tContinuation Twitterformat Proposal

Syntax

/cont
…
...

Summary

The tContinuation Twitterformat (e.g., /cont This is a continuation of the previous tweet.) makes it clear that either the current tweet will be continued in the next tweet ("to be continued", if used at the end of a tweet) or that the current tweet is a continuation of the previous tweet ("continued", if used at the start of a tweet). Twitter clients that implement tContinuation can display a message on tweets that are "to be continued" to alert users that there is more to come and "continued" tweets may be combined to display as a single tweet. The tContinuation Twitterformat has two shorthand forms (the semantically-and-typographically-correct horizontal ellipsis character; U+2026, and the misused-yet-ubiquitous three dots, ...).

Raison d'être

Although Twitter is limited to 140 characters (and this a Good Thing™), there are times you want to explore a trail of thought or when you simply don't have the time to compress a thought into a single tweet (perhaps when the timeliness trumps brevity). Whatever the reason, it is a common occurrence to see two or three tweets in succession that would have been a single tweet had Twitter not had a 140 character limit. It would be semantically correct to display these tweets as a single tweet in the timeline. (In terms of attention, also, it means that a user can choose to ignore a tweet if it doesn't interest them without having to make the same decision on the next two tweets also.)

The tContinuation Twitterformat is special in that it has two shorthand forms. We already have a symbol in traditional language to denote continuation (the ellipsis character) and it may be used interchangeably with the tContinuation command. Additionally, since in common usage three dots (...) are used in place of the actual ellipsis character, the tContinutation Twitterformat defines that as a synonym also.

The tContinuation Twitterformat is also special in that its meaning differs depending on its location within a tweet (it may appear either at the beginning or at end of a tweet). When the tContinuation command appears at the start of a tweet, it means that the current tweet continues on from the previous one. When it appears at the end, it signals that the current tweet is not complete and will be continued in the next tweet.

Manual usage

The tContinuation Twitterformat is simple enough to be used manually by users. e.g., 

This tweet will continue in the next one /cont

and 

/cont This tweet is a continuation of the previous tweet

The above two tweets are synonymous with the following shorthand forms: 

…This tweet is a continuation of the previous tweet

and 

This tweet will continue in the next one...

Implementation guide for Twitter client authors

A. Authoring

1. Full support:

  1. Allow the user to enter more than 140 characters for a tweet (possibly limit this at 278, or 436 characters to discourage widespread essay authorship on Twitter)
  2. Split tweets longer than 140 characters into multiple tweets and use the shorthand notation (ellipsis) to mark up the separate tweets in tContinuation format
  3. Automatically tweet the series of tweets in the correct order

B. Presentation

When a tweet is received, check for the tContinuation markers (/cont, and the shorthands – ellipsis, and three dots) at the very beginning and the very end of the tweet.

  1. If a marker appears at the start of a tweet, display it in a manner that makes it clear that the current tweet continues on from the previous one (e.g., display the two together as a single tweet, perhaps with the text of the new tweet highlighted)
  2. If a marker appears at the end of a tweet, display some sort of a continuation indicator that alerts the user that there is more content to come for this tweet (unless the next tweet has already been received in the current update, in which case see point 1, above.)

License

This Twitterformat Proposal is released under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

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