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Twitter Testing Expanding Character Limit

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Sep 27, 2017.

  1. Melody Bot Sep 27, 2017
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Twitter is testing giving users 280 characters in tweets:


    We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).
    ​

    I’m not a fan of this implementation. Quick thoughts:


    • The rampant abuse and harassment on Twitter is disgusting and remains unfixed. I have a small to medium following on Twitter and when something I tweet goes outside my little music community network, I can’t keep up with the shit that comes into my replies. And what I see is nothing compared to the hate speech thrown at other people on this platform on a daily basis. This should be the number one priority to fix; however, since Twitter needs their “active user” numbers to keep going up for Wall Street, I doubt it’ll ever be.1


    • An edit button for tweets seems like a clear need and a relatively easy add. Give a few minutes to edit right after posting and then include a history/version of edits after that so someone can’t edit a post later and change the entire meaning after it’s been quoted/embedded places.


    • Extra text should be added to a post in the same way a photo or video or link is added. Make it additional to the main tweet, easy to access/expand, and in plain text. This can cut down on tweetstorms and massive threads and still allow people to respond/get longer thoughts out. I’m not opposed to more characters in a tweet, I just don’t like this implementation.

    1. And they’ll never ban Trump, no matter how many threats he makes. He’ll be tweeting nuclear Armageddon and the last one posting.↩

    Expand - View Original
     
  2. Mr. Serotonin Sep 27, 2017
    Mr. Serotonin

    I'm still staring down the sun Prestigious

    All of your quick thoughts aka fixes are why I don't like twitter. They really need to correct that stuff, haha.
     
  3. crunchprank Sep 27, 2017
    crunchprank

    crunchprank.net Prestigious

    My main concern is your first talking point, and the fact that they're not doing everything they can to address it. Everyone knows how bad Twitter has become, and unfortunately if they continue to not prioritize the handling of harassment then it's only going to get worse (and yes, believe it or not, it can get worse). So focusing on things such as the length of a tweet (or honestly how many bad things you can say about a person or group of people in a single tweet) should take a backseat for now.

    I'm not sure how much I'd like to see an edit button implemented though. I know I'm in the minority, but I like how it is currently where your only option is deleting a tweet (although I'd personally like to see that done away with). However if it provided something similar to an "edit history" where you could see what was changed and when, then I'd be all for it.
     
  4. Saephon Sep 27, 2017
    Saephon

    Regular

    Great, now Trump can spew twice as much bullshit in one tweet. Shoot me.
     
    parkerxcore and smowashere like this.
  5. Remove
  6. GageStillAlive Sep 27, 2017
    GageStillAlive

    Still Alive Supply Co. Supporter

    Hate it. I don't want more characters or an edit button.
     
  7. supernovagirl Sep 27, 2017
    supernovagirl

    Poetic and noble land mermaid

    I agree with your points hand over fist.
     
  8. KyleK Sep 27, 2017
    KyleK

    Let's get these people moving faster! Supporter

    I imagine they've tried to cover for themselves before saying the scale of Twitter makes it difficult for them to moderate/enforce rules regarding abuse/harassment/hate speech - and as far as I'm concerned, if you can't responsibility operate a platform, then it shouldn't be available. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disagree with me, but like the cliche goes "with great power comes great responsibility", and if the very nature of the platform means it can't be managed properly (although I know they could do more if they really cared about it), then it's a foundational problem.
     
    supernovagirl likes this.
  9. sophos34 Sep 27, 2017
    sophos34

    Prestigious Supporter

    Until twitter does something about the platform nazis have on their site I'm just gonna keep saying fuck twitter
     
    carlosonthedrums likes this.
  10. bmir14 Sep 28, 2017
    bmir14

    Trusted Supporter

    I like Twitter as-is, but i also have a small following/don't see the hate speech.
     
    Raku likes this.
  11. Why Bother? Sep 28, 2017
    Why Bother?

    Quasi-Critic Supporter

    Man, it's like Twitter can't fix its identity crisis.

    This goes against everything a tweet was supposed to mean and represent. Brevity and substance.

    There's a million ways Twitter can be revamped and improved. This isn't one.
     
    Fucking Dustin and SuNDaYSTaR like this.
  12. KyleK Sep 28, 2017
    KyleK

    Let's get these people moving faster! Supporter

    I agree with your first and last points, but you might be giving them a bit too much credit to say that tweets were always meant to be substantive.
     
    Why Bother? likes this.
  13. Why Bother? Sep 28, 2017
    Why Bother?

    Quasi-Critic Supporter

    I mean, there are many instances in which tweets can really showcase somebody's genius.

    When you're able to encapsulate something meaningful in 140 characters, it's the definition of a tweet, that motivates you to do that.
     
    Fucking Dustin likes this.
  14. Remove
  15. Raku Sep 28, 2017
    Raku

    Regular

    This is cool that they're finally doing this (after years of this being a rumor).

    Now all we need is an edit button, and I'm all good =)
     
  16. Malatesta Sep 29, 2017
    Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    twitter won't deal with nazis because their userbase is too heavily composed of nazis