Twitter says now we can all use 280 characters (cnet.com).
Perhaps, but I’d not know as last time I tried setting up an account it stropped profile progress until I gave it my mobile phone number, which I don’t care to give to strangers no matter how much they swear they will look after it and not bother me.
“After a trial run, Twitter is officially doubling its signature 140-character limit. Meanwhile, larger issues remain.”
Indeed, mentions desire not to give my mobile phone number again as that’s a damn silly privacy thing born of desire not to get nuisance calls and text so that when it rings or dings I know it’s something I need to hear or see.
But I hear there are more “issues” too, which article seems to limit to Russia convincing Deplorable Americans in conspiracy alt-dungarees to elect the maddest, most orange man on the continent, who’s really more interested in playing golf and… indeed, tweeting:
“‘It will be pretty interesting to see what President Trump does with it, for sure,’ [Kelley Heider, a crisis communications expert at SSPR, a public relations firm that often works with tech companies] said.”
Interesting perhaps, but surely only to those getting their news and take on the world from Orange Don’s cyptic “Covfefe” (nytimes.com, May 2017) or those in other countries pursing lips and going “Ohhhh” at that being the highest caliber disaffected Yanks had to settle for; actually though, it could be reasonable to suspect that even the most dedicated of his Trump base are angrily stabbing TL;DR even before they have got to 140 of his angry ALL-CAPS chars.
“For years, Twitter has toyed with the notion of changing its 140-character rule, which was established around the time the company was created in 2006. [During the 280-character trial] many users tweeted to the full 280-character limit because it was ‘new and novel,’ Twitter’s Rosen wrote in her blog post. Once the novelty wore off, she said, about 5 percent of tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and only 2 percent were over 190 characters.”
But Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen was happy to suggest despite that seemingly unfortunate statistic, the 7% of users using more than 140 chars “had more room to tweet” and “received more followers, retweets, likes and mentions”.
However, likely a character count of barely over 20 mostly made up of symbols, smilies and emoji in addition to “Sup?” made up a significant portion of the other 93% not offering fantastic Twitter link shortener obscured URL deals for e-cigs and cut price Goop-esque alternative medicine jade or Jade-like balls to shove up your choochie to get your health mojo back (Latest Picks 25th August 2017), assorted trolling of anyone getting more attention and threats to rape (glamour.com, Aug. 2016).
For many the novelty of Twitter in general wears off just as quick, the constant need to masochistically stick pins under fingernails to be “social” and stand up to trolls making many a Quitter.
Picture: Getty Images
The last words in article going to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, still pulling on freshly fecal beard along with whatever representatives from Google and Facebook were pulling on avoiding having to defend again from having helped the Ruskies help America elect the #MAGA business messiah of the alt-Oompa Loompas and giving new virtual homes for hate (recode.net).
“What matters now is we clearly show why this change is important, and to prove to you it’s better. Give us some time to learn and confirm (or challenge!) our ideas.”
Easier to focus attention on the character count of tweets than let it remain on those other more awkward issues it seems.
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