Longer descriptions, please!

[Keileon]

I'm going to superbump this because I want it.

[gistofeverything]

Why does there need to be a description limit in the first place? 0_o

[Wahya]

I don't bother with descriptions, because in my early days here I was discouraged by the way the system is set up to do so. However, if I was interested in descriptions, I wouldn't want to be forced to cut out important character traits, details, etc. due to a low character limit. Thus I definitely support this

Edited June 18, 2013 by Wahya

[Mewtie]

I am not sure if I support this or not... At the moment I wrote only one description for one of my dragons and I know that I had to shorten the end at least because there wasn't much space left, but it looks like the others liked it, though. But I also don't want that the mods have to read a long text which should be just a short description. It is a kind of art to write a nice but short description and that's what I like at them. I am fine with the limit how it is but would have nothing against it if it would be a little higher, but 1500 or more is too much in my opinion. Maybe 1250 but not much higher.

[Dianacat777]

my longest description is about 5 sentences needing over 1000 characters is jut being excessive

Different writers have different styles. I don't really describe anymore - too many dragons - but when I used to, the character limit was my nemesis. I agree there should be a larger limit, unless text really takes up bandwidth or something.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Why does there need to be a description limit in the first place? 0_o

Because having it be unlimited would open up all sorts of chances for people to copy paste massive stories/RPs into them, which I doubt mods would have time to read and review properly X'D

 

I'd love it if it were slightly longer. A lot of my more detailed descriptions end up about 100 characters over. Raising to 1500 or 2000 would be nice.

Edited June 19, 2013 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Dianacat777]

Yeah - I think 2000 would be nice. A good amount of space, but not enough to encourage people to start writing novel-length backstories about their dragons.

[InugamiZERO]

I really want this, 2000 characters would be good

I've stoped Reviewing descriptions because the good ones are always cut off

also a few of my dragons have descriptions written out for them but I don't submit them because my little stories end up 1200-1600 characters

I'm not much of a writer so when I do write I keep it short and about the character with no useless bits, so if I take something out it makes it sound wrong/jumpy

[Dimar]

Wow, old thread. I'd be fine with a length increase IF the queue was beaten down already (and preferably description mods appointed). Otherwise, extra-long descriptions just make it harder and more tiresome for mods and reviewers to face the thousands-long queue. If people want to go back and add more to what already got approved, that's fine. But I think adjustments like this should be added to a blank slate so that everything can be handled better.

 

1500 sounds good to me. 2000 seems a bit intimidating.

[LibbyLishly]

I'm a fan of an increase. I haven't reviewed nearly as many of my dragons as I would like, but when I do I frequently find that I'm well over the character limit. Amazing stories can be written in a limited space (there's a Twitter account called @VeryShortStory that proves that point), but a little more wriggle room can go a long way. I've read some of the brilliant works some users write and I'd love for them to have the ability to add more detail to their descriptions.

 

I do think a limit is necessary (I don't think it's presumptuous to assume that no mod has the time to read a 50,000-word novella on one dragon), but an increase to 2000 characters seems reasonable to me.

[cyradis4]

I've had to cut down several of my descriptions, and it can be quite a pain. Most end up being a few sentences too long when originally written. It can be hard at times to get a really good description in 1,000 characters.

 

I personally think 2000 makes a good limit.

 

Cheers!

C4.

[Syiren]

I am completely for increasing the character limit. I don't care if it's 1500 or 2000. I often have trouble writing better reviews because the characters are limited. Some of my current pending ones have grammar errors because of the limit. Other reviewers have pointed out the errors, but I can't fix them or add to the lines to make them complete because I have only 1 or 0 characters remaining.

 

I don't mind reading others' reviews, because it really is awesome to see how creative the stories are, but sometimes I see the same problem I have. Not enough space to fully detail the description that would otherwise make it perfect.

 

Even adding just 100-200 more characters would be a big help.

[pinkgothic]

As much as I'm not known for brevity and struggle with the space, I'm sure that regardless what the limit would be, I'd continually smack into it. If there's space, I'm also going to want to use it - and have the problem of needing to cram corrections into one or two characters left regardless.

 

That's not to say I'm not in favour of this (with the reservations Dimar mentioned, but I don't think that's a huge hurdle, with how the general consensus is absolutely in favour of tackling the backlog issue by throwing more people at it (or even different mechanics)) - I am in favour. I am just sure it's still going to be 'not enough' for some people. But it'll be a definite improvement, and that's enough of a reason to do it for me.

 

For the aforementioned reason that I'm sure any limit is going to have the same problems for me, personally, I have no idea what length to favour! I just wanted to pitch in, so... whatever wins out. 1500 and 2000 seem to be popular.

[GalaxyPassion13]

I do support longer descriptions, since I tend to write a lot... Normally I have -26 characters left after scaling it down as little as i can, and just barely managed to get 0 to 5 characters left. It would be very helpful to have some extra characters.

[Ashes The Second]

I don't usually write descriptions because it's not my thing, but i think I would if the limit was upped more -- I had grammar mistakes in one or two descriptions I wrote but they still went through regardless, and I'm not interested in fixing them.

[annageckos]

^ LOL.

 

I'm curious if all those who voted for "I think it's fine" are just saying that they themselves would not care if it was lengthened or not, or if they for some reason oppose an increase. I think the wording in the poll is a bit all inclusive and may have skewed results.

 

If that isn't the case, I'd be interested to hear why some actually oppose an increase. Dislike of reading long descriptions, or something...?

 

Edit: I don't feel the worries from last year about the backlog really pertain to the discussion anymore, if people are still worried about that.

I don't remember what I voted for, think I picked 'I like it the way it is'. That was the closest to what I felt. I'm not opposed to it being upped, but I don't care if it stays the way it is now.

[Kovia]

Personally I don't see the need for the limit to be upped, I usually only use 600-700 characters. My descriptions are basically just a brief backstory and a general personality, I rarely get inspired to write long stories. Several of them reference other dragons, so put together they could create a story I guess.

Would like to see the issue of the wait list addressed before we worry about the character limit. I would love to get more than one of my descriptions through, especially since the one that got approved references one of my White dragons who's description hasn't gone through.

Of course, I don't have a reason to oppose an increase either, though the concern about mods being willing to read long 3k+ descriptions could be an issue. 1500-2000 sounds manageable, but I can't speak for other people.

[edwardelricfreak]

I feel like the only thing I want is for there to somehow be something in place that allows you to juuuuust go over the limit in order to finish typing a sentence. That seems to happen to me a lot and I have to go back and omit or reword parts of a description that I liked...

 

I don't want the limit upped, exactly. I just wish there was a way to go over SLIGHTLY, just enough to fit in a couple more words to finish a sentence. ;n;

 

If the only way is to up the limit, then I think 1500 would be fine. 1000 is already rather long, and only a few times have I ever had to edit a description for it to fit.

[dragongrrl]

I used the poll a long time ago, but never posted in the thread.

 

I would like a little more story for many of mine. When I first started writing descriptions, I generally had to cut the story in half to get it to fit. Some stories were better for it, but others are still missing crucial details that just won't fit in the 1000 character limit.

 

I would love to see a 2000 character limit, but I don't want to intimidate anyone, so I can definitely accept the 1500 character limit, too. <3

[Herk]

I'm not opposed to this in general. I mostly can deal well with 1000 characters but I know that some descrips would benefit from a bit more space but...

 

- Only if we get something into place that helps us to get and KEEP the queue down, because lets face it a doubled cahracter limit WILL up the stuff mods will have to read (Hi Dimar *waves*)

 

AND

 

- Only if we get another increase in comment space. I do remember the shorter comment boxes and it was HELL because it was often impossible to point out everything that needed fixing, it still is sometimes now (but only seldom). For 2000 (or whatever) characters we need the comment space upped proportionally.

[LibbyLishly]

- Only if we get another increase in comment space. I do remember the shorter comment boxes and it was HELL because it was often impossible to point out everything that needed fixing, it still is sometimes now (but only seldom). For 2000 (or whatever) characters we need the comment space upped proportionally.

This is an extremely good point. There are sometimes so many little grammar concerns that need to be mentioned, but there just isn't enough space. A proportional 'upping' of the comment boxes would be necessary if the character limit went up.

[InugamiZERO]

with 1000 characters the comment box has about 200 characters

so with 2000 characters it would probably need about 400-500 characters

[InugamiZERO]

bump

(someone who can argue for this better than me please come along)

[solarflare3000]

This is a topic for the handful of those who like writing long descriptive stories for their dragons or just love showing off their extensive vocabulary in dragon descriptions. I really don't understand why there must be a 1000 character limit for dragon descriptions anyways, why not 2000? Or 3000? I don't see why there should be one at all. I don't know if others feel this way, but I don't see why this shouldn't be implemented. Is it too much work for mods to read such long descriptions? Or would it cause computer crashes for some people?

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I believe the reason given was because mods can't take time to review super long ones. We also don't want people pasting a hundred page story or RP in there. Accordingly I don't think a full removal is wise (or necessary; you can do a lot with just a few thousand words!), but a rise to 2000-3000 words would be nice. I often find myself a couple hundred words over for my elaborate stories. Although, that's going to happen to someone no matter what level the limit is raised to, so...

 

In summary probably a no to unlimited descriptions, probably a yes to a 1000-2000 word increase.