Twitter, my favorite Social Media venue of all times, gave birth to a wave of anger late Saturday, which generated the #RIPTwitter hashtag. It seems that people got rumors about some major changes for the famous micro-blogging site. Twitter is famous because it is based on the SMS model of “posting” updates, the SMS has 160 characters, a Twitter post has 140, 20 being reserved for the username (which is actually of maximum 15 characters, not counting the @ prefix).
It is true that a lot of so called Social Media experts are “experts” just on Facebook and don’t get Twitter or the spirit of Twitter at all, because they can’t express themselves in 140 characters or less, so they ignore it altogether.
RIPTwitter – It’s obvious why…
[source: tweet of @YouHadOneJ0B ]
The frenzy became more ample after a post on BuzzFeed which seems to point that Twitter as a whole is orienting itself to a more accessible interface which will make it to use features resembling Facebook, like an algorithmic timeline to elevate popular content instead the current feed’s reverse chronological order.
RIPTwitter took charge on Saturday 6
Here is a typical reaction of somebody you surely recognize:
There's NOTHING I'd change about Twitter . Apart from banning all cute cat pics. #RIPTwitter
— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) February 7, 2016
All is caused by Jack Dorsey’s insecure attempts to reshape Twitter. The service, used by Donald J. Trump or Kim Kardashian has failed to attract droves of new users. The investors are questioning how useful the service is for people and whether it will become a mainstream hit like Facebook or Instagram. Shares of Twitter went down more than 50% in 2015.
The Origins
At the beginning of January 2016, Twitter insiders reported that the engineers are building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit, currently considering a 10,000 character limit, the same character limit used for its Direct Messages (DM’s), so it isn’t quit a surprise. I haven’t even noticed that, because it’s not a feature I consciously use. I check my DM’s from time to time just because of the annoying TrueTwit, another misused service by some vanitous folks.
— Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
Twitter users freaked out, and again, Jack Dorsey tried to explain himself by tweeting an image text to show them how wonderful will be to really blog on Twitter. I also hope that real users, bloggers and writers are realizing what could be the consequences of such a measure. It can lead to a considerable decrease of traffic on your own blog, something both Facebook and Google Plus are keen to do from the beginning.
Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Not next week, but he hasn’t denied it, has he? He also adds a few minutes later:
Twitter can help make connections in real-time based on dynamic interests and topics, rather than a static social/friend graph. We get it.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
Conclusion: Let Me Forget About RIPTwitter!
The best featured in Twitter are: the possibility to add pictures to your maximum 140 characters to illustrate better your links or pearls, the embedded tweets, the “likes” (that was another thing stirring the flames about the Facebook resemblance), and Twitter cards, something I would like to appear already expanded. I also like polls.
One of the worst moves was the removal of tweet counters, another feature essential for a blogger!
At a press conference last month, Jack Dorsey has said, “Twitter will become the first thing everyone in the world checks to start their day and the first thing people turn to when they want to share ideas, commentary or simply what’s happening.”
I agree, but not making it to look more like Facebook than ever. The 140-character limit has been around as long as Twitter has, it’s part of Twitter’s personality. Another core feature is its reverse chronological timeline. I saw somewhere that he said that no Twitter feature is nailed for eternity…
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