Character limit in profile posts

[Xonok]

Could we have it removed or increased? 420 characters is easy to reach with any kind of meaningful words. I don't remember ever running into this on the old site, but on the new one it's a constant annoyance to have to break up posts into multiple parts or abuse pastebin just to be able to say things in one piece.

 

[IcemanBo]

Agree.

 

[pyf]

Imho the 420 characters limit helps writing in a concise manner. Plus, one can multipost at will in the Profile tab.

I personally got accustomed to it over time.

 

[Ralle]

Inorite?

 

[Kyrbi0]

Soooooo much agreement. @Ralle, plz

 

[deepstrasz]

There's the Start a Conversation option too or do you prefer everybody seeing your huge posts as VM?

 

[Ralle]

I once promised @Keiji a 1000 character limit on both profile posts and comments.

 

[Shar Dundred]

And you intend to keep that promise?

 

[deepstrasz]

I'd be more inclined for the reduction of the wait time between messages (0-1 seconds?).
Would help a lot when I'd be advertising contests and interesting stuff related to this site of course.

 

[Ralle]

And you intend to keep that promise?

I do, but I didn't add a time limit .

 

[GhostWolf]

Imho the 420 characters limit helps writing in a concise manner. Plus, one can multipost at will in the Profile tab.

I personally got accustomed to it over time.

Yes, give us another way to post messages, but limit it so it's super annoying and useless, and then call it concise.

If I have to split a simple message to 4, get warnings about spam so I have to wait 20 seconds between posting them, and need to use pastebin either way for any kind of BB code, then what on earth is the point of it existing?

Is this Twitter? a place for useless garbage messages?

 

[pyf]

Yes, give us another way to post messages, but limit it so it's super annoying and useless, and then call it concise.

On Twitter, messages are restricted to 140 characters.

Once again I am pointing out, one can multipost on one's Profile.
One may also use VM, which is not restricted to two participants only btw.

At first I felt restricted, but not for long.

If I have to split a simple message to 4, get warnings about spam so I have to wait 20 seconds between posting them, and need to use pastebin either way for any kind of BB code, then what on earth is the point of it existing?

You can type 420 characters in 20 seconds or less? Wow...

Do PMs accept BB code?

Is this Twitter? a place for useless garbage messages?

Is a long message necessarily relevant or useful?

 

[GhostWolf]

No, you are right, I write words for no real purpose, just out of sheer boredom...

I don't know how fast I write, but I also don't tend to go and manually check how many letters I typed, meaning I try to post, have to cut it at arbitrary points, try to post again, oops, still 420, cut again, post, wait 20 seconds, post the other part, oops, more than 420, cut, post, wait 20 seconds, ...

You can spin it however you want, this is stupid.

All of your "solutions" are to not use it, so good job on agreeing.

 

[pyf]

One would not write a thesis on a postcard, right? Well, I believe Profile posts *are* the equivalent of postcards, and I personally use them that way. As postcards. And one can currently write 3 times more text on a single one, than one can on Twitter.

This limit can be raised.

So, what is the max number of characters one would require to avoid splitting his/her messages in Profile posts? As for you @GhostWolf, I understand a simple message from you requires 420*4 characters. Now what about a not-so-simple one?

I personally can do with 420 characters in Profile posts / postcards.

Now, Hive community, what about you?

 

[GhostWolf]

I don't see why there needs to be an artificial limit that serves no known purpose in the first place. Why 420? why 1000? why anything? Is there a purpose for an arbitrary limit? Explain the logic please.

 

[pyf]

Ask @Ralle.

So you want to be able to write an infinity of characters in a single Profile post.
Ok, got it.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I think what he's getting at is that he wishes, as I do, for the VMs to simply be an extension of the forum, but for only two people (I'm aware, as of recently, that others can actually barge in on your VM, which is interesting). A secluded, if not private, conversation place; without the overhead, rigor & import of a Private Message.

"Postcard" is a good analogy, however. I suppose I just get really frustrated because when I want to go off on a personal tangent with someone about something, but don't consider it 'important enough' to bother with the whole "PM" architecture, I immediately jump to their profile & begin a VM... Which invariably extends beyond any reasonable limit.

Case in point, this very post has reached 1010 characters, which would've required 3 VM's (though since I wouldn't know that & the VM screen doesn't tell you, I would've probably chunked it up into at least 4 just to be safe; that's another 20 seconds of twiddling my thumbs). And all I did was cough (figuratively).

 

[deepstrasz]

Then... why not let the >420 char message split itself into more? (stupid, I know, right?)

 

[pyf]

Stupid? Brilliant idea, I say.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Then... why not let the >420 char message split itself into more? (stupid, I know, right?)

Is the sarcasm directed at me, or... I think it'd be great if the over-large VM auto-chunked itself.

 

[deepstrasz]

Is the sarcasm directed at me, or... I think it'd be great if the over-large VM auto-chunked itself.

Sorry mate. Did not realize you've suggested that before me writing like this: can you see this cause if you can't then you're a flying catfish.

 

[Ralle]

Actually. Profile Posts are limited to 140 and profile post comments are 420. Don't ask me why. The source code actually references Twitter. It is pathetic. I plan to increase it to 1000 when I have the time.

 

[GhostWolf]

Stupid? Brilliant idea, I say.

Again, explain your logic.
You keep writing you support a limit, but then all of your arguments suggest the opposite.

If I want to send a 2k character message, how on earth is it more logical for it to be split over 5 different messages, or 2, or any N!=1? And making it automatic? So you want extra code that processes your text just to split it and then repost it in multiple posts....??? What????? Logic where??????????????

 

[Deleted member 219079]

1000 is something.

I'd be more inclined for the reduction of the wait time between messages (0-1 seconds?).
Would help a lot when I'd be advertising contests and interesting stuff related to this site of course.

Agreed.

 

[pyf]

Again, explain your logic.
You keep writing you support a limit, but then all of your arguments suggest the opposite.

If I want to send a 2k character message, how on earth is it more logical for it to be split over 5 different messages, or 2, or any N!=1? And making it automatic? So you want extra code that processes your text just to split it and then repost it in multiple posts....??? What????? Logic where??????????????

I keep writing I can do with a 420 character limit.
I keep writing anyone can multipost in one's Profile.
Therefore, there is no limit in what one can post in a Profile.


If you want to effortlessly send a 2k character message, then I suggest you use PM (=Conversation). That way, you can use BB codes too. I am pointing out, Conversations are not restricted to two individuals only.

Automatic Profile Post comments splitting would allow to avoid the 20 second wait time. Plus, it might make a wall of text more readable, by automatically splitting it into chunks.


I believe you simply want some parts of the old Hive back, am I right?

1000 is something.

Seems not to be satisfying for everybody.
Heh, even the infinite could be an arbitrary limit, since there might exist an infinite+1

 

[Kyrbi0]

I keep writing I can do with a 420 character limit.
I keep writing anyone can multipost in one's Profile.
Therefore, there is no limit in what one can post in a Profile.


If you want to effortlessly send a 2k character message, then I suggest you use PM (=Conversation). That way, you can use BB codes too. I am pointing out, Conversations are not restricted to two individuals only.

Automatic Profile Post comments splitting would allow to avoid the 20 second wait time. Plus, it might make a wall of text more readable, by automatically splitting it into chunks.


I believe you simply want some parts of the old Hive back, am I right?



Seems not to be satisfying for everybody.
Heh, even the infinite could be an arbitrary limit, since there might exist an infinite+1

The BBCode deficiency is a big issue, as well. Is that hard to fix, @Ralle?

Even though an 'infinite limit' would be neat, I'd be just fine with a massively-extended limit (i.e. 1000). If I've written 1000 characters, I need take a step back & re-evaluate. More likely, it just gives me a chance to realize "huh, yeah, that is a lot". I don't feel bad, like when I hit 420 just by breathing.

#398

 

[pyf]

The BBCode deficiency is a big issue, as well. Is that hard to fix, @Ralle?

Even though an 'infinite limit' would be neat, I'd be just fine with a massively-extended limit (i.e. 1000). If I've written 1000 characters, I need take a step back & re-evaluate. More likely, it just gives me a chance to realize "huh, yeah, that is a lot". I don't feel bad, like when I hit 420 just by breathing.

#398

I understand this deficiency is a feature. No idea why nobody reported it when Hive 2.0 was still in beta testing.

Seems 1000 is not massive enough. Which might actually be true, if one posts links to moderate amount of web pages. But again, one can multipost...

Knowing exactly when to cut a text >420 characters long, might currently be useful. Not sure it could be implemented, though...

 

[GhostWolf]

See attached image.
Yes, having to split it sure made it so much more neat. Totally.
It is apparently 1970, when every byte counted. Gotta be smart with your word selections (but not really, because you can split, so really it's just an arbitrary inconvenience).

Forget it. I can't even.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Hive isn't democratic. If 1000 is the new limit it is honestly at least something, change for better.

 

[Xonok]

Well, ideally I'd have it so that there is no limit that people might easily reach. If the posts would be too long visually just use a scrollbar.
I find it perfectly reasonable that you can't write a book there, but right now I can't even go in-depth on anything. A person asks me a question and I have to either start arbitrarily splitting my message, spending lots of unnecessary time just to circumvent the limit, or just use pastebin and thus entirely ignore the system. Make the limit something reasonable like the character limit in forum posts.

 

[GhostWolf]

All arguments for a limit so far give exactly zero reasoning, other than the fact that these are currently the facts, and are thus not actual arguments.
"There should be a limit because there's a limit".
If you can't give a single actual reasoning, you already lost the debate.

"Wall of text" - how is this relevant to anything? you can write a wall of text in 20 messages or 1. That's on you.
"It's more concise" - look at reality instead of some imaginary universe, the only thing it did was add duplicates of the forum metadata in between the text, making it less readable.
"You can multipost" - point above, and also then completely defeats the purpose of a limit to begin with, good job.
"Is a long message necessarily relevant or useful" - I guess you are the one to decide if a message is important to someone, or how long it should be, good to know.

And again I ask. Where. Is. The. Logic.

Oh right, there's a limit. That's the logic.

The only valid response so far is Ralle not having time.

Can't argue with people who use no logic whatsoever in their arguments, just impossible, it's like talking to a wall.

Bye.

 

[Ralle]

I feel the limit has been too tight for most messages, but VMs are now meant to be short bursts. That is the idea set by the XenForo guys. Many of the interfaces support it. I don't want to change too many things but I am willing to increase the limit to 1000. It should help with many messages and not break too many things.

 

[pyf]

I don't see why there needs to be an artificial limit that serves no known purpose in the first place. Why 420? why 1000? why anything? Is there a purpose for an arbitrary limit? Explain the logic please.

If I want to send a 2k character message, how on earth is it more logical for it to be split over 5 different messages, or 2, or any N!=1?

I am willing to increase the limit to 1000. It should help with many messages and not break too many things.

@Ralle: I am guessing someone is pissed with your answer.

As for me, I can do with a 1000 character limit as well as with a 420 one.
I can adapt. I can also use other Hive features already available, if Profile Posts do not suit my needs for what I have to express. Which is currently not the case for me.

Even though an 'infinite limit' would be neat, I'd be just fine with a massively-extended limit (i.e. 1000).

Agreed.

Now just pointing out, there is always some kind of limit anywhere. One only has to reach it.

See attached image.
Yes, having to split it sure made it so much more neat. Totally.
It is apparently 1970, when every byte counted. Gotta be smart with your word selections (but not really, because you can split, so really it's just an arbitrary inconvenience).

Forget it. I can't even.

Profile Posts are obviously not the place to write code. Again: think *postcards*.

So this is what you want in the end? To be able to post code of any size in Profile Posts without a hassle?

Hive isn't democratic. If 1000 is the new limit it is honestly at least something, change for better.

Hive is democratic. But each individual has to clearly and precisely express what he/she wants to those in charge. And then they decide what is best to do.

When Hive 2.0 officially went live, the character limit for comments was below 420. Some quickly complained. Ralle heard them, and promptly raised the limit to 420 characters for Profile Posts comments. And everyone(?) was happy back then.

Well, ideally I'd have it so that there is no limit that people might easily reach. If the posts would be too long visually just use a scrollbar.
I find it perfectly reasonable that you can't write a book there, but right now I can't even go in-depth on anything [...]. Make the limit something reasonable like the character limit in forum posts.

So how many characters do you wish to be able to post in a single Profile Post / Profile Post comment?

All arguments for a limit so far give exactly zero reasoning, other than the fact that these are currently the facts, and are thus not actual arguments.
"There should be a limit because there's a limit".
If you can't give a single actual reasoning, you already lost the debate.

There is no debate. Each individual can state his own personal point of view in this thread. And then those in charge finally decide. Period.

"There should be a limit because there's a limit".

No. There is a limit and I can personally deal with it, whatever the limit is/will be.

Now I am pointing out, trying to demean / alter someone else's arguments in order to make his own ones prevail without a clear argumentation, feels like guerilla tactics to me.

I understand you want to be able to post an infinity of characters in a single Profile Post / Profile Post comment, because you want/need to be able to effortlessly post program code there. Am I right yes or no?

 

[Xonok]

I don't think in characters. What disturbs me is that most of the time when I write someone a VM it goes over the limit. The limit should exist for technical reasons, but it should be high enough that I won't reach it unless I do something stupid like copying an entire book.
But yes, being able to put code samples there would be very nice. I haven't had to do it so far, but I'm sure it would easily go over the current limit and 1000 characters would not be enough either.
So yeah, that's my official stance - a limit should be high enough that I don't know it's there until I purposefully go looking for it.

 

[pyf]

I don't think in characters [...]. The limit should exist for technical reasons, but it should be high enough that I won't reach it unless I do something stupid like copying an entire book.
But yes, being able to put code samples there would be very nice. I haven't had to do it so far, but I'm sure it would easily go over the current limit and 1000 characters would not be enough either.
So yeah, that's my official stance - a limit should be high enough that I don't know it's there until I purposefully go looking for it.

A rough estimate of the number of characters needed sure would help a computer scientist to implement it (if possible).

So for you, the ideal character limit would be the hardcoded XenForo one, if I understand?

Since code samples can be of any size and can not easily be trimmed (unlike text) and would have to fit into a single Profile Post / Profile Post comment for easy CnP, I am at a loss about what the ideal character limit would be for them.

What numerical value would fit 'high enough' when dealing with code samples?
Ideas, anyone?

 

[Flux]

I'm ok with 2047 (I never reached the limit though because I rarely used it *sniffs* but it seems reasonably high enough making it hard to reach yet not too high so that one can't post an entire novel) and more importantly BB Codes functionality.

EDIT: Thanks jondrean for pointing out that spelling error.

 

[deepstrasz]

Well, the complaint here is the cause of laziness; people don't want to use the Conversation and/or Pastebin instead.

Hive isn't democratic. If 1000 is the new limit it is honestly at least something, change for better.

Good point.

Can't argue with people who use no logic whatsoever in their arguments, just impossible, it's like talking to a wall.

Bye.

A-ha... be smarter.
What's next, chat complaints?

 

[Xonok]

A rough estimate of the number of characters needed sure would help a computer scientist to implement it (if possible).

So for you, the ideal character limit would be the hardcoded XenForo one, if I understand?

Since code samples can be of any size and can not easily be trimmed (unlike text) and would have to fit into a single Profile Post / Profile Post comment for easy CnP, I am at a loss about what the ideal character limit would be for them.

What numerical value would fit 'high enough' when dealing with code samples?
Ideas, anyone?

Essentially the hardcoded limit, yes. I think after a couple thousand I wouldn't notice anyway.

 

[pyf]

Essentially the hardcoded limit, yes. I think after a couple thousand I wouldn't notice anyway.

Now I am wondering what this hardcoded XenForo limit is.

 

[GhostWolf]

What's next, chat complaints?

Pssshhh. I did that a very long time ago, and they all got fixed. Watcha gonna say now?

It did take me stealing people's identities to get it through though. It was all fun. Would do again.

 

[pyf]

I don't see why there needs to be an artificial limit that serves no known purpose in the first place. Why 420? why 1000? why anything? Is there a purpose for an arbitrary limit? [...]

The BBCode deficiency is a big issue, as well. [...]

Even though an 'infinite limit' would be neat, I'd be just fine with a massively-extended limit (i.e. 1000). [...]

[...] If 1000 is the new limit it is honestly at least something, change for better.

I'm ok with 2047 (I never reached the limit though because I rarely used it *sniffs* but it seems reasonably high enough making it hard to reach yet not too high so that one can't post an entire novel) and more importantly BB Codes functionality.

Essentially the hardcoded [XenForo] limit, yes. I think after a couple thousand I wouldn't notice anyway.

Thanks guys.

Agree.

Now what about you @IcemanBo ?

As a Code Moderator, you know what the maximum code sample length in a single post is on THW.
Therefore, what would the ideal character limit be, for Profile Posts / Profile Posts comments with code samples in it?

 

[Cherrymage]

Sometimes I just want to make a VM talk where others can join in anytime for free -- normally Conversations have a limit of members which can participate -- what if your talk involves more than five? And no, I don't want to abuse Pastebin just for the sake of sending a message to my friends. Also, who knows, we would need the pastebins for future reference?

Well, I think we should raise the limit to something like 1701 characters or 1911 characters. That way, we don't have to break our messages by several posts and there would be no longer any need to wait for 30 seconds before posting another part of the message.

P.S. or something higher yet not too high to let people post entire novels. Also, as a trivial information, the numbers 1701 and 1911 refer to the respective years when two greatest countries ever in history were founded

 

[deepstrasz]

Here's the thing. If raising the character number is harder (takes more time etc.) than setting the wait time to 0-1seconds then do the latter and everybody will be happy, well, half-happy.

 

[pyf]

P.S. or something higher yet not too high to let people post entire novels. Also, as a trivial information, the numbers 1701 and 1911 refer to the respective years when two greatest countries ever in history were founded

Haha, in honor of Blizzard raising the map file size limit from 8MB to 128MB (8*16), I had thought we could raise the character size limit to 420*16, which might be a bit excessive.

*But*, with a Tweet / Profile Post as a reference, we would get 140*16=2240 characters.

So, could 2240 make sense that way? Just a silly idea...

 

[fladdermasken]

Graham's number! Set the limit to Graham's number!

 

[GhostWolf]

Obviously 2^16.

 

[deepstrasz]

Graham's number! Set the limit to Graham's number!

Obviously 2^16.

To implement a theoretical means of evolution to this site's messaging platform, we could leave it at 2017 and add one more number each year.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I don't think in characters. What disturbs me is that most of the time when I write someone a VM it goes over the limit. The limit should exist for technical reasons, but it should be high enough that I won't reach it unless I do something stupid like copying an entire book.
But yes, being able to put code samples there would be very nice. I haven't had to do it so far, but I'm sure it would easily go over the current limit and 1000 characters would not be enough either.
So yeah, that's my official stance - a limit should be high enough that I don't know it's there until I purposefully go looking for it.

Quoted For Truth. This is pretty much exactly what I believe.

 

[IcemanBo]

Therefore, what would the ideal character limit be, for Profile Posts / Profile Posts comments with code samples in it?

I wouldn't write code samples anymore on profile, just because of no activated bb code anymore. Texts without any bb code, the suggested 1k sounds somewhat ok.

 

[Ralle]

I have written an addon allowing me to customize the maximum number of letters and it is now 1000.