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Across many of the sites, there is many questions that get asked that are commonly one or two sentences. Most of the time, this results in many comments imediately saying "need more info?" whats this? whats that? what os you using? This results in downvoting and negativity until the user clarifies the question. Would it be possible to implement a character minimum length for questions being asked?

I know there are some questions that do not need much explanation to be clear, but if a minimum question character length was enforced, it might force an asker to be a little more clear with the question if more characters are required. This would be like the 15 char min. for comments rule.

Sorry if this already exists or is in place, but I did not want to create bogus questions trying to test the limits.

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5 Answers 5

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We should be encouraging clarity, whether that means they need to give more information or that they need to remove useless information that does nothing but clutter up the post.

I don't necessarily see any issue with a 15 character limit, but once you start to try and implement a character limit that actually forces more than a few short sentences, you are going to get instances of useless fluff being inserted just to meet the requirement.

And like we have displayed numerous times, you can cheat the character limit easily in comments, so it isn't exactly much of a deterrent anyway.

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  • 1
    Null bytes (according to my hex editor)--what a way to get around minimum character length requirements.
    – bwDraco
    Jun 21, 2012 at 0:11
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    lmao, genius... pure genius
    – Alex Lockwood
    Jun 21, 2012 at 0:50
  • ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
    – John Militer
    May 28, 2017 at 14:36
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    Yes, @John, we're all impressed you figured out a joke from eight years ago.
    – Welbog
    May 29, 2017 at 13:13
  • I just used that to reject an edit with no reason (the suggested edit was on a deleted post so it doesn't matter if it got approved or rejected).
    – Donald Duck
    Nov 9, 2017 at 19:52
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No.

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    Son of a...
    – TheTXI
    Jul 28, 2009 at 18:57
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    @TheTXI: I have half a mind to put your name in there somewhere. (Then again, some would just say I have half a mind.)
    – mmyers
    Jul 28, 2009 at 19:04
  • I have you beat, mmyers.
    – Welbog
    Jul 28, 2009 at 19:13
  • No fair using Unicode! I used plain ASCII like a green-blooded Mar... er, red-blooded American!
    – mmyers
    Jul 28, 2009 at 19:24
  • No.­­­­­­­­­­­­­
    – John Militer
    May 28, 2017 at 14:36
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There's always limitations on enforcing anything. The fact is if people want to get around it they will, and I can guarantee that if you force question length you'll get questions like:

^ See title. (Arbitrary text since it requires me to use x characters)
Thanks!!

I also (believe)? that post length is enforced, but only to a minimal degree.

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  • Thats when the wrath of down voting unleashes
    – Troggy
    Jul 28, 2009 at 18:59
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    As it already does on such questions. Nothing new here...
    – Ian Elliott
    Jul 28, 2009 at 19:00
  • I love when OPs run themselves around in circles until they stop at where they started.
    – TheTXI
    Jul 28, 2009 at 19:02
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Sometimes there are questions with a title like "How do I do this in that when I have this and that and such is so", and the question is just something like "any suggestions?".

Perhaps the user should get a warning popup when the title is longer than the question?

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