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Twitter Turns 8; May Drop Hashtags and @replies

Posted by timothy on from the #-your-fist-@-them-in-rage dept.

Twitter has only just turned eight years old, but in that time it's become so pervasive that some of its conventions have spread beyond Twitter itself, and its character limit seems almost like a natural law. Now, Buzzfeed reports that some Twitter-isms may be about to change: based on screenshots of interfaces in alpha testing, it seems that hashtags and "at" replies may be on the chopping block, or (based on some updates made to the story) at least made less visible for some readers.

21 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Let the April Fools jokes begin... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    @JMJimmy whatever do you mean? #confused #irony

  2. Natural law? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Up the character limit to 160 to harmonize with SMS.

    1. Re:Natural law? by Mr.+X · · Score: 5, Informative

      It is harmonized with SMS already. The difference between 160 and 140 characters is to provide room for the username.

    2. Re:Natural law? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

      tl;dr shld b 32 chr max #attnspn

    3. Re:Natural law? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

      ur #fullofit #20ftw!

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      #DeleteChrome
  3. Remove all of the site's character in a redesign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure sounds like another site I heard of recently where the users got upset about people stripping away the things that made the site the site.

  4. Twitter killing off... itself by CanEHdian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the @userid and the trick with the . in front, combined with "hashtag" DEFINES twitter. Twitter wants to kill that off? Sure. Here comes Flit-it with @userid, hashtags, and 255 character Fleets. Flit it. Fleet it like it's 2013.

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    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
    1. Re: Twitter killing off... itself by AudioEfex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just like anything, it's all in how you use it.

      Twitter is a great source of breaking information, in a nearly endless number of ways.

      Yeah, if you use it to follow folks that use it as a "microblog" to tell you what they had for lunch, just like FB, I can see your point. But if you subscribe to the right feeds, you can get some amazing content - and opportunities. I've tweeted back and forth with several of my favorite celebrities (while it may seem silly, to this gay boy exchanging tweets with Cher at 2am one late night awhile back made my year). Another time I was traveling somewhere and because I had subbed to a few local feeds I found out about - and was selected as one of the winners of - a local contest which got me in the back door of a theme park at midnight to be in the first group to ride a brand new headliner attraction over and over all night at a private party (best damn brownie sundae I ever had at the desert bar, too, LOL).

      Sure, those are not so typical (and admittedly vapid) examples, but you get the idea - the mobile friendly nature, the immediacy, and the ability to follow feeds without having to "friend" people is really great for timely information for everything from silly things like the above to people trying to stay in contact in a literal war zone.

      Just like I've leveraged FB in more ways than I can ever count for opportunities or finding (or giving) help on various projects from old friends I haven't seen in person in a decade or more, and simply to keep in touch with folks I'd never see again otherwise (I love that when I travel I can just go to FB, see who I know there, and can connect with folks in practically any city I visit, either socially or just for advice), Twitter is really great if you learn how to use it well. I come from a small town, and one of the things you learn growing up in one is who to go for and why - if I needed my car fixed, or help locating a research article, or who to ask about the best new restaurants in the area - it's really sweet when you can be a part of a local network like that because it makes life so much easier - and more enjoyable. That's what Twitter - and FB - do, they just expand them on a global scale.

      It's all in learning how to make it work to the best advantage - if all you do is follow asshats who make a tweet every time they take a shit, sure, it's garbage - but there is so much more there for the taking, and sharing, if you go at it from a different mindset.

    2. Re: Twitter killing off... itself by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 5, Funny

      A bold statement.

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      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  5. Re:Remove all of the site's character in a redesig by dmbasso · · Score: 3, Informative

    You forgot to say #FUCKBETA.

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    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  6. Only thing I hate about Twitter by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's no way to disable Twitter pictures in your feed, searches or @history.

    The most common use of a Twitpic is to post a meme. And if that isn't bad enough, the second most common use of Twitpic is to post a shock picture. It is unacceptable that we can't have them disabled in the options.

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    God spoke to me
    1. Re:Only thing I hate about Twitter by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

      Greasemonkey to the rescue!

      http://userscripts.org/scripts...

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      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:Only thing I hate about Twitter by wiredlogic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hashtag and At are just a condensed form of markup. They are useful for entry of tweets but completely unnecessary for displaying them.

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      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    3. Re:Only thing I hate about Twitter by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hashtag and At are just a condensed form of markup. They are useful for entry of tweets but completely unnecessary for displaying them.

      Except they make it readily apparent how to compose a tweet -- even for new users. #dying

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      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
  7. In other news by mysidia · · Score: 3, Funny

    Slashdot might be removing comments. Or at least replacing threaded discussions with flat 255-character one-liner responses, with no HTML markup features.

  8. The alternative headline by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Twitter turns 8; seeks free advertising

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    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  9. Profit? by phallstrom · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Build Twitter with features people love.
    2. Remove said features infuriating the masses.
    3. Re-introduce said features as a premium feature.
    4. Profit?

    Nothing else seems to be working for them...

  10. Buzzfeed? by rebelwarlock · · Score: 5, Informative

    I almost clicked on the link, but then I saw it was buzzfeed. You can safely assume the whole "story" is clickbait nonsense.

  11. Re:Remove all of the site's character in a redesig by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure sounds like another site I heard of recently where the users got upset about people stripping away the things that made the site the site.

    Digg?

  12. Re:We can change this! by master5o1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    #downwithhashtags

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    signature is pants
  13. I'm a twitter Luddite. by labnet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I still don't get twitter.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...
    Now get off my lawn.

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    46137