Dear Mr Twitter,
If you prevent people from accessing your social networking facility via third-party clients (such as Tweetie, Tweetdeck, Dabr, etc) I will simply stop using you. There’s evidence around various websites and social networks today to suggest that many thousands of other people will do the same.
I’m sure a minority of people will stick with you, either because they’re willing to put up with your clumsy, piss-poor web interface, or because they’re (incomprehensibly) already using it as their main conduit, and won’t notice the change. But you’ll be another Myspace by that point. An irrelevant corporate walled garden.
The point is, social networking is not about the tools. Stating the screamingly bloody obvious, it’s about the social network. That’s why people (myself included) are setting up accounts on other microblogging networks, just in case, y’know. We have no loyalty to you, or any other platform. We’re the content; you’re just the plumbing.