• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 17, 2016

How absurd it is that the industry should gasp every time Twitter considers loosening the character limit within tweets?

It’s totally arbitrary, folks! Chill!

But, you say, "It could upset the fragile formula that made Twitter the social powerhouse that it is!"

That’s both ridiculous and baseless considering the existential crisis that Twitter currently faces.

At any rate, the company is reportedly preparing to stop counting photos and links within its 140-character limit. Sources tell Bloomberg that the change could come within the next two weeks.

Relatively speaking, the would-be change is minor when compared to earlier reports that Twitter was considering a 10,000-character limit.

The change also pales in comparison to Twitter’s recent decision to let users see more relevant tweets positioned more prominently in their timelines. 

The move away from real-time timelines sparked a backlash among some longtime Twitter users. Rallying around the hashtag #RIPTwitter, incensed users managed to momentarily turn their frustrations into a trending topic on Twitter.

Big or small, analysts say Twitter is doing the right thing by testing new features.

“Twitter is in ideation mode,” Forrester analyst Erna Alfred Liousas recently told Social Media & Marketing Daily. “It may sound painful to existing users, but they need to test their new ideas and gauge the response from existing and new users.”