Paul Graham on Twitter: "It would be interesting to know what the arguments were within Twitter for retaining 140 chars. It was clearly a win to kill that restriction, but judging from the time they took to do it, many at Twitter must have thought it would be the end of the world."

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1. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 17 Dec 2018
  Hearing why they thought so would make a useful "accident report" for other companies facing similar choices.
  
  9 replies 1 retweet 57 likes
  
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1. Romil Tiwari‏ @RomilT_94 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  Maybe the team was relying more on their intuition and gut rather than user feedback or data during that time. After all, it had been something which started all of it. Just wondering!
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1. David Spinks‏ @DavidSpinks 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  Perhaps it seems obvious in hindsight but 140 was a core part of the brand and experience. It probably felt like they were giving up their special sauce and identity.
  
  12 likes
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1. andrew 3000‏ @andrewt3000 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  andrew 3000 Retweeted jack
  
  @Jack said... the conflict was "maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence"https://twitter.com/jack/status/912784057863245824?lang=en …
  
  andrew 3000 added,
  
  jackVerified account @jack
  
  This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://twitter.com/twitter/status/912783930431905797 …
  
  1 retweet 2 likes
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1. Maximilian Antoni‏ @mantoni 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  I always thought it was the SMS character limit.
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1. Daan Goossens‏ @Daan_Goossens 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  It's always hard for companies to part with a piece of the core value proposition that achieved success. 140 characters was an easy way to explain what Twitter is. Removing the restriction makes it harder to describe, so not surprisingly faced some opposition.
  
  5 likes
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1. Ben Throop‏ @ben_throop 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  Status Quo
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1. Matt Conway‏ @conwaymatt1 17 Dec 2018
  Replying to @paulg
  
  *Don't fix it if it ain't broke* is compelling for the risk averse, ie many board member types.
  
  9 likes
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