I began the initial parts of the project, I ultimately shelved it.
Yet randomly, in December 2015…
I remembered that I had built a skeletal version of this project. Having had more experience under my belt as a software developer, I figured this was something I could quickly wrap up… so that’s exactly what I decided to do. I’m pleased to announce that twitterjoindate.com is now live!
The Homepage
Upon going to twitterjoindate.com, the user is greeted by a login page. This page mainly serves as a place holder- the show really starts upon entering a user’s Twitter handle.
The Main Page
The main page is the central part of the app. This page displays the user’s Twitter name, their join date, the user ID they were assigned when they joined Twitter, their first tweet, and that date’s New York Times headlines. After searching for an initial user, the upper righthand corner is where one can search for other Twitter handles (Warning: it’s slightly addictive…).
… and finally, a (Phishy) Easter Egg :)
When you try to go to a user who doesn’t exist, you’re greeted with this:
The code for Twitter Join Date can be found on GitHub. Hope you try it out and enjoy!
