What do you think of the current character limit for posts?

[ProjectTeam]

Hello everyone,

Some of you may know that when making posts on the forums you are limited to 2,500 characters. We'd love your feedback on this, so we have two questions for you.

• How do you feel about the current character limit?
• How would you feel if there was no limit at all?

We would love to hear your thoughts.

Project Team
Beyond Blue

[tranzcrybe]

Oooh I love questionnaires...

OP : unlimited

- this is, after all, the space to get everything off your chest!

Replies: First 500 characters FREE,

the rest charged per data byte (with proceeds preferably passed onto members for their fortitude... teehee).

Are there any prizes for the correct answer?

[ProjectTeam]

There are no incorrect or correct answers tranzcrybe!

That's an interesting idea to apply a limit to replies, but have no limit for the first post in the thread. We may know why you've suggested that, but we'd love to understand why you have, in your own words.

[Hanna3]

No limit sounds great but maybe some people could get a bit carried away and write too much for other people to have the time to read, and/or it could mean moderating the posts takes more time.

I think a reasonable limit would be around 3500 to 4000 - I am running out of word count in replies at 2500 and I'm finding this too short for a very comprehensive reply so a bit more room to maoeuvre would be good.

[Fiatlux]

The character limit is fine, especially if you are reaching out for immediate support.

It’s easy to read and engage with shorter posts and well formatted text.

It can be difficult to read large blocks of text for some of us oldies, where there are no line breaks or paragraphs.

When I post, even in Socials, I try to consider the reader and abbreviate where possible.

Once you receive replies, it’s easy to add more detail directly to the respondent.

[Croix]

Dear ProjectTeam~

I have my own views on this but do not wish to influence the free flow of ideas from members so will confine my self to two observations (if technically feasible) that go hand in hand with any judgment on length of posts:

•  Firstly all characters, punctuation, spaces and emoji should have the same value, i.e. one character
• Secondly there needs to be a running total visible as one writes so one can judge how to fit things in.

 (A less system-intensive version of the second point would instead be to include the character count when an error message comes up saying a post exceeds the limit so one can judge how much to prune)

Croix

[tranzcrybe]

Fair enough, we are all winners!

I'll just have to settle for a 'participation award' then...

"We may know why you've suggested that, but we'd love to understand why you have,..." 

...hm, and I would LOVE to understand your evaluation of my thinking, but the interpretation of posts is entirely at the discretion of the reader (as I have well learned) to accept, reject, or ignore; as such, I offer my opinion at face value for what it is worth and without expectation.

I am happy to compare notes, but this is beyond the scope of this forum.

[ProjectTeam]

Hi Hanna3,

Thanks for your feedback on this.

How the post length might affect the time it takes to moderate the post isn't something we had thought about.

[ProjectTeam]

Hi Fiatlux,

Thanks for your feedback.

I find large blocks of text with no line breaks or paragraphs difficult to read too. I think that's a challenge at any age!

[Hanna3]

I don't know how they are moderated - through a computer?  But yes I wondered if this might be more time consuming?