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Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

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Re: Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

#301

I must be the only one who thinks this is a good idea (not the 10,000-char limit in specific, but something much higher than 140-char). Some of the most interesting ideas I've seen on Twitter were in tweetstorms, which is a pretty nasty and ugly hack itself. Proponents of the 140-char limit usually cite some notion of terseness and thought-density, but I see more half-formed ideas and deliberate grammar/spelling mang…

> I also have a pet theory that Twitter's problems with epic shitstorms/political flamewars stems from the fact that you have people arguing politics/economics/important things with each other in 140 chars or less I'm pretty sure those arguments and "shit-storms" are occurring everywhere there is written text on the internet, regardless of character limitations.

Sure, though I feel like it's worse on Twitter than in most places for a few reasons: it's really easy to retweet and disseminate someone's post, and the public nature of accounts/tweets makes it very easy to dogpile.

On Facebook you might get some flak from your uncle, on a forum you might get into a tussle with another poster, but there are natural limits to the severity and the scale. On Twitter many of these limits are stripped away - it's very easy, and very common, to retweet someone "look at this fucking idiot" and invite your circles to pile on, many of whom will have never heard of the offender before.

This is also how harassment and abuse on Twitter is worse than other platforms - on Facebook you might get into a flamewar with your uncle and face awkward family dinners for a while, but on Twitter a dogpile is millions of users large, and you're statistically guaranteed to get a few people with legitimate screws loose in that bunch who might actually SWAT you or stalk you or otherwise take things way, way too far.

Add this to the fact that Twitter's length limits discourage nuance and encourage soundbites and you get IMO the worst intersection of soundbite culture, outrage culture, and massive built-in virality.

Re: Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

#302
post #194
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But imposing those extra costs to being verbose encourages people to be concise, unless they REALLY need the extra words. Make the words cheap, and twitter will turn into just another prolix platform in a sea of noise.

Not if there are tools that abstract away all the difficulty. Type 10K chars into a box; hit post; magically the first 140 show up as a text and the rest as an image.

No, you've got my point backwards:

Absent external effects, it's easier to write a long message than write concisely.

Twitter in its current form imposes an artificial cost on long messages, which encourages you to do the extra work to write something short.

Remove that cost, and you'll get more lazy, long messages.

That's my theory, anyway.

Re: Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

#303
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

My response in 136 characters: That thought is pseudo-profound, not complex. In this context, "sound" is human-audible air vibration. One waving hand doesn't make any.

If nothing else, I inspired one. Well said! I appreciate that response.

Re: Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. And editing is the hardest (but most important) part of writing.

Hence the old gag: Sorry this letter is so long, I didn't have much time.

Blaise Pascal, in 1657: "I have made this [letter] longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter."

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/

Re: Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to go out on what might be something of a limb and suggest that perhaps Twitter is not the place for meaningful discussions, or even, discussion in general. Obviously there's no right or wrong way to use Twitter, but I generally don't follow people who do more than post inane status updates like "i love tacos lol" or links to mildly interesting news articles. For me at least, that's all I want Twitter to be…

I totally agree with you. I actually think that's what Twitter was originally intended for. But I can't help but think about how a huge portion of Twitter has just devolved into a community of angry, underinformed, unqualified pseudo-activists releasing their rage into the abyss. It's amazing how a completely absurd and incorrect statement can be liked and retweeted thousands of times just because it makes for a good…

> "Anywhere else, that behavior would be shut down quick."

Based on what I hear come out of the mouths of politicians, that's emphatically not true.

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