Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this (c)

May 17, 2015 1:48 PM

Expansive Thoughts, a Tweet Splitter/Separator - Split messages and comments into 140 character chunks. Completely free, no sign-in required, and imgur-friendly. From Mefite royalsong via MetaFilter Projects.

"I've been looking for a tool like this for awhile, and finally decided to just make it myself. A lot of the 'tweet longer' sorts of sites out there create images or require the reader to click a link to read the rest, but this just splits the text up and lets you copy and paste it wherever you wish.

This is my first complex javascript/jquery project, so I'm sure there's bugs. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to create the tweet and select text buttons. All I can say is thank god for stackoverflow.

I'm more then happy to hear if you have suggestions/feedback!"

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (18 comments total)

No. NO NO NO NO NO.
NO.

The first time I quit twitter was due to the abuse by some culprits of extended posts that should have been a blog entry. THIS DOES NOT AMELIORATE THE ISSUE!

Twitter is made for 140 character entries. If you want longer entries, use a blog, or even those sites that turn 140 character entries into one long entry (like mentioned, but apparently aren't legit, because images?). This is 100% the exact wrong thing to do.

If you can't make your content formed properly for the medium, perhaps the medium is not the correct one, and one shouldn't try to shoehorn it in.

I don't want to shit on someone's hard work. As someone who tries to program my own projects, I truly do appreciate the effort that went into making this, so please don't get me wrong... And as far as getting upset about things that took effort, I'd rather this project than, say, the Koch brothers evil machinations.

But still...
posted by symbioid at 1:58 PM on May 17, 2015 [9 favorites]

Message #1
No. NO NO NO NO NO. NO. The first time I quit twitter was due to the abuse by some culprits of extended posts that should have been a (1/7)

Message #2
blog entry. THIS DOES NOT AMELIORATE THE ISSUE! Twitter is made for 140 character entries. If you want longer entries, use a blog, or (2/7)

Message #3
even those sites that turn 140 character entries into one long entry (like mentioned, but apparently aren't legit, because images?). (3/7)

Message #4
This is 100% the exact wrong thing to do. If you can't make your content formed properly for the medium, perhaps the medium is not (4/7)

Message #5
the correct one, and one shouldn't try to shoehorn it in. I don't want to shit on someone's hard work. As someone who tries to (5/7)

Message #6
program my own projects, I truly do appreciate the effort that went into making this, so please don't get me wrong... And as far as (6/7)

Message #7
getting upset about things that took effort, I'd rather this project than, say, the Koch brothers evil machinations. But still... (7/7)

Hey, it works!
posted by gwint at 2:01 PM on May 17, 2015 [33 favorites]

Tweetstorms do go against the spirit of Twitter, but the reason people don't just put this stuff on a blog is that people tend to not leave Twitter to follow a "hey, I have some thoughts [blog link]". You can judge those people, but it won't really change the situation. People that tweetstorm all the time are going to be ignored, of course, but the occasional one can communicate effectively.
posted by ignignokt at 2:05 PM on May 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I did consider coding a little popup after 5-6 messages saying "You know twitter limits 140 characters for a reason.. right?" But I decided it wasn't up to me to police their twitter feed.

It will break if you exceed 50 messages, though. Twitter only allows you to post 1,000 messages a day. I mathed out that means ~50 tweets an hour.
posted by royalsong at 2:13 PM on May 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

As a firm believer that there's no wrong way to use Twitter, and as someone who enjoys reading Tweetstorms, I think this is great! Thanks, royalsong!
posted by aedison at 2:22 PM on May 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Message #1
Twitter is alr (1/12)

Message #2
eady 10 times (2/12)

Message #3
too verbose. T (3/12)

Message #4
hat's why I've (4/12)

Message #5
invented deci (5/12)

Message #6
twitter, a new (6/12)

Message #7
way to communi (7/12)

Message #8
cate in 14 cha (8/12)

Message #9
racters or les (9/12)

Message #10
s and fucking (10/12)

Message #11
hell this anno (11/12)

Message #12
ying. Sorry. (12/12)
posted by the quidnunc kid at 2:39 PM on May 17, 2015 [9 favorites]

Zip-splitting for instant messages makes me feel like this is the age of MP3s shared via 10mb capped Geocity pages. But to really recreate that feeling, the separate messages would be scattered across similarly named accounts.

A reminder of why Twitter is limited to 140 characters (SMS-like, with a built-in buffer for the username of the sender, forcing people to communicate in short bursts), and Time Magazine jumps on the "but 140 characters isn't enough" bandwagon with ways to post screenshots of text blocks.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:49 PM on May 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is great. Thanks! (1/1)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:31 PM on May 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

I thought this was fab (obviously if I posted it from Projects); I could really use something that auto-breaks my tweets, especially on my Flagged as Fantastic account. Thanks for making this!

And, as far as "find another medium" goes - there are many essayists, activists, and others on Twitter using tweet-chains (as I call 'em - I guess "tweet storm" is the thing?) to communicate - quite effectively imho. I've read really great tweet chains about racism and sexism that are mini-points all connected, and it makes it a more powerful, cumulative reading experience - and of course on Twitter you can retweet individual points or comment or favorite them. It's more atomized and I like the immediacy of Twitter. If the tweets are linked, people can easily find the entire conversation and read it in its entirety.

I don't think people are trying to shoehorn content in; I think they're using it the way they want to use it; Twitter is for experimentation and fun if nothing else.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 3:53 PM on May 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

Given how many (currently: 58) Storify-type articles have been linked on MetaFilter in the past, I think some of the noise against this sort of thing is out of scale with how much this tool would be supported.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:04 PM on May 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Twitter: We Have Large Gaping Flaws That We Rely On Third Parties To Correct - Unless They Affect Our Ad Revenue Then You're Screwed And Stay Screwed And Why Aren't We Showing A Profit?!?
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:15 PM on May 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

I've often enjoyed the challenge of making a coherent thought exactly 140 characters long, no more, no less. Multi-tweets, or whatever they're called, don't bother me too much, though it kinda defeats the purpose.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:18 PM on May 17, 2015 [6 favorites]

More like:

Twitter: We Have Large Gaping Flaws That We Rely On Third Parties To Correct - Unless They Affect Our Ad Revenue Then You're Screwed And Stay Screwe
posted by nevercalm at 7:38 PM on May 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Storify works for many more things than just chaining one person's eighty-tweet essay together.

If you really don't get why people aren't super jazzed about this, I wonder how much you get twitter. The odd tweetstorm is endurable, but people who barf them out frequently, or worse, make a very regular habit of RTing others' tweetstorms, get muted or unfollowed right quick.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:10 PM on May 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I can't tell from the main page whether this will post the tweets successively as a chain of replies. This ensures that the tweets appear in order and linked to one another without being broken up by random other stuff from your timeline. If it does, I can see some utility in it.
posted by altolinguistic at 6:14 AM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

This doesn't tweet for you, otherwise I'd have to tie it into the twitter API and require you to connect your account with the site. I didn't want that, I don't need it.. I just needed a quick way to write out a paragraph of tweets/comments and have it split up so I don't have to spend time trying to ctrl-x it down to 140, tweet, ctrl-p, ctrl-x down to 140, tweet, and repeat.

I did include a "tweet this" button w/ each generated message that pops up twitter's posting interface. You still have to click the buttons, though.

I really don't like it when apps post for me.
posted by royalsong at 7:01 AM on May 18, 2015

The bio for my locked twitter account is "specializing in multi-tweet foulmouthed rants since 2007" so I can definitely see the benefit of this tool. That said, I usually enjoy the challenge of paring down &/or splitting up my thoughts myself, as the process helps me refine the thought itself.

Nice project!
posted by misskaz at 7:10 AM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Twitter is made for 140 character entries. If you want longer entries, use a blog, or even those sites that turn 140 character entries into one long entry (like mentioned, but apparently aren't legit, because images?). This is 100% the exact wrong thing to do.
If you can't make your content formed properly for the medium, perhaps the medium is not the correct one, and one shouldn't try to shoehorn it in."

I agree with you, but we fucking lost.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:31 PM on May 18, 2015 [1 favorite]