Tropical Fish Forums

Marcos Avila

As Discus Man said, it's configurable and the idea would be to start with a small number, something like 32 characters or maybe a little more, just to cut the really short and annoying posts like "Cool!" and "Thanks!", and eventually we adjust the value at a level that will stimulate people to at least write a complete sentence.

Noah, the Photo Album section is part of the problem. There are WAY too many short posts in that forum that represent nothing more than a quick reaction as if the person was "chatting". As we've said over and over, a board is not a chat room and it is way too costly and annoying to use it as such...each reply *needs* to be relevant and have enough content to satisfy EVERYONE (not just the original topic starter) who clicks to go see what else was posted in a topic, otherwise it doesn't belong on a message board.

Of course when we post our tanks and fish in the Photo Album we want to get reactions from people, but isn't it more satisfying and better for the board to get a single reply saying something like "I really like what you've done, especially with the rocks on the left. What's that red plant on the right?" and have a brief discussion that may also help improve your tank, than to get 3 messages saying "Wow! I love it!", "Me too!", "That looks awesome!", end of topic?
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

Marcos Avila

OK, according to the majority of voters I'll be implementing the 'Message too Short" restriction soon...thanks to everyone who voted!
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

The Kapenta Kid · Regulars Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Location: Brussels, Belgium

The only problem I see with banning one-liners or even one-worders is the following.

If I post a question and someone helpfully replies with an extended answer or a link to help me to further information, I feel it incumbent on me to thank them. Not to do so would be rude.

I would normally just write 'thanks'.

I suppose that could be extended to some formulaic acknowledgement that would get round the short message ban.

'"Thank you very much, your message has been most helpful to me."

So once we know how many characters are the minimum we can devise a suitable acknowledgement response.

Other than that, I say go with it.
TKK
_________________
Men live like fishes;
the great ones devour the small

Marcos Avila

A message board is different from a chat room or a real conversation. If all you want to do is thank someone, adding it to the topic may be nice for you and for the replier but it's very annoying to everyone else who may be interested in the topic, since they'll click on it only to see in disappointment that nothing useful was added to the thread.

If you feel the need to send a "Thanks" message, the proper way to do it on a message board is by PM, and that's exactly the problem raised in this topic about the new restriction. Since it cannot distinguish between a board post and a PM post, it will also block the PM thanks notes which would be desirable.

So, once the restriction is installed, you will indeed need to extend your thanks note a little in order to pass the block, but still, the proper way to do it is by PM and not on the board itself.
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

The Kapenta Kid · Regulars Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Location: Brussels, Belgium

Thanks for the explanation. I'll send any acknowledgements by PM in future. I can fully see your point. I voted yes to suppress the short messages in any case.
_________________
Men live like fishes;
the great ones devour the small

NOAH · Regulars Joined: 28 Jan 2004 Location: mississippi

cory

What if somone replied to a question but didn't specify how to do something so you had to ask with a short question in order to find out how?

For example:

1)My fish keep dying (obviously longer reason given here).
2)You need to lower the pH.
1)How would I do that?

just a thought...
_________________
Here fishy fishy....

number6 · Moderators Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Location: Ontario, Canada

Marcos Avila

OK, sorry it took so long but a "reminder" to avoid posting overly short messages on this board is now in place. Right now it's set to 40 characters, which is half of a standard line. We may eventually increase this number as needed...

Thanks to all who voted!
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...