Is the 20 characters min necessary?

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#1

I find the 20 characters restriction annoying and I’m not sure it is effective either.
Am I the only one ?

2 Likes
#2

Yeah, I find it very annoying. I’d be in favour of disabling it for a trial period (if that’s even possible).

3 Likes
#3

I am weakly in favor of the limit, because this is not a chat platform and people should put some thought and effort into their posts and comments.

Also, is this related to this recent comment of yours?

To be completely honest I think that comment is below the level of quality that I would like to see on this platform. I don’t think it is adding anything to the discussion.

But that would indeed confirm that the limit is easily bypassed by just adding a few fluff words.

4 Likes
#4

Yes.

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#5 
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#6

I’m sorry that comment is below the level of quality that you would like to see.
That was my 20 characters way of saying “You are wrong”.
I’m not sure however it is of much lower quality of much of the argument put forward in this particular thread.

Please delete all of my comments which doesn’t reach you quality standard.

#7

I have never tripped on it, it might be that I am naturally verbose.

Please if you have (strong) feeling about this feature/bug, share them in this thread. For what is worth, Jeff Atwood on meta.discourse is against removing it.

Nobody is doing that. There are two sides of the argument, I feel respectful and frank discussion is useful.

3 Likes
#8

I don’t feel strongly about it, just annoying but we might be many. I understand the barrier effect though.
Anyway I’m happy to finally have found a use to cowsay.

#9

I find it annoying to unlock the front door to my apartment building every time I get home, but I understand that I don’t get to decide whether or not burglars exist.

1 Like
#10

If I understand the analogy, we are more talking of having two doors with no lock in a row there.

#11

My bad, I should have simplified it by just talking about one (locked) door.

My argument is that the 20-character limit is a minor inconvenience that makes it easier to keep the forum a useful resource. Without it, mods would be swamped with removing ‘fr1st p0st’ and similar garbage.

1 Like
#12

Are you sure ? I’m not talking about removing it for new topic but only for replies.

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My example (“fr1st p0st”) is of a reply. “I agree” or “You’re wrong” or “You’re right” or “Let’s do it” or “What?” or countless other replies are too easy to accidentally write and just fill space.

Short replies are sometimes the right choice, which is why disabling them is an inconvenience. But there are ways to alleviate that problem, like emoji responses, which is why I kinda wish there were more. (See Snowdrift.coop for a thoughtful take on this.)

5 Likes
#14

Personally, I suggest adding bulk (and context) to your message by quoting what you’re replying to.

1 Like
#15

Agreeing with something can easily be done with no characters at all, just by hitting the <3 button. (Though I’d encourage people to also hit that button when they disagree with what’s being said, but find it to be a valuable addition to the conversation anyway!)

Disagreeing with someone, conversely, should be done with careful thought and careful explanation. It’s reasonable for two people to come to considered and differing opinions, but “you’re wrong” and replies to that effect are useful to literally nobody, including the person saying them. Except maybe as catharsis, which is not something that this forum exists to offer.

Maybe think of the 20 character limit as being equivalent to someone standing in front of you, waiting for you to provide more info in the conversation.

2 Likes
#16

I would love to have custom reactions like those on that discussion-oriented site:

image
image429×886 73.3 KB

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#17

I understand the argument for, but maybe it is just premature optimisation.
To come back to your analogy of someone standing in front, waiting for more information, what stop people feeling the want more information to just ask for it ?

#18

Once upon a time I was teaching a course and the school’s web forum required a minimum length too. Fortunately it also accepted HTML and the minimum length counted every byte of HTML code too. So I simply wrote:

<span>Yes.</span>
1 Like
#19

I have a suggestion - those who want this restriction removed should at least volunteer to be moderators:

  • if this Discourse fills up with uninformative one-word posts, it will be a learning experience for them;

  • if not, I’m reasonably sure the existing moderators will appreciate the extra help :-)

#20

I’m actually already mod on reddit and there is no such limit. Short answers haven’t been a problem so far. There are even great short answers. The main moderator workload come usually more from super long post which become political.

Anyway, the mods in here do what they want. It seems that pretty much everybody seems to be happy with this restriction so that’s fine for me.
However as @tomjaguarpaw said that doesn’t cost much to try deactivating it and put it back as soon as it becomes a problem.

1 Like