I hope Jack Dorsey does a great job as CEO of Twitter. The users and developers need to get a real feedback loop going. When Twitter has worked, been growing and exciting, it's been because ideas could develop in the user community, and then make their way back into the product. That part stopped working a number of years ago, and imho that's been why Twitter has been stagnating. No source of fresh wild ideas to be tamed and presented to and used by the people.

It's so obvious, to me at least, the biggest thing the community has been trying to get Twitter to see is that the channel of communication needs to include not just images and movies, but text too. Tweetstorms, as illustrated by Jack's announcement this morning, pioneered by Marc Andreessen, codified by my own Little Pork Chop, say clearly that a better way to communicate a chain of written ideas is much needed.

There are lots of possible approaches. I suggested one on Saturday in a little bit of code I hacked together, the idea borrowed from Facebook, which has had this working for quite some time, without much user pain, I assume.

Why this expansion is needed: simply, people don't click links, news needs to flow better, esp in light of the problems with ads and blockers, spyware, etc. This is all part of a swirl of issues that interrelate, and clearly limit Twitter's utility and obviously its growth.

I hope Jack sees the problem and has the guts to take it on.

PS: And please don't make developers wait for the new functionality. We should get access as soon as the features are public in the platform, or even better, before. That'll take some guts too, because some developers grow up to be Instagram. But maybe that's a good thing!

PPS: Cross-posted in full text without links on Facebook.