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There's a lot of hate circulating around my Twitter feed this morning because of this, but I think it makes perfect sense. New users signing up for Twitter have

There's a lot of hate circulating around my Twitter feed this morning because of this, but I think it makes perfect sense. New users signing up for Twitter have to get longer usernames - everything else is taken. Then, when they try to reply to a couple of their friends, they only have like 50 characters to type a message. It's a non-starter. 140 characters enforces concise thoughts but somewhere around 90 characters you basically can't express yourself anymore. This change evens the playing field for new users, allowing them to use the platform the same way og users like @alex and @ow do (having meaningful threads with 3+ people.)

psyc 10y ago
The hate is not about the char count. It's about: 1. They failed to provide a way to remove @s from thread replies. Edit: Whoops, there is a UI for this. Which jarringly takes you to a different dialog and back! So my new complaint is that they made it harder and weird. I stand by my opinion that they screwed this up. 2. They failed to provide a way to change the visibility, aka 'dot replies' They fixed one thing, and broke two. Par for the course for Twitter UI designers. It has always baffled me how consistently bad every part of the Twitter UI is. Just try using lists sometime.
- bengotow 10y ago
  Ahh wow thanks for the info - I didn't think about the dot replies. That's actually a real bummer...
- shadowfacts 10y ago
  You can remove people from replies. Click on the usernames in the 'Replying to @personA and @personB' and it'll open a list of people you're replying to, each with a checkbox that can be used to remove them. Dot replies haven't been necessary since Twitter added the ability to retweet yourself. You respond to someone as usual and then retweet it, so all of your follower's will see it, even if they aren't following the person you responded to. It can definitely be a bit confusing for old users (and the UX for the first one isn't the greatest), but nothing's been removed, it's just been changed.
  - panic 10y ago
    Whether or not you think they're still necessary, dot replies are a different thing than retweets. The ability to reply while at the same time making that reply visible to your followers has been removed.
    - shadowfacts 10y ago
      Retweeting your reply achieves the same thing in the end. You've replied to the tweet and made your reply visible to your followers. With regards to UX, it's debatably more or less confusing, but the functionality is still there.
- infogulch 10y ago
  shadowfacts mentioned in another thread that you can reply like normal then retweet your own reply. I hadn't thought of that.
- pjc50 10y ago
  Dot-replies unfortunately seem to often be used for dragging someone into a flamewar with your followers.
- psyc 10y ago
  There are actually even more things broken. Just incredible, for one simple feature change. Every reply-to-self now helpfully includes your name right below your name. It's confusing, looks ridiculous, and it's everywhere now. Also, you should see what notifications look like now that threads can have unlimited participants. Each notification lists every. person.

psyc 10y ago

The hate is not about the char count. It's about: 1. They failed to provide a way to remove @s from thread replies. Edit: Whoops, there is a UI for this. Which jarringly takes you to a different dialog and back! So my new complaint is that they made it harder and weird. I stand by my opinion that they screwed this up. 2. They failed to provide a way to change the visibility, aka 'dot replies' They fixed one thing, and broke two. Par for the course for Twitter UI designers. It has always baffled me how consistently bad every part of the Twitter UI is. Just try using lists sometime.

bengotow 10y ago
Ahh wow thanks for the info - I didn't think about the dot replies. That's actually a real bummer...
shadowfacts 10y ago
You can remove people from replies. Click on the usernames in the 'Replying to @personA and @personB' and it'll open a list of people you're replying to, each with a checkbox that can be used to remove them. Dot replies haven't been necessary since Twitter added the ability to retweet yourself. You respond to someone as usual and then retweet it, so all of your follower's will see it, even if they aren't following the person you responded to. It can definitely be a bit confusing for old users (and the UX for the first one isn't the greatest), but nothing's been removed, it's just been changed.
- panic 10y ago
  Whether or not you think they're still necessary, dot replies are a different thing than retweets. The ability to reply while at the same time making that reply visible to your followers has been removed.
  - shadowfacts 10y ago
    Retweeting your reply achieves the same thing in the end. You've replied to the tweet and made your reply visible to your followers. With regards to UX, it's debatably more or less confusing, but the functionality is still there.
infogulch 10y ago
shadowfacts mentioned in another thread that you can reply like normal then retweet your own reply. I hadn't thought of that.
pjc50 10y ago
Dot-replies unfortunately seem to often be used for dragging someone into a flamewar with your followers.
psyc 10y ago
There are actually even more things broken. Just incredible, for one simple feature change. Every reply-to-self now helpfully includes your name right below your name. It's confusing, looks ridiculous, and it's everywhere now. Also, you should see what notifications look like now that threads can have unlimited participants. Each notification lists every. person.