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I just edited my StackOverflow Profile, I pressed Save Profile, but it refused to save because I exceeded the maximum characters. In fact, while I was editing, I was looking for a character count, but didn't see one. I was afraid I'd go over, and sure enough, I did.

So why isn't there a character count when editing your profile, or even when typing a question like I am now? I would like to know while I'm typing if I've exceeded the maximum length, not after I press "Save" or "Post" etc. This applies to any place where you type large text with a size limit - even on all the different StackExchange sites.

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  • 3
    Would be consistent with the rest of the site.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 21:27
  • @FrédéricHamidi All StackExchange sites for that matter
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 21:28
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    True, but I've been traumatized by a giant S in my youth.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 21:30
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    I rolled back the edit because I intended it to be for any place where you type and there's a limit. Editing the profile was just the example that made me come here and request it.
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 22:00
  • I hope I don't get a +5 and a -2 or my rep will be 666...
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 22:41
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    HAHAHA For once I actually appreciate a downvoter - thanks for the 666 rep
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 0:02
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    Oh, and that's not a duplicate by the way. The solution which was done there is actually the problem I'm having now. I shouldn't get this alert after typing. People need to know before they click "Save" or "Post".
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 0:10
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    So, you really wrote more than 3,000 characters?
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 10:04

1 Answer 1

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The character limit for answers and questions is 30,000 characters. This is a pretty huge block of text and good answers, howsoever detailed, are not expected to reach such lengths and rarely do. The same extends for questions. Hence, there really is no need for a live character count on the questions or answers page.

In fact, the number of posts longer than 1.5k on MSO is pretty small, with even fewer reaching the character limit. I have taken the example of MSO, as posts tend to be generally longer here than on other sites.

enter image description here

In the case of About Me's, the trend is similar. In fact, it is even more compacted with very few HTML-rendered posts exceeding the 3k character limit, meaning the number of people hitting the limit is even lesser than this graph suggests.

enter image description here

So, there doesnt really seem to be any need for this.

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    Even I have only reached the character limit for questions/answers once. And as any regular here on Meta can tell you, my answers are frequently tl;dr.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 9:23
  • I guess I write too much, and while editing my profile I only added probably about 20-30 characters to what I have now when I hit that limit.
    – Jerry Dodge
    Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 13:42
  • On Code Review we require that the code to be reviewed should be contained within the question itself. Needless to say, it can be quite a lot of code. Which is why I am down-voting this.
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Jan 29, 2014 at 18:55

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