Chad Ochocinco and Relationship with Fan through Twitter

Chad Ochocinco, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, is one of the most prolific celebrity users of Twitter out there. This story details Ochocinco's relationship with a fan, Chris Kernich. The two communicated with Twitter, like Ochocinco does with many of his fans. Sadly, Kernich was killed in an altercation, and the story really focuses on how Kernich's friends and family used Twitter and Facebook to reach out to Ochocinco while Kernich was still fighting for his life.
One aspect of the article I liked, that probably could only have been done online, was the direct incorporation of Kernich's Twitter messages into the article. They are off set fro the article's normal text, and reminded me of a new chapter title in a book. They were used almost as transitions and helped set up what was about to come. The messages also acted as a decent alternative to not being able to interview Kernich himself. The story was still able to give some life and personality to Kernich through his own words, instead of relying on family members to describe him.
One thing that I could see as a problem, though, has to do with Twitter itself. There is a bunch of shorthand and symbols that are used to keep messages under the 140 character limit. To the uninitiated, this can sometimes make Twitter messages hard to read. It was a little cumbersome to read some of the messages, as many "@" symbols and abbreviations covered the messages. When using Twitter, one's mind can get into the swing of reading Twitter messages, but when put right next to normal English text, the transition can sometimes be a little jarring.