That was something I actually really liked about old Twitter: with only 140 characters (or whatever the original limit was), you really couldn't add the extra fluff to soften your opinion. You just said what you meant as succinctly as possible and let the masses react as they will.

I'd like to think it forced more people to go "mask off" with their opinions and stop hiding behind fluff, but it also perpetuated an attitude of toxicity that made Twitter ripe for extremist exploitation