Everyone Goes Nuts Over Twitter Experimenting With 280-Character Tweets: ‘Please Don’t Do This’

This afternoon, Twitter announced that it was going to “try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming” when it came to tweets. Meaning, of course, that we may soon see tweets twice as long as the current 140-character maximum.

The company noted that this option would only be available to a small group of users at the moment. However, they also noted that they feel confident about the data they’ve analyzed, making it appear that the 280-character tweet might be an option for everyone in the not-too-distant future. This is what Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had to say about the change (using the new limit):

This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu

— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017

Well, as you could imagine, Twitter users — especially blue check Twitter — had a LOT of thoughts on the subject:

The 140-character limit was the greatest editor many of us will ever have.

— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) September 26, 2017

THIS IS GOING TO MAKE MY LIFE TWICE AS STRESSFUL AS IT ALREADY IS https://t.co/i11PzoODYy

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 26, 2017

THREAD ?

The case against longer tweets. Let me begin. (1/60)

— Colin Campbell (@colincampbell) September 26, 2017

TL;DR https://t.co/cbKQ5Q0G45

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 26, 2017

? x 280 https://t.co/42aGwF8Yk5

— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 26, 2017

Please don’t do this https://t.co/8yUJUm0eBl

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) September 26, 2017

If this becomes the norm, Tweetdeck will be a freaking nightmare of information overload https://t.co/2FlzfnEuWK

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) September 26, 2017

twitter users: let us edit tweets
twitter: we made everything round
users: edit button
twitter: everyone is allowed to be twice as annoying

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) September 26, 2017

If Trump is one of the "small group of people" who gets to beta-test 280 characters instead of 140, I'm out, @twitter.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) September 26, 2017

THE ONLY THING THAT MADE THIS SITE TOLERABLE WAS MANDATORY BREVITY

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) September 26, 2017

I have spent years perfecting my 140-character game. Twitter is a one-liner paradise. Now it's all going to be observational humor

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 26, 2017

i maintain that the only good change is where you get to edit one tweet from someone else a day & they have no way of being alerted to it

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 26, 2017

everyone: “hey twitter, could you do something to stop trump from starting a war on here?”

twitter: “what if we gave him…longer tweets?”

— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) September 26, 2017

280 Characters was actually George RR Martin's orginial title for A Song of Ice and Fire

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) September 26, 2017

Who's going to be the first jackass to do an entire 280 character tweet in vertical single letters, taking us three scrolls down the page?

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 26, 2017

users: I’m being harassed

jack: uh huh

users: by nazis

jack:..

users: can you do something

jack: what if we gave them 280 characters

— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) September 26, 2017

If you're upset about the 280 characters thing, just imagine what John Kelly must be thinking

— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) September 26, 2017

[image via Twitter]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona