Pissing me off today is the arbitrary 420-character limit to status updates. This is not a new thing; some quick research online tells me the limit was imposed sometime in early 2010. I may not have noticed it until now because, like many Facebook users, my status updates are often just short messages to my friends or comments about what goes on in my daily life.
Lately, though, I've been creating longer posts about the music I'm listening to, books & comics I've read, and news articles I find interesting. Creating a thoughtful message about these things, even using all the concise-writing skills I've developed over at Twitter, yields updates that are typically in the 600- to 800-character range, and I'm presented with this stern reminder:
Status updates must be less than 420 characters. You have entered [xxx] characters here. Notes can be much longer. Would you like to edit and post your update as a Note instead?
No, Facebook, I would not like to edit and post my update as a Note. If I wanted to create a note, I would have clicked on my profile link, and then clicked the "notes" link, and then clicked the "write a note" button. You see? If I wanted to write a Note, I would have taken all of those other needless and awkward steps to do just that.
Obviously, Facebook doesn't want its users treating their status updates as in-site blogs. Fair enough. It is, after all, Mark's sandbox; we just gave up most of our privacy to targeted-advertising companies for the privilege of playing in it. But if I'm going to have to take extra steps to create the sort of posts I want, I'll just move that content over here where I can also easily add links, tags, images, and embedded video.
So hello again, old blog, it looks like we'll be spending a lot more time together now.
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