Six Sites

I’ve been thinking about 140 character posts. Most microblogging tools like Twitter limit posts to 140 characters to keep content SMS friendly. The reality is the SMS gateway APIs you use to send out SMS messages are smart enough to break up longer messages. But most products choose to restrict the length at the source, the argument being that people will think about what they say before they say it. But is this a good idea?

The Pro’s

The pro’s are clearly content brevity and technical compatibility. Both compelling reasons to stick to 140 character limits. I like the idea of people being able to quickly scan a list of content and extract value from it. No need to click for more, like Gmail or even this blog post.

The Con’s

I dislike the principle of dictating to the user what they can and cannot do for technical reasons. The user should be able to use a tool, within the constraints of its purpose, for what ever they want. The technology should be smart enough to do the rest. I also fear that a strict 140 character limit is too short for communicating important messages or concepts.

80/20

I guess it might just depend on how the users will eventually use it and the context in which it is used. But I think you have to at least offer the users more. Encourage them to keep it to 140, but if they need to go over, then go over. But the overflow won’t be sent in a SMS, nor should it show up in other people’s streams. Instead, treat it almost like a shortened URL, except instead of going to an external site, it takes you to the message detail page.