Twitter on WeatherCat problem. Please check yours for me

[Steve]

I noticed this morning that the last time WeatherCat sent one of my every two hour posts was 02:00 Sunday morning. Nothing since, when it should have sent 18 more. However, it did send my midnight update Sunday night! Weird.

I'm nowhere near the maximum characters, and using the same string I've used for years. So something else is wrong. All the log shows is:

Code: [Select]

Twitter: Error whilst sending tweet
At midnight last night the log shows:

Code: [Select]

Twitter: Daily summary for Avon at midnight:
High: 84 at 3:12 PM
Low: 60 at 4:46 AM
Average: 72
Highest wind speed: 6 at 5:09 PM
Precipitation: 0.00

And that went through, but 27 seconds later, the midnight bi-hourly post failed, just like every attempt. I restarted the iMac, but nothing changed.


Those of you who have WeatherCat send to Twitter, please check your Twitter feed to see if they actually went though. Or, check the status in WeatherCat's Twitter tool.

Let me know what you find. Maybe Twitter changed something.
Thanks!

[EDIT] As an experiment, I removed my "avon-weather.com" link it the bi-hourly tweet, as it is *not* in the daily summary. I'll see what happens at 4PM...

[Steve]

Update: Removing the web link allowed the post to go through at 4PM. I just added the link back in to see if it fails at 6PM. Another update to follow...

[elagache]

Dear Steve and WeatherCatters who twit, . . . . .

I noticed this morning that the last time WeatherCat sent one of my every two hour posts was 02:00 Sunday morning. Nothing since, when it should have sent 18 more. However, it did send my midnight update Sunday night! Weird.

I just checked my output.  It hasn't been changed in many years, and is working as it always has.

[EDIT] As an experiment, I removed my "avon-weather.com" link it the bi-hourly tweet, as it is *not* in the daily summary. I'll see what happens at 4PM...

Update: Removing the web link allowed the post to go through at 4PM. I just added the link back in to see if it fails at 6PM. Another update to follow...

I only have weather data text in mine, so it could be something to do with that.  Perhaps there is an issue with the Twitter server software.  Certainly, their top engineers have the holiday weekend off.

Keep up updated.

Edouard

[Steve]

I forgot to check until just now (9:45PM) indeed, it is not working again. So a link in the Twitter post causes an error somewhere. Either a change in Twitter’s policy or something broken in their server. I’ll remove it and try again in a few days.

Thanks!

[Blicj11]

My feed is working properly, but, like Edouard, I only have weather data in the tweet, so I'm not tweeting a link.

[Steve]

I tried again yesterday, with the same results. So something changed at Twitter's end not allowing the link that's been there since Stu added the tool. However, I see a lot of Twitter posts with links in them. Weird.

[elagache]

Dear Steve and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I tried again yesterday, with the same results. So something changed at Twitter's end not allowing the link that's been there since Stu added the tool. However, I see a lot of Twitter posts with links in them. Weird.

As you say - quite weird.  It is unlikely to make any difference but could you make a facsimile of the data that WeatherCat was generating, add the link that is causing the problem, and try posting that using the Twitter-supplied Mac client?  The only thing I can think of is perhaps there is some sort of character encoding issue that you might spot by changing posting tool.

If you go through the trouble, let us know what you discover.

Edouard

[Steve]

As you say - quite weird.  It is unlikely to make any difference but could you make a facsimile of the data that WeatherCat was generating, add the link that is causing the problem, and try posting that using the Twitter-supplied Mac client?  The only thing I can think of is perhaps there is some sort of character encoding issue that you might spot by changing posting tool.

Great idea, Edouard!

I copied the 6 PM Twitter post and, having made appropriate changes, sent it out using Tweetbot, my only Twitter application. That worked fine. Then I added avon-weather.com and it didn't work. Then I tried it with http://www.avon-weather.com, which also failed to send. I removed the link and it worked.

So, that sounds to me like something new at Twitter's end. I haven't changed any settings on my iMac, and this first occurred overnight after working for years.

[EDIT] I found this: Apparently I'm a scammer...

[Steve]

I submitted a ticket, and got this reply. Sounds like I won't be posting links any more...

Hello,
 
Thanks for your report.
 
In order to make Twitter more secure, we have automations in place that could impact your ability to Tweet certain links. If you’re having issues Tweeting a link, our team will review your request and take appropriate action on the reported URL. You can find more information on this topic in this help center article: https://support.twitter.com/articles/90491

Though we cannot respond to individual reports, the information provided helps us make Twitter better for everyone.
 
Thanks,
 
Twitter Support

[Blicj11]

I assume as a last resort you completed their online form requesting they look at your website to see if they have mis-categorized it.

https://help.twitter.com/en/forms/authenticity/spam

It likely won't be looked at for years now that they will be locked in lawsuits with Elon Musk for the next lustrum, but it's worth a shot.

[Blicj11]

Just another random thought (my best thoughts are often random): Could Twitter be blocking your link because because you haven't implemented https on your site? I know there is no reason for a weather site such as those most of us maintain to go to the trouble and expense of using the https protocol, but I switched over to it several years ago when browsers starting warning people they were visiting an unsecured site.