minimum #characters for a post

[Raccoon]

as I replied to airline2 http://www.adisc.org/forum/showthread.php?p=18090#post18090

hi

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least two characters.
TWO? 2? It used to be 10! I wondered how you got away with that...

It really should be 10 or we will get more such posts. Posts of 2 characters don't contribute much to the forum, even in a continuing conversation, certainly not in a greeting thread. We do not, I assume want to see posts consisting entirely of "colon capital D" ie

​

(below spammage may be removed once the point has been taken. Raccoons love to provide examples, samples, citations, quotes, proofs, and samples. BTW, apart from the last given reason, and aesthetics aside, two-character posts are unsearchable!! This makes it a royal headache for the mods should they want to remove the offending posts! Out damn spot!!

 

[Raccoon]

 

[avery]

i disagree. it's nice to be able to post an image or even just a smiley as a response to a thread without having to add a bunch of invisible gobbledygook to fulfill the minimum character requirements. it's not the length of your post that matters, it's the amount of insight you put into it, and sometimes a nonverbal reply can be quite insightful.

although i agree that "hi" is a pretty ridiculous post.

 

[Raccoon]

Hmmm Avery makes a valid point, notwithstanding the validity of my points. The lesson is that this 2-character feature is open to abuse, or at least misuse. But it can be used to good effect as well. I look forward to more opinions on the matter.

Was the minimum character length intentionally shortened, or was it an accident?

Is the unsearchability of 2 character posts really something worth worrying about?

Thanks once again Avery for this: it is not that I was wrong, as such, but there was another viewpoint which allowed for a different opinion.

 

[recovery]

the only issue is that when I quote replies and split them up. Clicking Preview pulls the "Insufficient Characters" error. I haven't started writing my reply. I wanted to ensure that I cut up the text correctly. Just so its easier to tell where things go wrong.

If it is going to be two characters. It might as well be removed. We have the Rep system and edit button for things like these.

 

[starshine]

While in -some- cases a 2 character post might be sufficient and insightful, others may not, like "hi." It's a matter of where do we draw the line. It's not really fair that someone can post a smiley, but another person can't write hi. I say ignore all 2 character posts, or correct all of them. And while a smiley may be sufficient, how hard is it to just add a one line comment to it?

 

[BromeTeks]

I think it might have to do with the minumum amount of space required to get a message across. With a 2 letter minimum, the messages Hi, WTF, OMG etc. come to mind.

 

[DannyTheNinja]

While in -some- cases a 2 character post might be sufficient and insightful, others may not, like "hi." It's a matter of where do we draw the line. It's not really fair that someone can post a smiley, but another person can't write hi. I say ignore all 2 character posts, or correct all of them. And while a smiley may be sufficient, how hard is it to just add a one line comment to it?

With the right choice of smiley, sometimes a two-character reply is all you need to get your point across or make the joke apparent.

Maybe require that posts in the Greetings forum are minimum 20 characters, and in all other forums a minimum of 2?

--Danny :ninja:

 

[Trevor]

I think it might have to do with the minumum amount of space required to get a message across. With a 2 letter minimum, the messages Hi, WTF, OMG etc. come to mind.

None of those seem like particularly useful or important additions to a conversation to me, but I don't think it's going to get much better with a ten character limit. I guess I'd prefer that no one made posts with such small content (although I'm willing to concede that sometimes a single image really works, just not as often as they're used), but I don't see it as worth our time to regulate. As long as there's something in there, it's probably good enough. If it's a pattern of stupidity, negative rep will probably follow and it will resolve.

 

[Moo]

I reduced the limit to two characters, because I wanted to be able to reply to people who were blatantly lying with the following short post :

:banned:

I don't really mind if people post posts like "hi". Yes, it is short and slighly useless, but better that a newbie cuts their teeth by posting that then doesn't post anything at all. Not everyone is as articulate as we are. Some may really struggle for something to say.

What I do mind is when people quote HUGE chunks of text, only to put "lol" at the end. That is annoying, and the reason for the original 10 character requirement.

I'll attach a poll to this thread, outlining the various options. Please vote on it.

Personally, I'm inclined to try having a zero-character requirement. That would let people do things like preview multi-quoted posts without generating an error.
We can always give a point of negrep to people who post a completely blank post.

 

[Martin]

An other reason why 0 characters would be good as sometimes quoting a couple things and putting them next to each other can say all you have to say. Which isn't bad if you selectively quote (strip the useless parts).

 

[Charlie]

I vote 50!
Nah not really.

I think 0, but giving negative rep to people who often make pointless posts. Because making it a high wouldn't help... we'd end up pointless posts with "a bunch of invisible gobbledygook to fulfill the minimum character requirements.".

 

[Moo]

I've changed it to zero, following the clear winning streak that this option is on.

The forum software will always enforce some kind of minimum character limit on posts (to prevent blank posts). But, for now, it is as close as it can get.

 

[kevintje]

I would say 20, but that's just a guideline, sometimes it's not needed to type much if you only mean 'lol'

 

[baconbit]

A ten character limit is great i think that a pointful post can't be any less than 10 letters.

 

[Raccoon]

This is strictly out of curiosity: if you post an emoticon which uses multiple text characters, does the forum software count it as one character or the # characters in its tag, for the purposes of char. count in a post?

Also, would it be worthwhile to enable emoticons in rep comments? I would like this, but I would guess many would feel it to be an overkill feature and waste of programming time.

 

[whitefox]

Also, would it be worthwhile to enable emoticons in rep comments? I would like this, but I would guess many would feel it to be an overkill feature and waste of programming time.

The basic ones already are enabled. I know I've used the a few times.

 

[baconbit]

This is strictly out of curiosity: if you post an emoticon which uses multiple text characters, does the forum software count it as one character or the # characters in its tag, for the purposes of char. count in a post?

I would like to know too.

 

[Martin]

Also, would it be worthwhile to enable emoticons in rep comments? I would like this, but I would guess many would feel it to be an overkill feature and waste of programming time.

Already is enabled.