VOA慢速英语:Changes to Twitter Let You Say More in a Tweet

The social media website Twitter has announced major updates to its service.
Some changes will make it easier to add words and images to a tweet. Other changes will affect how tweets can be sent and who will see them.
社交网站推特宣布对其服务进行重要更新调整。其中一些调整能让在推特中加文字和图片更简单。还有一些调整可以影响推特的发送方式和看到推特的用户人群。

Change in How Characters Are Counted
计算字数的方法调整
Twitter permits only 140 characters in a tweet, including letters, numbers, web addresses, images, spaces, and #hashtags. The limit on characters can make it difficult to say something meaningful.
The company is changing the way that characters are counted.
一条推特的字数限制是140个字，其中包含了字母、数字、网址、图像、空格和#话题。这种字数限制让人们很难表达有意义的内容。现在推特公司要改变计算字数的方式。

Twitter will no longer count the following as characters in tweets:
发推特时将不再计算如下内容：
* Web addresses
    * Photos
    * GIFs
    * Polls
    * Quote Tweets
    * Twitter IDs in Replies
网址
照片
图像文件
投票
引用的推特
回复时自带的推特ID

So when these are used in a tweet, they will not be counted against the 140-character limit. This is great news for those who want to have more space to share their thoughts on Twitter.
因此发推特时，上述内容将不会被计算在140个字的限制中。这对于那些想要在推特上有更多空间来表达想法的人来说是个好消息。

Web Addresses
网址

Web addresses, also known as URLs, will no longer be included in the character count. This change is very important, and not just because it gives users more words per tweet.
Web addresses can take up a lot of characters so some websites use a shortened web address in tweets.
For example, two web addresses can open the voice of America Learning English article "Travel Apps Offer Direction, Fun."
But not all shortened web addresses lead you to safe websites. Shortened web addresses can cause big problems because you cannot see the full web address of the website you are opening.
You may think you are clicking on a link to take you to a trusted website, but you may get a surprise, instead. The shortened link can hide the actual website that will open.
Clicking on a shortened link could open a site with malware. Your computer could become infected with a damaging program.
So, Twitter will now permit users to include the full web address without affecting the character count. As a result, there will be no need to use a shortened link.
网址，别名全球资源定位器（URL），将不会被计算在字数中。这一调整十分重要，不仅仅是因为能够让用户在每条推特中输入更多文字。网址占很多个字的空间，因此一些网址在推特上会进行简化。比如，有两个网址都能打开美国之声（VOA）上的英语学习文章，题为《旅游APP带给你方向和快乐》。
但并不是所有简化的网址都可以通往安全的网站。简化的网址可能引起很大的问题，因为你看不到你将打开的网站的完整网址。你可能认为你所点击的链接会带你到一个可信任的网址，但结果可能让你大吃一惊。简化的网址可能会将打开的实际网站隐藏起来。点击简化的网址可能会打开带有恶意软件的网站。你的电脑可能因此受到破坏性程序的感染。因此，推特将会允许用户将完整网址输入在推特中，而不计入字数。这样也就不需要简化的网址了。

Polls, GIFs, Photos and Quote Tweets
投票、图像文件、照片和引用的推特

Have you have ever written the perfect tweet, then added a photo and gone beyond the 140-character limit? That is frustrating.
Now when you write a tweet you can use all 140 characters, and an image. The image will not affect the character count.
你是否曾有过这样的经历：写好了完美的推特，但是加入照片后，就超过了140个字的限制。这很让人沮丧。现在你可以用140个字来写推特，然后再加入图片也无妨。因为图片并不会影响字数的限制。

Twitter Polls
投票

The same is true of Twitter polls. They will no longer count as characters.
上述调整对推特投票同样适用。投票也不再计入字数。

Quote Tweets
引用的推特

Similarly, users can quote a tweet and not have the quoted tweet count against the character limit. Click on the Quote Tweet button and the quoted tweet will be included in a tweet, but those characters will not count towards the limit.
与上述调整类似，用户引用推特也将不再计入字数。如果用户点击引用推特按钮，引用了的推特内容也会包含在用户的推特中，但不会计入字数。

Twitter IDs in Replies
回复时自带的推特ID

Twitter has also removed IDs in replies from the character count. Let's say a conversation starts on Twitter. You reply to a tweet that is itself a reply to someone else. And then someone else replies to that tweet.
The reply tweets could be filled with @name1 @name2 @name3, as the conversation continues. Suddenly, you have few characters left to share your thoughts. Twitter IDs in replies will no longer count against the limit.
Note that a Twitter ID will still count against the 140-character limit in tweets that are not replies.
推特还将回复时自带的ID刨除在字数计算之外。比如用户在推特上对话。你回复了推特，你的回复本身对另一个人来说就是回复。然后另一个人可以对这个推特进行回复。随着对话的进行，推特中可以加入类似@名字1@名字2@名字3这样的字眼。但你还需要一些文字来表达你的想法。回复中的推特ID不再是你的限制。需要注意的是，不是回复中的ID依然会计算在字数中。

Other Changes to Twitter
其他调整

Twitter announced more changes that will affect the way users tweet.
推特还进行了一些使用上的调整。

Retweet and Quote Tweet Yourself
转发和引用自己的推特

Twitter no longer bars users from retweeting their own tweets. You can retweet yourself and quote your own tweets as often as you like, whenever you like.
推特不再对用户转发自己的推特设限。转发和引用自己推特的频率和时间不再设限。

No More Targeted Tweets
不再针对被@的用户

But what Tweeters cannot do anymore is target a tweet to a person with their Twitter ID. In the past, tweets that started with @name were only seen by that person, and accounts that follow both the sender and the person who was mentioned.
Many people got around that restriction by starting a tweet with a period before the Twitter name. So a tweet would begin with .@name instead of @name so more people would see the tweet.
Twitter’s update means tweets that begin with @name will go to all of your followers, not just the followers you have in common with @name.
不过推特更新后不能做到的一点就是：不能专门针对某个人的ID发文。以前，推特中若出现@人名的字眼，则只有被@的人，以及在后续交互中发文者和被@的人重新提到的人可以看到这条推特。很多人通过这种方式来传播某条推特。因此，经过推特的调整，.@人名可以让更多人看到某条推特。因此，推特更新后，即便用户发送@人名，他/她的所有粉丝都可以看到这条推特，而不只是被@的人。

Availability
实用性
Twitter is making these changes slowly over the coming months. If you add a photo to a tweet and it uses up characters, then the changes for your account are not effective yet.
推特在未来的几个月里会逐步对上述内容进行调整。如果你在推特中加入照片后就占用了所有字数空间，则你的账号更新尚未生效。卡蒂•韦弗为您播报。

I’m Caty Weaver