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A couple of weeks into Twitter’s #280characters experiment, a few thoughts. I’m still on 140 chars so this has to be a classic thread. (1/8)
Idea some languages need more characters than others (@jack’s justification for 280) is true. But that doesn’t justify doubling to 280 (2/8)
but more up to something like 190 chars for German. No language, translated, is double the length of English. (3/8)
Meanwhile in English 280 char tweets are too dense to scan, and are harder, slower to read than 2 x 140 char tweets. (4/8)
The Twitter thread has emerged as the way to tell longer stories on Twitter. One 140 char tweet is enough for quick comment. (5/8)
Twitter’s roll out of 280 has been bewildering, typical of the firm. I’ve no idea how was chosen who gets it & not, who gets it next. (6/8)
Also this whole thing shows Twitter doesn’t know its strength. The constraint of 140, the norm it created, the conciseness, is vital. (7/8)
Twitter ought to conclude - after this 280 char experiment - that this doesn’t work, and ditch it. Back to 140 for all! (8/8)
