15 Character Title Limit

[Goffik]

Can we please remove or reduce the 15 character limit on topic titles? I understand why a limit is in place, but 15 characters is far, far too many. 8 would be more than enough to prevent the kind of issues the limit is there to address.

[DavidP]

Thanks for the feedback, Ross.

I have no idea if this is configurable or now.

@LievenDV, can you comment on this?

[Goffik]

It’s definitely configurable in other forum back ends I’ve used, though I have no direct experience with this one. Likely an admin-only option.

[Richard_close2u]

I’m not sure where you’re coming from here @goffik truth be told.

Your title to this topic (including spaces) is 24.
Sometimes (often perhaps) we need longer topic titles.
I don’t know why that would be seen as an issue.

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Richard

I believe he is referring to the minimum number of characters, not the max. Reading between the lines that is.

[Goffik]

Minimum limit, not maximum. It’s in place to prevent silly, uninformative titles like “Help!!!” I expect, but 15 characters is too many. You have to artificially inflate perfectly good thread titles. An 8 character minimum would do the job in 99% of cases.

[roger_holland]

I’m so glad you posted this Richard,…I was already counting characters yesterday and wanted to ask what exactly he meant…but after reading 3 times the penny dropped for me … but you do have a point @Goffik
Greetings,Rogier

[Socio]

@Goffik

It’s in place to prevent silly, uninformative titles like “Help!!!”

True. Maybe the limit was to prevent uninformative titles like Please Help!

[roger_holland]

@Socio

uninformative

@Socio

Please Help

I’m so glad you don’t work for Baywatch…

[Socio]

@roger_holland

I’m so glad you don’t work for Baywatch

Me too… as I can’t swim… the one’s needing rescued would be rescuing me

[roger_holland]

Oh my, that’s something, I don’t hear that often, but it’s a good thing you don’t live in the Netherlands / waterland…although there are more and more (on radio)people here for various reasons who can’t swim either… … well a career as a lifeguard is not in it,…nice and safe continue with a musical career then

[CT]

OK, so now that we know the OP used rather imprecise language, what is the answer? Why such a high character count as a requirement? Song titles tend to be concise. Here are some titles that I had to manipulate to get them across the 15 character requirement:

**Masters of War**

I’ve been thumping around on this one for a while. Since the Bobby D original is perfect it was never my intention to record it. Turn off the TV, throw in a couple of personal tweaks and suddenly recording it served as a bit of a release valve: Masters of War

C-a-n't Y-o-u S-e-e

Hope everyone is safe and well! Found a fun little backing track suitable for a quick acoustic jam: [Can't You See] I’m going to tag this as a “prio2”. I would prefer to tag it with something useful like “acoustic”, “jam”, etc. I think that’s the value of being able to tag posts. Moderator note: I have removed the prio2 tag @LievenDV created that to help him sort issues on his list that need attention / fixes etc. Also, the tag system is being discussed behind the s…

T-o-u-c-h of J. J

A little improvisation approximating J.J. Cale to close out the year: [Touch of J.J.]

EDIT: Let’s be honest, it’s kind of a lame argument to force such a high character count. “Help” is not allowed, but the same text string can be manipulated (as I did with some of my titles) by adding dashes, asterisks or other extra characters. It’s an unnecessary tripwire and an arbitrary rule. If it stays I’ll live, if it changes I will live happily ever after. LOL

[roger_holland]

help
Well if you would like to cover this song without wanting to add a fuss of characters and extras
then you are not happy the pappie…
Greetings…

[Socio]

@roger_holland yes, but they would be missing a character unless they were doing a cover of help rather than help!

[Richard_close2u]

Count these characters …

The Beatles - Help!

19

My cover of Help!

17

I am not against lowering the count. I have never encountered it myself when creating a topic. Maybe I like to write substantial titles. I had forgotten of its existence.
But I’m also wondering how and why you would ever not want or need 15 or more.

[jacksprat]

As Richard showed, if you need to pad out a song’s title, instead of adding asterisks or dashes, inlcude the artist’s name. I like descriptive thread titles. They often (not always) save me having to read a thread to find out what the OP actually wants.

[adi_mrok]

I think what Clint meant is if you come up with your own song or you noodle and want to give it a brief title like Kaboom! or whatever you would need to put in something extra to get to 15 minimum characters.

I don’t have an opinion on this one to be honest, I can live with or without it

[Richard_close2u]

The green pill or the red pill.

Suck it and see.

[roger_holland]

@Richard_close2u

Suck it and see.

There is little that interests me less,…but I’ve already laughed quite a lot in this thread so it was worth it to me,…and oh yeah, I haven’t taken pills for a few years now, and I’ll keep it that way just like that… …
I’m guessing… is going to win…

[DavidP]

@Richard_close2u I’d lean to reducing the limit, Richard, even though it is not a limit I can recall impacting me (being notoriously verbose, in title and body).

Every now and then I have wanted to post a reply that was too short, albeit more than a single emoji, but still not long enough, a couple of four letter words not being sufficient … no not those four letter words