[RESOLVED] Character Limit Increase for Threads in the CodeBank

[ForumAccount]

I think that it would be useful if the 10,000 character limit for CodeBank threads was increased. When you are trying to draft up a nice article with descriptions and code that character count gets up there pretty quick. I realize there is the option of splitting into two posts. However, if it's code that needs to be split it looks messy and makes it hard to follow.

I don't think it is necessary for any threads other than CodeBank ones.

Just a thought.

[LaVolpe]

Concur with that suggestion.

One of the things I've been doing lately is to post a project, then immediately take the next one or two postings by replying to original post. This way I "reserve" the 1st two/three posts in the thread for my use. By reserving them, I can use them to keep what I consider thread-specific & project-specific information contiguous. You can see this with my Alpha Image Control, linked in my signature below. And those reserved posts did not go to waste either.

[Nightwalker83]

Yes, this would be a great idea! We could then post the complete code (if possible) in a post rather than uploading an attachment if there is no need for an attachment to be uploaded in the first place.

[ForumAccount]

I'm glad the response on this has been positive thus far. Would be nice to hear what the admins have to say on the topic.

[LaVolpe]

Another thing that could be useful to us is to not count tags in the max character count. Kinda penalized for formatting ones posts. For example, in one of my posts, I was color coding and when I reached the max limit, I removed color coding and the limit was no longer reached.

[brad jones]

If you need more than 10,000 characters, then why not write it up as an article and post to Codeguru, then link from the codebank to the article?

That's one idea.

I'd need to see if post limits are global or if they can be modified on a subforum level.

Brad!

[LaVolpe]

Brad, no offense, but kinda defeats the intent of the suggestion.
Linking to an outside page is similar to including an RTF in an attachment and/or breaks thread continuity. Kinda.

[brad jones]

yeah....

[brad jones]

what is the proposed increase in size for codebank posts?

[LaVolpe]

Personally, I'd like to see it doubled-ish and/or not include tag data in the character count.
Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but my longest (non-tutorial) post is maxed out and I have to make decisions on what to exclude each time I revise it. Doubling it, in this case, would give me more than I foresee needing.

I do see that an infinite limit is not logical or feasible for data storage and could be abused. I doubt people would post entire projects in text simply because other files are usually needed too (i.e., frm, frx, vbp, etc) where a zip is ideal. However, it wouldn't stop someone from posting absolutely huge modules or classes or "how-to manuals", or a multitude of those.

[ForumAccount]

I would agree with LaVolpe on the proposed sizes. Maybe 20,000 characters and if it didn't count BB Code tags then it would be perfect.

EDIT: Now that I rethink it, is it possible for BB Code tags to not count towards character limit forum wide? That would be ideal. In terms of ACTUAL character limit increase, I think it is only warranted code CodeBank submissions.

[techgnome]

I think there's more to it than simple counting or not counting code tags.... it's all about what the field in the database can handle... that's why I'm a little surprised that it's being considered... but that said... heck, I'm all for it... if it isn't going to break anything and itsn't going to cause an issue if there ever is an upgrade again... then I don't see why it can't be done.

-tg

[brad jones]

I'm not sold on increasing it yet....


How many posts (out of how many) are really pushing the 10,000 character limit to where they need to go to a second post? If they have a lot of code, how many could have just as easily put the code into an attachement and only presented the key lines of code? 10,000 characters is like 2000 words which is like 4 pages or more in Word. That is a lot of text.... isn't it?

[si_the_geek]

It varies, and lots of posts could be done by attachments... but I have seen several people (including LaVolpe, and I think CVMichael among others) who post CodeBank items that are generally complex topics, and as such can do with lots of explanation.

I think a limit of 25k would be good.

[ForumAccount]

The only people that post in the CodeBank are people that are genuinely trying to better this community. As such, I feel that they should be able to format that submission's post any way they want. I don't think it's unreasonable to place less of a restriction on the character limit for those threads.

[brad jones]

The problem is that post size is a forum-wide setting, not a sub-forum level setting. As such, increasing the size increases it everywhere. If I could easily adjust just the codebank, it would be a non-issue.

Brad!

[Milk]

What is the implication/concern of increasing post size forum wide?

Would this be something that could possibly be trialled and withdrawn if it was abused?

[penagate]

My opinions:

If the code listings are so long that they need to be split over multiple posts then they ought to be uploaded as attachments instead.
When reading LaVolpe's Alpha Image thread it struck me that much of the content (such as the change history, and the documentation of methods in the first reply) could also be in attachment form.

I think a 20-30k limit would be good though.

[LaVolpe]

When reading LaVolpe's Alpha Image thread it struck me that much of the content (such as the change history, and the documentation of methods in the first reply) could also be in attachment form.

That's very true. What I posted in that thread are what I consider "nice to have" items that someone would look at to decide whether or not they want to download and try the examples. Sure it could be in separate attachments, but I look at it as a matter of convenience for the readers. Though 25K or so would be a nice bump on the character count, especially since tag-formatting subtracts from the count actually displayed.

[CVMichael]

The only time that I can clearly remember that I ran into the limit problem was when I wrote my sound tutorial, which by the way is on CodeGuru also.

I specifically requested that no one should post in that thread, that way I was able to write until I reached the limit (or close) and then I started a new post, and so on... After a few posts, I just started to make a new post for every new topic. Only the beginning was kinda difficult.

Honestly the only time I think one would reach the limit is in cases like this when you write a tutorial with code. But I if the code is very long, I would just zip it, attach it, then refer to it in the post... I don't see it as a big problem...

But hey... if we can make the change for a larger limit, then why not?

[Nightwalker83]

I specifically requested that no one should post in that thread, that way I was able to write until I reached the limit (or close) and then I started a new post, and so on...

That is hard to go because you aren't always going to know when you have reached the limit unless, you type you post in to a word document beforehand. You could be in the middle of a word when you reach the limit. Yeah, I ran into the problem while trying to convert this sample here from C++ to C#. In the end I decided to zip the source file up and post it rather than make several code posts to the thread.

[CVMichael]

Your right... there is no way to tell how many chars you have left to type, you find out after you click "Submit Reply" or "Preview Post".

By the way, I just tested it (by doing a copy then holding down Ctrl+V), and I got this message: "The text that you have entered is too long (70039 characters). Please shorten it to 15000 characters long."

So it seems the limit is 15,000 chars.

I've seen other forums where you have a label that tells you how many chars left while you type. That would be useful...

[brad jones]

I adjusted it a few days ago as a compromise. No matter what I raise it to, in a few months or a a year or two, someone will be back to ask us to increase it again.... I've given 50% more characters, so hopefully that helps.

Brad!

[LaVolpe]

...No matter what I raise it to, in a few months or a a year or two, someone will be back to ask us to increase it again

No doubt, just like death & taxes; one can count on it

[ForumAccount]

Thanks Brad!

[gep13]

Brad,

Is it possible to reorder posts within a thread? Let's say an author was creating a CodeBank entries and they wanted to keep all their posts at the top of the thread, create new topics etc, can they make a request to a moderator to move it? That way, if later they came back to fix something, or add new content, then it would still stay at the top?

Gary

[penagate]

Yeah, we can copy posts so that they have the same timestamp.

[gep13]

Yeah, we can copy posts so that they have the same timestamp.

Good to know. I did have a quick look, but was looking for a "Re-Order Posts" ability, makes sense that the timestamps would have to change though.

At least this way, the important posts can be grouped together.

Gary

[LaVolpe]

Regarding re-ordering posts. An issue, though minor but real, is that it will corrupt whatever references other posts may have. Let's say someone references post #25 (not linked; just referenced) and a new post is inserted in the top 10, then post #25 will become post #26. Deleting posts can have similar results, but people deleting their posts weeks after posting is not so common I'd think.

[gep13]

Ah, good point...