@c @manton, It might be nicer/prettier UI if micro.blog kept the original mark up, but still ellipsed the content over the character limit rather than just stripping it all and providing text with a follow up link which kills some of the intent/context. Comparisons of various outputs from WordPress' Post Kinds Plugin that are shorter versus longer as well as versions with explicit titles can be seen on my account over the past week or so.
I've generally put titles on watches, listens, reads, etc., which generally shouldn't have them. It would be nicer for micro.blog to pick them up and display them a bit better and prevent the gymnastics that WP users are likely to encounter to get things presented on m.b. a bit better.
@c I'd like to preserve the markup when truncating, but it's tricky to do well, while still properly closing tags and generally not making a mess of the HTML.
@manton I suspect as much, but thought I'd register it for the bottom of the to-do list. Or more likely just leave it until micro.blog doesn't have a text limit and is simply a first class CMS.... ;)