Comment length warning in preview

[melannen]

Title:
Comment length warning in preview

Area:
commenting

Summary:
It would be nice if the comment preview screen told you whether you'd reached the character comment limit, without you needing to actually press "post" to find out.

Description:
Sometimes people post prompt memes where other people leave really long stories in comments! Sometimes these stories overflow even DW's very generous comment character limits.

Right now, if you try to post a comment that goes over the limit, you get an error message that tells you your comment is too long, how many characters are allowed, and how many characters your comment is.

It would be great if that error message appeared on the comment preview, as well as when trying to post - that way people wouldn't have to guess about whether their comment will fit, and how many comments they will need total.

(Or they could look up what the comment limit is, and then use an external character counter, but that's <I>hard</i> :P)

It would be even cooler if the error message did the math for you and told you how many comments you would need, total, in order to fit the whole thing!

Poll #8839 Comment length warning in preview

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 90

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
71 (78.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
14 (15.6%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
5 (5.6%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[kitsune_wolf]

I like this idea a lot already! But I'd like it even more if the waning only shows up as we start approaching the limit. (Maybe I misread but I wasn't sure if this was asking for warning like that, or a counter that is always visible.)

For example, Plurk warns you when you only have 50 characters left, but doesn't let you know your character count otherwise. The warning popping up is a lot more noticeable than a counter.

Or, if most people rather a counter that is always visible, it could do something else eye catching (Like turning red?) when we are nearing the limit instead.

[melannen]

I was actually requesting a warning that only showed up once you'd already gone over (and only appeared if you previewed or tried to post the comment), but I certainly wouldn't object to one that appeared sooner!

[kyrielle]

This. I wouldn't benefit from preview (I don't use it) - but this, I would.

Of course, my desire for this feature is somewhat abstract anyway, as I don't think I've yet gone over the comment limit personally. But before I do, it would be lovely to have something to warn me. :)

[turlough]

warns you when you only have 50 characters left, but doesn't let you know your character count otherwise

I like this!

[automaticdoor]

+1

[archangelbeth]

I'm liking this one, too!

[kerravonsen]

+1

[montuos]

This. I don't always use preview (usually only if I have formatting or layout concerns), so I like the idea of having a while-you-type warning. I'd prefer the warning to pop up only once I got close (otherwise it would just become part of the highly-ignorable background to what I'm actually doing), and then red or reverse color or something similarly attention-regrabbing if I go over.

[aedifica]

All of this. (Though, like kyrielle, I don't expect to actually ever go over limit on a comment myself.)

[melannen]

I think preview is more widely used among people who write comments at risk of going over, so that *may* be a factor to take into consideration. I don't always do it myself, but if I'm writing a comment that's a thousand words or more, I pretty much always do, there's too much risk that I've screwed up italics or a line break or something. Which is why I figured that putting it on preview would be good enough - I think the proportion of people who don't use preview with epic-length comments is pretty low.

ETA: Also, I'd suggest having a warning on preview even if there is some sort of ajaxy warning as well - I think it's really bad style to have anything preview just fine and then error when you attempt to post it.

[the_shoshanna]

I don't expect to ever break DW's comment length limit, but I do think that a warning before you actually try to post would be more useful; it saves the time and frustration of a failed posting attempt. (Although obviously if you don't see the warning and try to post the over-long comment anyway, the system should gracefully do something like what this suggestion asks for, too.)

[sally_maria]

I like the idea of a warning that comes up as you approach the limit.

[chagrined]

Having a warning in preview would be nice, and I think it'd be even nicer to have some kind of AJAX warning that shows up before even going to the preview pane (also useful for times when not using preview, or ppl who never use it!). But idk if that'd slow it down too much, or something (keeping track of # of characters as you are typing your comment). If it does slow it down too much, I still think having it on just the preview page would be nice.

[transcendancing]

I like a 50 or 100 warning, but also showing total character count.

[arethinn]

My "with changes" is pretty much what people are saying above - either an always-visible countdown of the allowed number of chars, or a warning that appears when you are within 100 chars of the limit (or some such number).