Omit Needless Words
Twitter has announced a shift from its longstanding 140-character limit to 280 characters, in management tweets which were twice as long as they needed to be. The move has brought criticism not just from fans of creative concision, but from those who point out that the company should focus more on their platform being used to harrass women, promote racism, and provoke nuclear war.
It seems a bad move, in general. People will waffle more and it’ll take longer to get the gist. (If I want waffle I read blogs, dammit.) But one upside of the 280-character move is ending Twitter’s inherent anti-limerick bias.
Twitter encourages
Haikus’ brevity over
Five-line silliness.
It’s possible to write limericks that squeak in under the 140-character limit, but most are around 160 characters.
There once was a website called Twitter
Which had hoped to become a big-hitter
By encouraging all
Of our thoughts to be small.
Now they are, they’re demonstrably shitter.
But lo! Now its change to 280
Holds promise of thoughts that are weighty,
With twice as much room
For our flowers to bloom.
(Got a bridge that might interest you, matey.)