DISQUS

ThoughtPick Blog: Is Twitter Abandoning Their 140-characters limit?

  • Jay | kpfingaz · 7 months ago
    I tried posting a long tweet but the post button grayed out after 140 characters. The 140 character limit is part of what makes Twitter what it is so I hope they don't abandon this.
  • Amer Kawar · 7 months ago
    Hmm.. I am not sure. On my Firefox browser, I am able to write as much as I wish.

    I agree with you, I think Twitter and 140 characters should never be separated.
  • Beiruta · 7 months ago
    Amer! I salute you for the attention to the tiniest details! Great post!

    And I agree... Twitter and 140 are meant to be :P
  • AdamPieniazek · 7 months ago
    Umm...wtf? I hope you just stumbled upon some bug/glitch and they're not changing the 140 character limit. Even if they keep the 140 limit in the twitter stream and have an ellipsis link out to the full tweet it's highly annoying not seeing the full message within my stream.

    The 140 limit is part of Twitter's brand and one of the main advantages of it to blogging/other communication/social services. You can't just keep ranting and ranting on Twitter and have to get to your point. Without that limit the service fails.

    And what effect would this have on their servers/databases which are already struggling?
  • Amer Kawar · 7 months ago
    I'm starting to lean towards a bug, I think it's something to do with the Javascript validation they have on the posting input box.

    DB and server wise, I don't think it would do a big difference, I think bandwidth wise they'd be looking at a spike (I mean 140 to 248 chars is a 77% increase), and their main product is text!
  • FadiPick · 7 months ago
    I tried it on both Firefox and IE, it didn't work!

    I agree with @AdamPieniazek, the 140 limit is part of Twitter's brand, if you take it out, then we don't have a Twitter. It is one of Twitter's fundamental characteristic, I really hope that you have just caught a bug :)

    Was it just one tweet that worked with you this way? have you tried it several times?
  • Roland Hesz · 7 months ago
    Twitter has worked like this since last year, and by that I mean February at least. If you wrote over 140 characters - I sometimes did - the 3 dots appeared and people could click on it to see the whole text.
    It usually worked in twhirl, tweetdeck and other 3rd party apps.
  • FadiPick · 7 months ago
    @Roland, does it work for some people and not for others? It never worked for me!! Maybe there are some special cases?
  • Roland Hesz · 7 months ago
    I am not quite sure when and how it happens, I just know that I got the message "your message is too long, but don't worry, blah, blah,blah" and then the ...
    Will check how and when it works.
  • Dave · 7 months ago
    It's a Javascript issue. You get up to 250 characters in some cases: http://www.seoconsultants.com/twitter/supertweet/
  • Amer Kawar · 7 months ago
    You are correct. I just tried disabling Javascript in my Firefox, and it worked, I enabled it and it stopped!
  • eXtra Long Tweet · 7 months ago
    Hi Amer, this workaround hack has been going around for awhile now.... and I do emphasize its just a 'workaround hack' which Twitter may fix or patch at anytime. Thanks for the mention above. Feel free to stop by XLTweet.com and the popular Twitter-ized blog TwitWall.com anytime... we'll be glad you did.
  • Amer Kawar · 7 months ago
    @XLTweet I agree that it's a 'workaround hack'. It's intentionally built in, but obviously not encouraged by Twitter.

    I checked TwitWall but didn't get its importance. Can't I do the same on a much larger and customizable scale with a regular blog? Also, to encourage people like me to register, install OAuth - no passwords given out!

    Thanks for commenting.
  • Diego · 7 months ago
    This has been possible for a long time now.
  • rosshill · 7 months ago
    That's not new - it's just well hidden ;) Matrix indeed.
  • mynameismud · 7 months ago
    I'm at odds, not sure what to think. So many times I've had to re-write because I had too many characters, but at the same time, I like the idea of getting right to the point. Let's keep it the way it is.
  • Val Nelson · 7 months ago
    140 limit is the genius of Twitter. I hope that doesn't change.
    Thank you for explaining this little glitch I noticed recently. I can submit on Tweetdeck even if it's over 140, and it then creates the ellipsis. I can't do that on Twitter. But I can only click on the ... link on Twitter. So, definitely an unintended consequence of using two different platforms in combination.
  • Theresa McGee · 7 months ago
    I like 140 characters as well - it really makes me think about what I need to say. But a 160 characters would be great for those of us who just need to fit in that last bit of info=:)
  • Allen Sentance (FISHERMAN) · 6 months ago
    I like the Twitter 140 platform as you can quickly read & converse . It will ruin it's effectiveness if folks are given latitude with their messaging. 140 makes folks get to the point...............this is what all busy internet users look for and want.!!
    A great post Amer, I enjoy your input.

    Hey.....life is good.......

    Allen Sentance
    Fisherman
  • Allen Sentance (FISHERMAN) · 6 months ago
    I like the 140 limit and really hope they never change it, as it makes people get to the point of what they want to say (short & sweet). Given too much space they want to SPAM or rave on and that is the Bullshit we can do without.
    A great point made with your post here Amer........TY :)

    Allen Sentance
    Fisherman
  • Linda · 6 months ago
    twitter won't abandon the 140 char that they're renowned for - http://www.jumbotweet.com is a nice service to post longer twitter messages though that I've started using recently
  • T.J. Anderson · 3 months ago
    weird, just had this happen to me for the first time today. I'm way behind the ball on this one.