Suggestion Post length counter

[Sono]

I don't think anyone has suggested this yet.

I see a lot of annoyance around post length limits, so... why not add an option to display the current post length in the textbox?

Could mitigate the frustration, by displaying in real time, how much your letter budget it, so you can quantifiably see if you're 1 letter or 50 letters off from the limit.

Instead of having to do the equivalent of this thing

Spoiler: GIF

 

[lightwo]

Would be very handy. I personally use a word count addon, because it isn't uncommon for a site to have limits and not make it obvious when they're crossed.

 

[SDA]

I think it's a good idea, because I don't know how long is the first post in my GB to GBC hacks thread and I might hit the word limit as I add more reviews and games to my wishlist in it.

 

[shaunj66]

Are you talking about profile posts or forum posts? The latter has a very generous limit so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yes please. Writing profile posts is an exercise in frustration.

 

[Sono]

Are you talking about profile posts or forum posts? The latter has a very generous limit so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Oh oops, profile posts. Regular posts have a comically large limit.

 

[K3Nv4]

If anything text limits on profile posts should be removed, it gets annoying responding to someone and you get hit with too many character limits.

 

[Sono]

If anything text limits on profile posts should be removed, it gets annoying responding to someone and you get hit with too many character limits.

There is a reply to a profile post (lol, good luck to any of us finding it, afaik it's from 2025 april or so) that explains why this is.
From my memory, it's related to profile posts being stored differently, and increasing the limit would balloon the database size due to wasted space.

But yeah, the limit is stupid.

 

[K3Nv4]

There is a reply to a profile post (lol, good luck to any of us finding it, afaik it's from 2025 april or so) that explains why this is.
From my memory, it's related to profile posts being stored differently, and increasing the limit would balloon the database size due to wasted space.

But yeah, the limit is stupid.

That was my original thought to it but image attachments surly boggles down database sizes way more than text does.

 

[Sono]

That was my original thought to it but image attachments surly boggles down database sizes way more than text does.

Nope!

I mean, yes, and no. Yes in the obvious sense.

But otherwise no. Simplified, regular forum posts and profile posts are stored in the database in two different formats, with forum posts being variable-length, and profile posts being fixed-length. Because it's fixed length, increasing the max profile post length will just scale up that fixed length, ballooning the database in size.

Honestly, I don't know why it's stored as fixed-length, but I assume it (used to?) save space, compared to variable-length. It's out of my experties (also forgot a lot over ~12yrs), but if I had to guess, variable-length data is rounded up in size greater than the average comment length, which would result in a bigger database than it already is with the current limits.

 

[Jayro]

Are you talking about profile posts or forum posts? The latter has a very generous limit so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Like profile posts. They're severely limiting. Could we possibly have it bumped it up from 400 to 1,000?

 

[K3Nv4]

Nope!

I mean, yes, and no. Yes in the obvious sense.

But otherwise no. Simplified, regular forum posts and profile posts are stored in the database in two different formats, with forum posts being variable-length, and profile posts being fixed-length. Because it's fixed length, increasing the max profile post length will just scale up that fixed length, ballooning the database in size.

Honestly, I don't know why it's stored as fixed-length, but I assume it (used to?) save space, compared to variable-length. It's out of my experties (also forgot a lot over ~12yrs), but if I had to guess, variable-length data is rounded up in size greater than the average comment length, which would result in a bigger database than it already is with the current limits.

Even image posts on profile posts are stored in another database but they're worried about longer length of text slowing down the forum on profile posts? Database storage makes no sense I'd assume the sql storage would be unlimited these days unless the pricing is just dumb.

 

[shaunj66]

Can't find a reliable way to show character count so I just upped the limit for profile posts from 420 to 840 ch.

 

[K3Nv4]

Can't find a reliable way to show character count so I just upped the limit for profile posts from 420 to 840 ch.

Would've been funny if this was done on 4/20

 

[SylverReZ]

Can't find a reliable way to show character count so I just upped the limit for profile posts from 420 to 840 ch.

Thank you so much, I've been needing such an update in a long time. Now I don't need to split my ramblings into parts.

 

[JuanMena]

Can't find a reliable way to show character count so I just upped the limit for profile posts from 420 to 840 ch.

 

[XFoxPrower]

Nice update. Throwing together an oninput event and counter should be easy too.Now if only I could extend Vita browser's window.prompt buffer beyond 511 bytes. Overflow returns null, causing empty posts sent to the server and endless frustration for me, especially as PSTV doesn't have copy / paste. I had to rely on my own length counter to backup each 'chunk' of a posting.

 

[DragonMals]

Can't find a reliable way to show character count so I just upped the limit for profile posts from 420 to 840 ch.

the changes you and the other admins/mods make on this site are so wonderful. I'm glad that this site exists. It may not be a thousand like the other XenForo sites that I use, but that's still a lot more which is perfect for what I need