Is the magic of twitter in its limits (and does amplify need some)?
the magic of Twitter is, theoretically, in its limitsRead more at www.scripting.com
This little blurb by Dave Winer got me thinking about the importance of limits and how instead of just being perceived as limiting, they can be enabling. It is the 140 character limit on twitter that enables the entire site to flow. Without it, the idea would fail. This bring me to a point that is near and dear to my heart and mind. Should there be a limit on how much people can clip with amplify? If so, what should the limit be?
Personally, i think it should be 500 characters. I know it’s not much, but if all clips were under 500 characters in length, you can be sure you’d get nothing but high quality, high impact, easy to consume nuggets…and because of this, you can be sure that you’d find it more enjoyable and fulfilling to read lots of them. The net effect would be that you’d learn a little about a lot and have links to sources where you can learn more if you so desire.
So, while i can see the idea of a character limit on amplify seeming limiting, i’d like to think it would be enabling. I”m all for it. Anyone care to weigh in?
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If you introduce 500 for Amplify than you are effec... more
@egoldstein 140 is suitable for Twitter because that’s what Twitter is all about, a burst of few words to “communicate”.
If you introduce 500 for Amplify than you are effectively chasing a Twitter, ultimately making Amplify a twitter clone.
I would like to give you one example of what I think is substantive mix between the two. If you have visited Newsweek’s OnFaith blog prior to their recent restructure, than you would have noticed that they used to allow their bloggers to blog as much as they want. The posts used to be lengthy and there was no rule in place. But after the restructure, all of their bloggers are making short blog posts containing few paragraphs to make their point. These blog posts are now long enough to be a concise essay and not too short to loose substance. I think it is a winning formula and a fine example of old-fashioned newspaper editorship.
10 months agoI agree. There are so many times when I wish I had just a few more characters than the 140. Why not give a little leeway? 500 is good. It provides enough to comment, but limits the novel writers that like to read their own thoughts.
Limits are good—but so is leeway.
10 months ago@egoldstein I think the 1000 character limit on Clipmarks is about right
10 months ago@arif, “chasing twitter” you say? as an old school clipmarks user, given our character limitation for the past few years, did you mean to say that twitter is chasing clipmarks?
Ok, just kidding.
Perhaps 1,000 is the sweet spot for clips. I want so badly to go with 500 but i’m afraid to pull the trigger on it.
10 months agoI recall a book I read on ABC computer (Atanasoff–Berry Computer). The gist of it was that Atanasoff built the first comp... more
Eric, Twitter is absolutely chasing Clipmarks, no doubt about it.
I recall a book I read on ABC computer (Atanasoff–Berry Computer). The gist of it was that Atanasoff built the first computer but ENIAC (Eckert and Mauchly) took the cake.
10 months ago@arif, i’ve been thinking of trying an experiment on clipmarks.com. Very curious to see the impact if we defaulted logged in users to the My Guides Mix feed. That’s my favorite place to go on clipmarks, but i imagine many users don’t even know it exists.
10 months agoEric, the only thing I don’t like about the Mix tab is that it contains redundant entries. Otherwise it’s the best one could get to the live stream on Clipmarks (short of your previous interface which had live stream boxes on the front page). This is aside from the fact that Clipmarks overall is live all the time.
10 months agoEric, you looking at integrating Clipmarks with Twitter like how you have connected comments on Amplify? I think Clipmarks can use more love with Twitter if there are additional features which marries the two well.
The logic is simple, people have lots of friends and family on Twitter/Facebook and there’s nothing much we can do to turn that tide.
From what I see, I either pop, comment or clip at Clipmarks. If I use Twitterfeed, I can self-integrate my Pops and Clips on Twitter via RSS feed, but I think this should be done through Clipmarks backend using your short-URL features and additional goodies.
Just some thoughts.
10 months agoArif, that is definitely a topic that’s top of mind for me. I’ve got quite a list of things i’d like to do on clipmarks.com. Trying to put the plan together and balance it with the work we’ve been doing on amplify.
10 months ago