Twitter to Add Retweet Option but No Editing?

I’m excited about the new retweet option Twitter is finally getting around to adding to their website, although I do have a few questions. Hopefully in a couple weeks, when the option becomes available, it will turn out that my concerns were unfounded.

Up until now if you wanted to retweet something someone else said you either needed to be using a third party app like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop or you had to copy and paste the original tweet and add your own “RT” to it. Soon, however, anyone that uses Twitter proper will be able to click a button to send a retweet. Not only that but you won’t need to list all the earlier retweeters if you’re not the first because they will be listed below the retweet.

Below is a screen shot provided by Twitter that shows how the retweet option will work. Click the image to view at actual size.

Based on what I’ve read so far, it appears that we will not have the option to edit the retweets, which I personally don’t like at all. I think it’s important to be able to add our own comments to things we retweet. Then it’s not just a bunch of people repeating the same thing but actually adding their two cents worth to the conversation at the same time. I do think it’s a nice touch though that they are indicating it was a retweet below the tweet and listing the name of the person who retweeted so we don’t have to use up characters for our own name.

Another concern I have is the way they seem to be planning to list the names of the retweeters below the retweet. What in the world is the page going to look like if 300 people have retweeted? Or do they plan to only list the name of the person that wrote the original tweet plus the last person to retweet it? Or will it just be the first person to retweet it in which case if I retweet his retweet I won’t even get credit?

I’m looking forward to the new retweet option but hopefully by the time it’s released, Twitter will have rethought the editing issue.