M.G. Siegler, with a great take on the Twitter API situation. I especially liked this bit:
What I think Twitter (and again, others) miss is that it’s not so much about the explicit influence, it’s far more implicit. And some of it is painfully obvious. It’s the fact that such users are often the most devoted, caring, and passionate ones. And sometimes, they’re at the forefront of what the rest of the user base will eventually feel because they’re so into the product. Other times they offer a power user perspective, which can be useful at times in showing how the product works (and doesn’t) in the ultimate “success state” of extreme usage. There are many other simple, subtle things that could be mentioned here.
It’s foolish to abandon users that contribute so much to the service.