Because some people won't put [more inside]

May 16, 2007 12:40 AM

Pony request... could there please be a character limit for the "summary" box? I mean, wow.
posted by Many bubbles to Feature Requests at 12:40 AM (20 comments total)

The situation isn't that hard to summarize, either:

Should I give a client company an illegal kickback? [more inside]
posted by Many bubbles at 12:42 AM on May 16, 2007

...The summary box on AskMe. Gah.
posted by Many bubbles at 12:43 AM on May 16, 2007

One of the mods should come along and move some to More Inside.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:15 AM on May 16, 2007

This is a perfect example of poor formatting, but no, there should not be a hard limit on the summary box.

Live with it.
posted by bshort at 2:21 AM on May 16, 2007

If not a hard limit, then a dozen or so "Are you sure you want to post this as-is? It's over n characters" "Are you really sure? You'll fugly up the front page," "Absolutely positive? More people will skip past it," "You realize you can just move most of it to the other box, right?" preview-type pages that need to be clicked through in order to do this thing.
posted by Many bubbles at 2:44 AM on May 16, 2007

Also, the link to continue should be in a different place on every page so that they can't just be clicked through rapidfire.
posted by Many bubbles at 2:52 AM on May 16, 2007

If only people would phrase their query as a specific question. Questions of the format: "Blah blah blah, what should I do?" should be outlawed. "How can I deal with ethical consideration X at my company?" is better, or like bubbles said: "Should I give a client company an illegal kickback?" Very specific, then add details and restate the question. Maybe some boilerplate could be added to the post page to encourage asking a specific question.
posted by Eideteker at 3:38 AM on May 16, 2007

Flag it and move on. If it bothers you so much, don't read it. That'll show'em!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:09 AM on May 16, 2007

I only support a maximum character limit for the summary if we also have a minimum. The standard six word summaries make me feel like I'm reading the classifieds. 1BR/1BA/NOTREALESTATEIST
posted by Plutor at 4:46 AM on May 16, 2007

The more space a question takes up on the front page, the less space there is for other questions.
posted by smackfu at 5:37 AM on May 16, 2007

Many bubbles please tell the man holding a gun to your head forcing you to plod through these hideously long questions that I'd like to have a word with him. You're 100% correct that nobody should be forced to read cruel and unusually long questions but I think we need to address the proximate cause first before we go about applying silly restrictions to the whole site.
posted by nixerman at 5:38 AM on May 16, 2007

I fixed it. Flagging these things means they'll be fixed reasonably quickly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:39 AM on May 16, 2007

Plus, having a question edited below the fold like that may be gently instructive to the poster.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:56 AM on May 16, 2007

Nobody's forcing me to read it! Wow, why didn't I realize that!?

You realize you could use that same tired, frayed hyperbole to defend anything less than actually embedding viruses, right?
posted by Many bubbles at 12:45 PM on May 16, 2007

Nobody's, like, forcing you to run on an x86 chipset, man.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:49 PM on May 16, 2007

As quite possibly the worst offender in the history of Meta when it comes to the painfully large summary thing -- because I am an idiot -- I can state with conviction that the shame I experienced at the time is a more effective deterrent than any character limit would ever be.
posted by davejay at 3:30 PM on May 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Can you see how we're just emboldening the enemy?
posted by blue_beetle at 3:30 PM on May 16, 2007

Emboldening them to embiggen their summaries?
posted by Many bubbles at 5:48 PM on May 16, 2007

Many bubbles: "Nobody's forcing me to read it! Wow, why didn't I realize that!?

You realize you could use that same tired, frayed hyperbole to defend anything less than actually embedding viruses, right?"

Some call it a tired, frayed hyperbole and some call it MetaFilter history.
posted by team lowkey at 6:55 PM on May 16, 2007

See? Seven years. That's pre-"All Your Base". In internet years, that's like seven centuries.
posted by Many bubbles at 8:05 PM on May 16, 2007