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I think part of the problem is that Twitter is optimised for machine processing, more than it is for human conversation.
by lotsofmangos 12y ago
I think part of the problem is that Twitter is optimised for machine processing, more than it is for human conversation.
- golemotron 12y agoI think it was a beautiful "what if." What happens when we limit a message to 140 chars? The character of conversation changes - so do people's use patterns. The most wonderful thing about twitter is that you can't get lost down the rabbit hole of a three paragraph email. And there's pressure to reply quickly to stay part of the conversation. It's a genius example of design thinking.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoWhat happens when you set a message limit of 140 characters is you end up with a database that is perfect for training computers about semantics. It is a genius example of design thinking, I'll grant you, but twitter's priority as a business was to build a database for analysis and that was the design constraint which resulted in a 140 character limit to messages. It is a communication platform, but only in as much as it fulfills its main purpose of generating datasets.
- SamReidHughes 12y agoUm, what? I'm pretty sure text message limits were the design constraint there.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- kalleboo 12y ago> twitter's priority as a business was to build a database for analysis and that was the design constraint which resulted in a 140 character limit to messages This is the first time I hear about this. Do you have any source or did you make it up yourself? Twitter's original function was group SMS messaging among friends, the 140 char limit was the 160 character SMS limit + an 18 character username.
- Kudos 12y agoIt's limited to 140 characters because it depended on SMS as a transport. The idea that the main purpose of this limit was for generating datasets presumes far more foresight than the Twitter founders deserve.