150 Minimum Character Post Limit

Suggestions, comments, questions, and developments related to the Super Soaker Central site and forums.

What do you think the minimum character post limit should be?

50
12
33%
100
5
14%
150
2
6%
200
2
6%
250+
5
14%
None
10
28%
 
Total votes: 36

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Forceuser
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Post by Forceuser » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:17 am

I agree about having good spelling and grammar as well, but sometimes you need a short post. Just because it's shorter doesn't mean you haven't thought about it.

Oh, and BTW Toaster, your post without the bit in parentheses is only 194 characters, not 200! :P
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isoaker_com
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Post by isoaker_com » Sun Jan 16, 2005 3:03 pm

Most employers won't even hire you if you have just one spelling or grammatical error on your job app.
Uhh... writing a job application and posting on a soaker forum are very different activities (at least, to me). If I need to feel as if I'm writing a job application everytime I write a post here, I WON'T post here 'cos that's waaaaaaaaaaaay too stressful.

Like I said, I understandthatreadingpoststhathavenospacingcapitalizationorpunctuation are really annoying and should be fixed and/or the poster informed that it is TOO difficult to read. I was just wondering whether or not you guys are being lax enough so as to not make other members just feel fearful of posting altogether or upset with how the mods/admins have been editing their posts. Just my point o' concern. Feel free to disregard if you guys feel the benefits of being stricter here outweigh the costs.

As for post lengths, verbose posts do not equal good posts. However, if a minimum post length does help here, then go for it. I just babble here.

:P
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:52 pm

Yes, I agree, these aren't job applications! Don't treat them like they are, but of course, understandability is what counts.

(if we did make these job applications, all we'd be talking about was your past experiences and education&#33 ;)

This past summer we've seen all sorts of bad posting -- from complete lack of spelling to complete lack of grammar to many posts that add nothing to the discussion. These will occur every year and have occurred every year. These are annoying at best to our membership -- I know because they annoy me.

With such features as spell check and this minimum character limit, I am hosting to increase the quality of our posts (as I said before). Rules, though it is actually extremely rare that actual punishment is carried out, are in place to help explain proper posting, as in most other forums. Again, if some of you people went to other forums, you'd find approximately the same rules there. In fact, one of the most popular web design forums (I cannot recall the name) requires you to have made at least 3 quality reviews of another's website before you can request a review! Is that unfair? No, they are only looking for the best. No one complained when we added the spell check after all. I think everyone can be assured that our spell check has put most every recent post at the understandable level.

You can see posts that we do edit (usually mine) labeled with the "Edited by" legend. Typically posts are edited when spelling is meant to be good (as in article-style posts) or when the post was obscene in some way (you'll remember the recent spamming). I am quite sure no one is actually worried about us banning them for bad S&G. If you are, please bring it up! I made this place to be the smoothest possible experience and we do have a forum to bring these things up.

This minimum post modification has not worked as I wished though. If I encountered such a message, I'd expand my post. Apparently that's not what everyone would do. Our vote has proven (thusfar) that a 50 character limit is acceptable. None was also an option, but did not receive too many votes compared to 50. Therefore, most everyone should be fine with our current 50 character limit. iSoaker's example was a good one of when this can go wrong, though, I don't think an extra 12 characters would be too much to ask (that's a "Keep the good work up!"). :P

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Soakologist
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Post by Soakologist » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:37 pm

Some posts, put simply, don't need much to get their point across. In fact, people are more likely to read short posts. We should encourage people to be concise.
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:18 pm

The post limit has been reduced to 25 characters because apparently people hate the limit and only extend their post with useless writing. That was not my purpose in adding the limit.

If anyone has a problem with this new limit... I'll quit! :P

Godzillasoaker65
Posts: 257
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Post by Godzillasoaker65 » Sun Apr 03, 2005 1:53 am

I was fine with 50, so who wanted to change it?

^^that is already 47 characters, so how much more less can we need? You should just have no limit.
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:58 pm

I received only complaints from the post length limit, so I decided to remove it completely. I don't think that people realize that writing at least 50 characters is writing a short sentence. I also don't think that people realize that writing 25 characters is barely writing at all. To prevent further complaints, I've just decided to remove the limit completely.

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m15399
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Post by m15399 » Sun Apr 16, 2006 3:29 pm

How about a 10 character post minimum? Hardly anyone would notice it was there and it would keep people from saying ell oh ell or similar.

Edit: I just realized that the word filter fixes that... Should help prevent "I am laughing so hard that my butt fell off!" (l m a o) "rofl" "just kidding kids" (j k) and whatever else, though.

Edit 2: Dangit! That word filter is hilarious and catches everything. My post is pointless now.
Last edited by m15399 on Sun Apr 16, 2006 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sun Apr 16, 2006 4:29 pm

Hmmm...the word filter catches all the bad words but the dictionary is so weak that we see poor spelling all the time...strange :D .

Either that, or people only know how to spell slang words and don't care about formal words ;) .

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:36 am

It's not the dictionary that's weak. To me, it seems that the people with the initiative to use the spell check also are the people with the initiative to spell correctly in the first place. I used to tell people all of the time that we have a spell check for a reason and they should use it, especially when it corrects all of their errors, but I usually got complaints.

Checking the current minimum post length, I see that it is 10 characters already. That essentially means write a word or two. I'm changing it to 40 characters right now and I'll see how people respond. ;)

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:20 am

Oh, I thought I've seen a ton of posts where people have criticised the spell checking system...I guess I was wrong. I will look for these posts if I have time.

By the way, the response to a 40-character post minimum (not limit, as I believe you stated, Ben) will be, "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" That is exactly 40 characters, if you must know :D .

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Tue Apr 18, 2006 4:40 pm

Well, I think that anyone who has a problem with putting 40 letters together into a reply probably shouldn't be putting the reply in.

I've not had any problems with posts being too short, even the quick ones.

As a quick example:

The question:

"Could you tell me what to build a homemade out of?"

is exactly 40 characters. If anyone doubts that they can manage that or longer in a post, even a quick one, then I'm worried.
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Silence
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Post by Silence » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:45 pm

Yes, I completely agree with joannaardway. Ben, have you actually seen any posts with less than 40 characters (or even 50)? I admit that I have come close, but that's usually only for Off Topic polls and such where I'm only expressing my opinion--and briefly, at that.

Of course, if all the posts have at least 40 characters, then there's not much point in using a post minimum :D ...

Maybe you can include something that literally counts each picture as a thousand words (though they use up much more than a thousand words' space in size)--because if somebody posts a picture, it may often mean that they took a lot of trouble just to get the picture and to do that. I have seen, but not so much on the SSC forums, people post multiple pictures of their arsenals or informative diagrams/images of their homemades/mods. We should be happy that we have these to work with :) .

But no, this does not mean that I support a 10-word minimum, even if it is informative...

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DX
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Post by DX » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:52 pm

The record shortest post I've seen at SSC is 3 characters: l o l. Actually, ISCF has had a 2 character post once, it was either "oh" or "hi", I don't remember which.
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Silence
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Post by Silence » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:25 pm

Neither in my short time here at SSC, nor in my viewings of posts concerning minimum post character amounts, have I heard of a minimum as low as 3 characters. Maybe there was no requirement at one point. Either way, this is news to me :D .

That 2-character ISCF (I can't seem to think of what ISCF might mean) post probably was "oh," but without the comma I included just now--I like using proper, but informal, grammar. There have been many instances in which I have simply said more informative versions of this statement at SSC and at other forums.

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