Starting today, Twitter is adding another 30 characters for display names. Now, users have up to 50 characters — up from 20 — to create their chosen display name. If you’re like me, a person with a long name that you insist on using despite years of struggling to print small enough to fit it on forms, this is a momentous occasion. No more abbreviations for us!
Of course, the change has slightly more frivolous applications, too. Think of all the possibilities for spooky names in October or festive names in December. You could put 30 more emoji in your name if you wanted to. You could use all 50 characters to name-flame — changing your display name to mock somebody so that when they quote-tweet you, your insult also appears in their tweet. (Twitter is changing its policies in the coming weeks to stop this from happening, so get it while the getting’s good.) As with every time Twitter changes something users didn’t ask for and didn’t actively need — us long-name-havers be damned — many of the replies to the company’s announcement include the requisite “Yeah, but where are you on dealing with the Nazis.” Which … where are you on dealing with the Nazis, Jack?
