Concerning a Morning Twitter Kerfuffle Involving NextBus and MuniTime

Last night, we spotted a tweet that read thusly:

@NextMuni iPhone app shut down by Muni today. Thanks for taking away the only decent transit app for SF, Muni. Genius, as usual.

We retweeted, adding a “wha?” before the RT text.

Oh boy did we wake up to a storm this morning. I’ll spare the details, but a barrage of tweets came our way, saying this and that about what iPhone apps were working, what was taken down, and who was responsible. Soon enough, the message distilled itself a little, and most fingers pointed toward NextBus.com. So I got on the ol’ email machine and touched base with the kind gents over there at NextBus.com, and here’s what they had to say:

NextBus Inc did not ask MuniTime.com to take down their website. A separate company claiming ownership rights over the data did. We have asked the developer of MuniTime.com to clarify this situation on their website and they agreed to do so ASAP.

Still not sure who or what asked MuniTime to take down their service. When/if we get word, we’ll pass it along to you.

But the lesson here (which is one we could stand to learn from, to be sure) is: Watch what you tweet.

Good day.