Can we get a character limit put on the front portion of AskMeFi questions? January 24, 2006 12:56 PM Subscribe
Can we get a character limit put on the front portion of AskMeFi questions?
Yeah, it might be time to make "more inside" mandatory. Sorry to say.
posted by selfnoise at 1:00 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by selfnoise at 1:00 PM on January 24, 2006
This sounds like a reasonable pony to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2006
The problem with a "generous limit" is that people will consistently aim for its outside margin.
posted by cribcage at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by cribcage at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2006
I agree. Make it a stingy limit, and an error message can pop up "You're writing too much, moron- that's what More Inside is for!"
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2006 [1 favorite]
Yes, please, please, please may we get this pony? If I want blocks of stream-of-conciousness text, I'll read Ulysses.
posted by scody at 1:14 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by scody at 1:14 PM on January 24, 2006
And how about mandatory tags for both green and blue?
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 1:21 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 1:21 PM on January 24, 2006
bshort, your post was honestly not on my screen when I wrote mine.
posted by knave at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by knave at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2006
I suppose it would make these kind of posts shorter, but it wouldn't really make them better.
posted by smackfu at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by smackfu at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2006
dgaicun caught me. This is definitely in response to that post. But it's something I mean to request every time I see a post like that, I just end up getting sidetracked by people's fascinating questions...
It bothers me particularly because the posters of the long, rambling questions are always people who've never posted anything. Once again "without pointing fingers", the accounts are often recently created, probably for the specific purpose of asking that question. All it takes is a modicum of time on AskMeFi to understand that [more inside] is your friend and that there's a reason the main page isn't clogged with lots of giant paragraphs.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:25 PM on January 24, 2006
It bothers me particularly because the posters of the long, rambling questions are always people who've never posted anything. Once again "without pointing fingers", the accounts are often recently created, probably for the specific purpose of asking that question. All it takes is a modicum of time on AskMeFi to understand that [more inside] is your friend and that there's a reason the main page isn't clogged with lots of giant paragraphs.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:25 PM on January 24, 2006
Howzabout a soft limit, wherein AskMe prompts the user to think about using [MI] when the question gets long?
posted by five fresh fish at 1:27 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by five fresh fish at 1:27 PM on January 24, 2006
I like five fresh fish's idea too. Give them a fair chance to realize what they're about to do and that it's frowned upon.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:30 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:30 PM on January 24, 2006
knave - :-)
I would rather see more succint AxMe posts rather than put a hard limit on the FPP text. The limit is always going to be too short for some posters, and other commenters are not going be happy until AxMe is nothing but [more inside] links with mouseovers.
posted by bshort at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2006
I would rather see more succint AxMe posts rather than put a hard limit on the FPP text. The limit is always going to be too short for some posters, and other commenters are not going be happy until AxMe is nothing but [more inside] links with mouseovers.
posted by bshort at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2006
I don't see why the limit will be too short for some posters. It's hard for me to imagine a question that can't be effectively outlined, summarized, introduced, or teased in, say, 5 sentences.
There are plenty of questions that require more explanation than that, but why do they require it to be on the front page? Just put enough about a question so that anyone interested or qualified to answer it will read the [MI]. Doesn't seem that hard to me.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:37 PM on January 24, 2006
There are plenty of questions that require more explanation than that, but why do they require it to be on the front page? Just put enough about a question so that anyone interested or qualified to answer it will read the [MI]. Doesn't seem that hard to me.
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:37 PM on January 24, 2006
If it is about relationships it should be no longer than two lines. I dunno if you can put something in there that detects that, but for some reason hurt people tend to attempt to subject us to the entirity of their misfortunes.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 1:43 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 1:43 PM on January 24, 2006
Why do you care? Pixels are cheap, and space bars have long lives. Technological solutions to social 'problems' are rarely effective.
posted by gleuschk at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by gleuschk at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2006
A soft limit sounds like an okay idea to me. Mathowie and I can, if there is some huge mess, force a "more inside" on an AskMe post but I think I've only done it once. It seems to me to mostly work as it is.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2006
What about a simple subject field for the question topic, and then a mandatory more inside for the details:
"I need help with ______." [more inside]
I don't actually think this is a good idea, but hey, YMMV.
posted by goatdog at 2:06 PM on January 24, 2006
"I need help with ______." [more inside]
I don't actually think this is a good idea, but hey, YMMV.
posted by goatdog at 2:06 PM on January 24, 2006
Why do you care? Pixels are cheap, and space bars have long lives. Technological solutions to social 'problems' are rarely effective.
If we shouldn't care because pixels are cheap, why bother having guidelines or a flagging system at all? Why only let members post to the FP? I think we can all agree there's a happy medium, where people don't feel restricted but where posters don't (either accidentally or intentionally) abuse something good like AskMeFi and make it less useful.
I think it's within the bounds of reason to get new users to learn about the [MI] feature before they go blathering on for hours. As I said, I do like FFF's idea of a soft limit, since I doubt many people write inappropriately long posts on purpose. This way newbies get their misstep called to their attention before posting. Perhaps my idea of a hard limit is overly harsh, although I was imagining a pretty generous limit such that it would basically just be another in-your-face way to teach users about [MI] when they really went overboard.
posted by TunnelArmr at 2:11 PM on January 24, 2006
If we shouldn't care because pixels are cheap, why bother having guidelines or a flagging system at all? Why only let members post to the FP? I think we can all agree there's a happy medium, where people don't feel restricted but where posters don't (either accidentally or intentionally) abuse something good like AskMeFi and make it less useful.
I think it's within the bounds of reason to get new users to learn about the [MI] feature before they go blathering on for hours. As I said, I do like FFF's idea of a soft limit, since I doubt many people write inappropriately long posts on purpose. This way newbies get their misstep called to their attention before posting. Perhaps my idea of a hard limit is overly harsh, although I was imagining a pretty generous limit such that it would basically just be another in-your-face way to teach users about [MI] when they really went overboard.
posted by TunnelArmr at 2:11 PM on January 24, 2006
Whatever. One of the reasons I now read AskMe through an RSS feed, rather than visiting the AskMe front page itself, is precisely so that I can see the entire freakin' question without having to click through. No, that doesn't mean I read every question in its entirety, but I read enough to decide for myself whether I'm interested or not, and no longer get annoyed at FPPs like "Relationship question [more inside]" (an exaggeration, but not much of one), which used to bug the hell out of me.
But before I started using an RSS reader, it was the too-short questions which annoyed me, not the too-long ones, as I found clicking through only to find a question I was uninterested in much more annoying than having to scroll past a question I knew I was uninterested in.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:31 PM on January 24, 2006
But before I started using an RSS reader, it was the too-short questions which annoyed me, not the too-long ones, as I found clicking through only to find a question I was uninterested in much more annoying than having to scroll past a question I knew I was uninterested in.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:31 PM on January 24, 2006
Why do you care? Pixels are cheap, and space bars have long lives.
It's not the part about skipping over long sections of text that bugs me, personally; it's the fact that they accelerate the already-quick rate of questions being bumped off the front page.
And bully for everyone who reads AskMe with an RSS feed. Plenty of us don't.
posted by scody at 2:41 PM on January 24, 2006
It's not the part about skipping over long sections of text that bugs me, personally; it's the fact that they accelerate the already-quick rate of questions being bumped off the front page.
And bully for everyone who reads AskMe with an RSS feed. Plenty of us don't.
posted by scody at 2:41 PM on January 24, 2006
it's the fact that they accelerate the already-quick rate of questions being bumped off the front page.
That's not true, is it? I always assumed that the front page just showed the x most recent questions, regardless of length.
posted by amarynth at 2:52 PM on January 24, 2006
That's not true, is it? I always assumed that the front page just showed the x most recent questions, regardless of length.
posted by amarynth at 2:52 PM on January 24, 2006
This is a great idea.
posted by fire&wings at 3:07 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by fire&wings at 3:07 PM on January 24, 2006
If we shouldn't care because pixels are cheap, why bother having guidelines or a flagging system at all? Why only let members post to the FP?
Each of these is a social problem that MeFi has solved by social means.
the front page just showed the x most recent questions, regardless of length.
Yes, x=40.
posted by gleuschk at 3:08 PM on January 24, 2006
Each of these is a social problem that MeFi has solved by social means.
the front page just showed the x most recent questions, regardless of length.
Yes, x=40.
posted by gleuschk at 3:08 PM on January 24, 2006
the front page just showed the x most recent questions, regardless of length.
Aha! Excellent. I had always assumed otherwise. Well then, my functional concern is withdrawn, but I retain my secondary irritation with long rambling text that's not written by a high modernist.
posted by scody at 3:38 PM on January 24, 2006
Aha! Excellent. I had always assumed otherwise. Well then, my functional concern is withdrawn, but I retain my secondary irritation with long rambling text that's not written by a high modernist.
posted by scody at 3:38 PM on January 24, 2006
I think five fresh fish's idea is a good way to implement this. But if they've gotten some kind of warning, and they insist on making their front message long, then let em post it.
posted by crunchland at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by crunchland at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2006
[This is good]
Each of these is a social problem that MeFi has solved by social means.
But it seems more often true at AskMe that the askers are too new to be fully socialized.
posted by Aknaton at 5:42 PM on January 24, 2006
Each of these is a social problem that MeFi has solved by social means.
But it seems more often true at AskMe that the askers are too new to be fully socialized.
posted by Aknaton at 5:42 PM on January 24, 2006
I have nothing against longer posts. Seriously, it takes, what, 1/1000 of a second to scroll? It takes me real time to click on posts to read a question. Seriously, stop being so aesthetically anal. A couple extra sentences don't inconvenience anyone.
posted by dgaicun at 6:11 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by dgaicun at 6:11 PM on January 24, 2006
A couple extra sentences don't inconvenience anyone.
I wanted to write a thoughtful response to this, but I slipped on this very slippery slope and hit my head, so I need to go take some Advil...
posted by TunnelArmr at 6:33 PM on January 24, 2006
I wanted to write a thoughtful response to this, but I slipped on this very slippery slope and hit my head, so I need to go take some Advil...
posted by TunnelArmr at 6:33 PM on January 24, 2006
Not inconveniencing you isn't the same as not inconveniencing anyone.
posted by smackfu at 6:40 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by smackfu at 6:40 PM on January 24, 2006
A soft limit would be a great idea -- essentially just a warning on preview, highlighted in some extra-obvious color.
posted by killdevil at 8:07 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by killdevil at 8:07 PM on January 24, 2006
Hell, have the textbox itself, via the Magic Of Javascript!, turn the background pink, then red, as the length increases beyond reason.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:32 PM on January 24, 2006
posted by five fresh fish at 9:32 PM on January 24, 2006
This sounds like a reasonable pony to me.
Reasonable Pony is the name of my next band.
posted by craniac at 7:02 AM on January 25, 2006
Reasonable Pony is the name of my next band.
posted by craniac at 7:02 AM on January 25, 2006
You know who else likes short AskMe posts? The Nazis!
I'm just sayin'...
posted by blue_beetle at 8:44 AM on January 25, 2006
I'm just sayin'...
posted by blue_beetle at 8:44 AM on January 25, 2006
And bully for everyone who reads AskMe with an RSS feed. Plenty of us don't.
Which was kind of my point, I guess, though I probably should have made it clearer. Since I use an RSS reader, I don't care how much goes on the front page. But if I didn't use an RSS reader, I absolutely wouldn't want something like this done, as there are already too many too-short posts in AskMe. Perhaps I'm the only one, but perhaps there are other people who share my feelings yet don't want to use an RSS reader.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:34 PM on January 25, 2006
Which was kind of my point, I guess, though I probably should have made it clearer. Since I use an RSS reader, I don't care how much goes on the front page. But if I didn't use an RSS reader, I absolutely wouldn't want something like this done, as there are already too many too-short posts in AskMe. Perhaps I'm the only one, but perhaps there are other people who share my feelings yet don't want to use an RSS reader.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:34 PM on January 25, 2006
Continued public shaming of offenders is always the best solution. It worked for the puritans. If history has taught us anything, it is that peer acceptance and shame are the most powerful forces in the known universe, other than testosterone. As has been noted, technological solutions to social problems rarely work. Except for this one. There are no other examples of successful technological intervention as a means of fixing social problems.
You may now return to your celebration of emergent social control and net anarchism.
posted by craniac at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2006
You may now return to your celebration of emergent social control and net anarchism.
posted by craniac at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2006
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posted by TunnelArmr at 1:00 PM on January 24, 2006