Oh no! Trump tweets can be twice as long now

After what Twitter describes as a successful trial run with select users in September the company announced that it will be setting the maximum character limit at 280 characters double the 140 characters allowed now.

While the trial run in September was only for select users, the Verge describes a work around that allowed all users to tweet 280 characters.

The new limit is scheduled to take effect at 9 p.m. on Tuesday November 7.

When the trial run of the 280 character version was initiated there was a fierce backlash from some Twitter users who often react angrily to any change in Twitter.

Some complained that Twitter had lost its way as the essence of Twitter was brevity. Perhaps the old saying should be: "Brevity is the soul of nitwits."

The original limit of 180 characters was set when people were expected to send and read tweets via text messages. Text messages could be up to 160 characters. Twitter set the limit below that at 140 so there would be room left for a username. The brevity was not a result of trying to make people be virtuously brief but was forced upon them by the technology of the time.

Twitter's response to their trials reveals that they as well think that somehow it would be an abuse if all users had used all the 280 characters: "But Twitter said its experiment with 280 characters had shown that people are not abusing the feature. It said those who had access to longer tweets only went past the original 140-character limit 5 per cent of the time, and only past 190 characters 2 per cent of the time."

Twitter also reported that those who tried out the new limit spent more time on Twitter, and also received more likes and retweets than those who remained on the regular limit

Only two per cent of tweets used up the full 280 characters as compared to nine percent who use up the present 140.

Aliza Rosen, Twitter product manager said: "We – and many of you – were concerned that timelines may fill up with 280 character tweets, and people with the new limit would always use up the whole space.But that didn’t happen. As a result, your timeline reading experience should not substantially change, you’ll still see about the same amount of tweets in your timeline."

Rosen said that people in the trial claimed that they felt more satisfied with how they expressed themselves. They felt that the higher limit increased their ability to find good content.

Twitter said that more space made it easier to fit thoughts into a tweet allowing one to compose tweets faster.

Tweets in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese will remain at the existing 140 limit as the languages allow more to be said with fewer characters.

Personally I find the increased limit to be a great reform. I spend considerable time trying to shorten tweets and end up leaving out material I wanted to include. If the longer tweets bother people, they can just skip them.

Everyone is waiting to see if Trump's vocabulary is sufficient for him to come near using up the full 280 characters.

Twitter could allow tweets of up to 10,000 characters

Twitter is considering the possibility of increasing its present 140-character limit on tweets. While the extent of the increase has not been decided, it could be up to 10,000 characters

CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey indicated his intentions in a tweet on Tuesday, after the Re/Code report citing anonymous sources said Twitter was considering extending its limits to up to 10,000 characters.

Dorsey posted a screenshot with a text of 1,325 characters. If posts of up to 10,000 characters were allowed then text of up to 1,700 words could be posted. The company did not comment on its plans. Some users are already including screenshots of extensive text in their tweets. Twitter would like to allow more text without creating huge piles of text garbage produced by windbags. Dorsey claims imposing some degree of brevity encourages "creativity and brevity. And a sense of speed. We will never lose that feeling," he promised. Dorsey may fear a backlash to his proposals by some Twitter users who are wedded to the 140 character limit that has been part of the system for many years. Shareholders, on the other hand, may be quite happy to see any change that brings in more users and revenue.

During the past year-and-a-half Twitter's growth has slowed dramatically. It has yet to make a profit. This makes it essential that Twitter grow so as to provide more advertising revenue. Dorsey returned to the company after CEO Dick Costolo left the company in July. Dorsey had actually been ousted back in 2008.

The 140 character limit is now antiquated. Originally Dorsey imposed the limit so that Twitter could be easily used on cellphones that had a 160 character limit at the time. The limits faded away several years ago with the advent of smartphones.

Michael Pachter of Webush Securities noted that the longer tweets could be introduced in a way that allowed viewers to see a limited amount of text and then click on a button to see the remainder. Pachter claims: "Twitter is an afterthought in social media right now. They need to do something to drive more usage of the service. If people start using the service more frequently, other users will come join in, too."