So don’t expect people to read content that seems neither easily scannable nor relevant for them, therefore long text blocks, unnecessary instructions, promotional writing and “smalltalk” should be avoided on the web.

Myth #1: People read on the web

Look at some great websites. Paragraph length is often just one or two sentences in length before a whitespace break occurs.

Twitter is not even a blogging platform. Its entire brand experience is built on brevity—one reason why leaders and thinkers prefer it over other platforms. Yet, Twitter is deaf to its real userbase.

TL;DR

Increasing tweet length from 140 characters to 280 characters is just a stupid idea. Twitter users want an Edit button. Real users want Twitter to rein in the bots and hatred.

However, tone deaf Twitter responds with this:

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!
@jack

A real user responded to that tweet with this:

@jack Sorry. I stopped paying attention half way through your essay.

Twitter users are doing a pretty good job of telling Twitter what we think of this idea. No can be said, or tweeted, in pretty creative ways it seems.

Twitter is just testing this for now. Yet, the direction that it has been going in is often one aligned with advertisers, not users. So, tweet loud to @Twitter and let your user voice be heard, unless bots, spam and vitriol are your kind of thing. #280characters will double that flavor while putting fewer posts in one screenview.

About That Growth Problem

https://twitter.com/teaneedz/timelines/913036392145416193

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