@bastianallgeier It was still very like that when I joined in 2010. DMs and hashtags were becoming standard, but I met the #FailWhale often. And when conversations got very active some of my friends would hit a limit on the number of tweets they could send.
Also, quote tweets weren't a thing yet. We had a work-around, though--which works here, although I rarely use it because the lack of quote-toots is a conscious decision.