Post Character Limits

[jmotivator]

When I get into long discussions with other posters I hit a visible character limit of ~3500 characters per post. My post can show "4100/5000" characters and still give me the "Your post is over 5000 characters" error.

Is there a way to fix the character count so that I can see ALL of the characters that the site is actually counting? It makes it much easier to formulate an argument if I know how many characters I actually have to work with.

 

[Napoleon]

When I get into long discussions with other posters I hit a visible character limit of ~3500 characters per post. My post can show "4100/5000" characters and still give me the "Your post is over 5000 characters" error.

Is there a way to fix the character count so that I can see ALL of the characters that the site is actually counting? It makes it much easier to formulate an argument if I know how many characters I actually have to work with.

Spaces count as characters.

 

[ASHES]

It's also counting BB code. So to tell how many characters you are using, select the view code button. It's the 3 dots between preview post and undo. Then click [ ], copy all the characters into a counter.

Changing the count has been suggested many times and it appears will never change, along with the 3 image limit.

 

[ASHES]

It's also counting BB code. So to tell how many characters you are using, select the view code button. It's the 3 dots between preview post and undo. Then click [ ], copy all the characters into a counter.

Changing the count has been suggested many times and it appears will never change, along with the 3 image limit.

Make sure to unselect code view when you're done as that will disable all the other text box controls. If you ever find your controls grayed out, the code button is the first thing to check.

 

[eohrnberger]

When I get into long discussions with other posters I hit a visible character limit of ~3500 characters per post. My post can show "4100/5000" characters and still give me the "Your post is over 5000 characters" error.

Is there a way to fix the character count so that I can see ALL of the characters that the site is actually counting? It makes it much easier to formulate an argument if I know how many characters I actually have to work with.

That'd be a nice feature, but it'd have to be some sort of script payload sent to the browser and processed there.

Further, I think that quoting another post in your post shouldn't count against your character limit, but that's just my opinion.

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

When I get into long discussions with other posters I hit a visible character limit of ~3500 characters per post. My post can show "4100/5000" characters and still give me the "Your post is over 5000 characters" error.

Is there a way to fix the character count so that I can see ALL of the characters that the site is actually counting? It makes it much easier to formulate an argument if I know how many characters I actually have to work with.

Make two posts back to back, problem solved.

 

[ataraxia]

When I get into long discussions with other posters I hit a visible character limit of ~3500 characters per post. My post can show "4100/5000" characters and still give me the "Your post is over 5000 characters" error.

Is there a way to fix the character count so that I can see ALL of the characters that the site is actually counting? It makes it much easier to formulate an argument if I know how many characters I actually have to work with.

If you have a lot of links and references, that really adds up.

But if that happens, what I do is just put a “continued next post” in the middle, and just continue it on next post.

 

[jmotivator]

Make two posts back to back, problem solved.

That is what everyone has traditionally done in both directions. The problem here becomes fairly obvious:

1) The current policy doesn't actually lead to lower post sizes, it just splits a 10,000 character reply into two posts.
2) In most conversations (generally fisking exchanges) often half of the argument gets lost in the exchange.

And none of that fixes the problem of the displayed character limit overestimating the actual character limit by as much as 30%

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

That is what everyone has traditionally done in both directions. The problem here becomes fairly obvious:

1) The current policy doesn't actually lead to lower post sizes, it just splits a 10,000 character reply into two posts.
2) In most conversations (generally fisking exchanges) often half of the argument gets lost in the exchange.

And none of that fixes the problem of the displayed character limit overestimating the actual character limit by as much as 30%

The other problem you will run into, how many of our readers will stay with a long rebuttal or post? Keep it tight and precise. Just my recommendation.

 

[jmotivator]

If you have a lot of links and references, that really adds up.

But if that happens, what I do is just put a “continued next post” in the middle, and just continue it on next post.

Right, see post above. I tend to remove links from the posts I'm responding to to save space, but usually end up having to truncate the quotes as well to the point where anyone reading that response tends to lose the full exchange.

 

[ASHES]

That is what everyone has traditionally done in both directions. The problem here becomes fairly obvious:

1) The current policy doesn't actually lead to lower post sizes, it just splits a 10,000 character reply into two posts.
2) In most conversations (generally fisking exchanges) often half of the argument gets lost in the exchange.

And none of that fixes the problem of the displayed character limit overestimating the actual character limit by as much as 30%

As I said, that's due to formatting and bbcode. What appears to be 3 letters 'boo' is actually 10, [ B]boo[/ B]. The remove formatting button can save you some characters from long posts with embedded links and other formatting. It is next to the code button and looks like an eraser. Click it with large portions of formatted text selected to save some room.

 

[jmotivator]

The other problem you will run into, how many of our readers will stay with a long rebuttal or post? Keep it tight and precise. Just my recommendation.

While the suggestion is certainly a valuable tool in debate, a fisking debate ends up representing a full point by point debate, rather than a single answer.

"Keep it tight and Precise" would be like having one side of a debate make 10-20 "tight and Precise" arguments then limiting the other side to 1.

 

[jmotivator]

As I said, that's due to formatting and bbcode. What appears to be 3 letters 'boo' is actually 10, [ B]boo[/ B]. The remove formatting button can save you some characters from long posts with embedded links and other formatting. It is next to the code button and looks like an eraser. Click it with large portions of formatted text selected to save some room.

Right, I understand that. My point is that the displayed character limit doesn't tally formatting characters.

 

[ASHES]

Right, I understand that. My point is that the displayed character limit doesn't tally formatting characters.

That is just a limitation of the implementation. There isn't a way around it afaik and I think I remember that's part of the reason the counting feature was turned off except by request. It's more of a guideline than a precise measurement. You have to do it manually with text copied from code view to a third party tool to get an accurate count.

 

[bythoughts]

The 5000 characters is simply too small a limit - especially considering that it is bypassed with social media quotes. Social media posts are generally a hostile way of presenting comments, since you can't just pick a line out of them to reply to, and you never know when they'll just vanish. So why have all those posts waved through the barricade while the rest of us are scratching our heads taking out a paragraph here and there and seeing if the thing will finally post? If 10000 scares you, at least try 8000 - most posts hit by this policy don't go past it by that much.

 

[ASHES]

The 5000 characters is simply too small a limit - especially considering that it is bypassed with social media quotes. Social media posts are generally a hostile way of presenting comments, since you can't just pick a line out of them to reply to, and you never know when they'll just vanish. So why have all those posts waved through the barricade while the rest of us are scratching our heads taking out a paragraph here and there and seeing if the thing will finally post? If 10000 scares you, at least try 8000 - most posts hit by this policy don't go past it by that much.

I think 5000 is generally reasonable. I find the people regularly going over it are usually copy pasting things not generating original content, which is what this site is for, user generated content, not just a platform for copy/pasting thousands of words from other places. Sometimes it is inconvenient when responding to a very long post but that can be fixed by truncating the quote, and the rare occasion where I hit it just typing, it is trivial to paste and complete the post in a text document then paste it into multiple posts.

 

[bythoughts]

I think 5000 is generally reasonable. I find the people regularly going over it are usually copy pasting things not generating original content, which is what this site is for, user generated content, not just a platform for copy/pasting thousands of words from other places.

I ran into the limit several times with some things I was writing. I tend to have some weird offerings in the "Beliefs and Skepticism" section.