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  1. Rewind is offline
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    Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 12,033
    11-08-2017, 06:45 PM #1

    Twitter users can now tweet twice as much

    Twitter officially expands its character count to 280
    Tech Crunch, Nov 7 2017

    Twitter’s expansion to 280 characters has rolled out publicly to all users in supported languages, including English. The company had first announced the controversial plan to move beyond its traditional 140 characters back in September, noting at the time how a longer character count allowed users to express more of their thoughts without running out of room to tweet. The expansion was initially available to a select group of Twitter users as a trial.

    At the time of its original announcement, the company cited data backing up its decision that referenced how the character constraints impacted users differently, depending on their language. Twitter said that those who tweeted in languages like Japanese, Korean and Chinese were able to express around double the amount of information in a single character, compared with users who spoke English, Spanish, Portuguese or French, for example. Because of this, Twitter decided the expansion to 280 characters would only roll out to those languages affected by "cramming" – meaning everything but Japanese, Chinese and Korean – during the test period.

    The decision was met with a fair amount of controversy, given that one of Twitter’s defining characteristics is the brevity of users’ posts. Many argued that the increase to 280 characters would make Twitter less readable, as longer tweets filled their timelines. Others suggested that Twitter’s focus on a feature no one really asked for was diverting its attention from more critical problems – like the rampant abuse, harassment and bullying it’s become known for unfortunately. And still more argued that the expansion doesn’t really mean people will be able to better express themselves – they’ll just say the same thing but use more words to do so.

    https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/07/tw...tarting-today/

  2. Penguin is offline
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    Joined: Nov 2017 Location: San Fernando Posts: 257
    11-09-2017, 02:24 PM #2
    I don't use Twitter. Why is there a limit on how many characters you can use?

  3. Rewind is offline
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    Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 12,033
    11-09-2017, 03:18 PM #3
    In a 2009 Los Angeles Times interview, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey explained that SMS (Short Message Service) limited cellphone text messages to 160 characters. Twitter reduced the number to 140 to allow up to 20 characters for the tweeter's user name. What I don't understand is, since tweets can now have up to 280 characters, why didn't Twitter make 280 the maximum in the first place?

    Twitter creator Jack Dorsey illuminates the site's founding document

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/tech...r-creator.html

  4. Rewind is offline
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    Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 12,033
    12-25-2017, 07:00 PM #4
    Here is the transcript of a brief interview that aired December 24 on NPR's All Things Considered:

    Facebook, Twitter update their platforms in an effort to control misinformation and hate speech

    https://www.npr.org/2017/12/24/57333...nd-hate-speech

  5. Rewind is offline
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    Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 12,033
    02-03-2018, 07:03 PM #5
    Twitter, like almost everything else in the world, can be abused and misused. Witness:

    Journalists struggle to explain why they bought fake Twitter followers
    NBC News, Feb 3 2018 5:51 PM ET

    It’s hard to trust anything on Twitter — even the follower counts of journalists. Big media outlets have embraced Twitter as a distribution platform but still struggle with how reporters and editors use the social media service, particularly when they appear to be breaching journalism ethics. This sizable gray area came into clearer focus this week after a New York Times exposé revealed that more than a dozen news media figures had paid to artificially pump up the number of followers they have on Twitter.

    Journalists and commentators, who presumably joined the platform to enhance their stature, instead found themselves grasping to explain why they had paid for counterfeit supporters. When contacted by NBC News, the journalists identified by The Times as having bought Twitter followers had a range of responses: Many ducked requests for comment, others blamed associates, while just one sounded chastened.

    The Times article focused on a particular firm, Devumi, for selling phony "bot" followers on Twitter and included the names of public figures who had paid Devumi for followers. Devumi made millions of dollars by supplying customers with more than 200 million Twitter followers. But rather than offering a real audience, the Devumi followers were actually electronic counterfeits, known as bots, which were sometimes created by mimicking the accounts of real Twitter users. A customer might pay $225 for 25,000 followers to appear more popular on Twitter than he really is. Some of those Twitter users cash in on those followings by selling themselves as social "influencers" who hawk products and causes for pay.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...lowers-n843871