Hi Randy,

I was wondering if there was any way around the limitation of the number of characters in a post. Currently, it appears to be set at 10,000 characters.

I've been unofficially maintaining a post in the Mileage Run section called Mileage Run Tools - which has been stickied to the top of that Forum - it's kind of like a comprehensive listing of tools that Mileage Runners & non-Mileage Runners can use. This post (pre-new-FT) had just under 15,000 characters in it - I can't edit it now because of the 10K maximum (unless I delete a heck of a lot of stuff - 1/3 of the post - and even if I do that, I wouldn't be able to update it & add to it as new tools become available).

I was wondering if it was at all possible to figure out a way to work around this. A couple of ideas (and I have no clue if they'd work as I know very little about how Bulletin Board systems works) include not restricting the number of characters (for that post or even for all posts as it was on "FT Classic") or to possibly create another single links-only webpage in the Flyertalk.com domain that doesn't have that sort of restriction. I was thinking about getting some free webspace with Geocities, Tripod, or one of those other random free-web sites, but I figured that wouldn't be as good as having it be a part of FT because of the fact that those are owned by giant faceless corporations & this one isn't.

I'd like to continue with keeping it up (or even pass on the job to someone else - doesn't matter to me) as I feel that it's a useful thread for all FT'ers & Mileage Runners - but I'm just at a loss as how to do it. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

The best way to handle this would be to create a new post, and divide it into two posts at the top of the thread.

I tried to get a document containing about 7,500 characters to FT'ers who'll be attending Ozfest 2004 May 21-23 and couldn't do it because the system allows only messages below 1,000 characters...

Subsequently asked everyone via the thread to email me their preferred email address so I can create a "group contact" in my own system to keep everyone informed...

Conversely, why are we prohibited from leaving one character responses, like the thumbs up? Unless it's a drag on board performance, I think one character responses should again be allowed.

This problem seems to have been addressed as part of the constant fine tuning of the new board. ^

I asked Randy last week if he might consider approving the maximum amount of characters a post to be 15000 or even 20000.

I was trying to update a "sticky" thread on the UA board about upgrades and UA fare classes which was abut 13,500 character long already:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...54#post1091854

When I went to update it the new software refused to let me alter it. Anyway, Randy seems to recognise these longer posts cannot be broken into 2 if the thread is already 8 pages long, and approved the longer character limit and I was then able to edit it as required.

Hope bhatnasx is able to update his long thread in the same manner. and any other members who likewise have long 'how to' or similar type threads that need regular updating.

Thanks to Randy and the techies for taking the time to look into this question. :-:

Hope one of the next things on the 'possible upgrade list to be considered' is being able to direct email to whom we wish to members whose email addresses are showing. That IMHO is a huge weakness of the new FT.

Although I have my e-mail address listed directly in my profile, I actually enjoy having the e-mail function disabled. One reason is that I've received so many e-mails that have been sent to trash by filters that I often receive complaints of non-received e-mails (especially when trading in the CC). At least with PMing, I can rest easy knowing that the PM is sitting in the user's box waiting to be read and can see with the new read receipt function (thanks Dan ^) which PMs have been read. IMHO, it's a much more cleaner process.

It also seems I've received less SPAM to my Hotmail account since the vBulletin software has been up (even with my e-mail address directly listed in my profile).

aloha

I am relieved that this is not yet another uselessly controversial thread in this forum.

For a moment, I thought the topic of this thread referred to other FlyerTalk members, not to the actual software.

Anyway, another workaround to the character limitation issue (in case for some reason the entire post exceeds even the new character limitation) is create new posts elsewhere (in another thread or later within the same thread) and provide links to those specific posts in the one post where all of the information was to be included in the first place.

Thanks - but I actually ended up following the advice of flipside & dmfriedman (who is the moderater at Mileage Run) & split the post up into 2 posts & "reserved" the next 2 posts in case additional information was needed. See what I mean by looking at posts 3 & 4 here.

Not to take the thread OT, but in case Randy's reading this... As posted before on the email thread, I'm for enabling email again. Those who are willing will allow it to be seen (and accept the consequences of being potentially spammed - not that it happened much w/ FT before, so don't expect it to happen much now), and those who don't want it just don't have to turn it on. Problem solved - for both sides.

I'm on email constantly - I am not on FT constantly (well actually maybe I am but I shouldn't be ), so email access is easier for me. Plus when organizing a Do especially w/ several folk attending, PM becomes a major pain in the butt due to character limitations, limitations on how many can be pm'd at once, having to go to FT to read/send messages, etc, etc.

Randy, please extend character limitations, please extend limits on a single post to be under 10 characters, & please bring email back.

I agree on the e-mail option. I'm on FT a lot during the day and I respond to the PM's on a regular basis but find the PM process somewhat clunky, intrusive and not especially user friendly. I too prefer e-mail as a way to correspond with other FT'ers.
Perhaps this post should go in the "Suggestions" or "Technical Issues" Forums but I didn't really give this issue a great deal of thought until I read your post.

A big "me-too" from me! ^

The maximum amount of characters is currently set to 15,000.