By now, nearly everybody is on Twitter, the microblogging platform where users share tweets containing a maximum of 140 characters. Yesterday, Twitter users were set into somewhat of a panic when CEO Jack Dorsey (@Jack) announced that the site was likely going to raise the character limit of a tweet to 10,000, effectively turning a microblogging platform into a regular ol' blog.
— Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
Cue the outrage:
God please no. Don't expand Twitter to 10,000 characters. There are enough opinions in 140. Don't give them an essay format
— Catholic Girl Probs (@Catholicgrlprob) January 6, 2016
I agree, Tumblr is great! RT @jack: pic.twitter.com/I77TaNmB0J
— laura olin (@lauraolin) January 5, 2016In which Twitter becomes Live Journal. https://t.co/tJDTg9XyR0
— Joe Meloni (@JoeMeloni) January 5, 2016
The attraction of the 140 character limit is that it forces brevity on all users. A #Twitter10k defeats the purpose and the appeal.
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) January 6, 2016Twitter doesnt need a 10,000 character limit, Twitter needs an EDIT button #Twitter10k
— FashionweekNYC (@FashionweekNYC) January 6, 2016When you're arguing with someone on twitter and you have 10000 characters #Twitter10k
pic.twitter.com/hV4OdRwCWE
— S. (@lmaosimon) January 6, 2016
As a longtime user of Twitter, I am disappointed by the proposed changes. I like the current format the way it is, and I don't have the time nor patience to read a tweet that's 10,000 characters. I like how Twitter forces a user to get to the point, and doesn't permit rambling. While Twitter has reportedly been struggling for a while, I don't think turning the platform into an entirely different version of itself is going to help.
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