I think Images should slightly count towards character count

[HomuraBL 851]

Hello everyone, Feld0 asked that I make a topic for this.

 

So, there was one thing I was thinking during the whole character limit war we have going on. Maybe images should count slightly towards the the character count. Maybe it could be worth 10 characters.

 

I'm not sure if its feasible, (Which is kinda why I didn't want to make a thread. I must sound like an idiot), but if you could I think it would be helpful.

 

For starters, it could spice conversations up. A lot of people said it themselves that things like long paragraphs of text are boring, and this would give people more of an option to make their post better with pictures.

 

Second, it would help people get closer to the 100 limit. Although they put a picture in their post, they would still have to add text.

 

Now I do see some problems:

 

People could spam just pictures. Maybe there should be a cap on how many picture actually count towards your post.

 

Also, people could post a picture that has nothing to do with the thread to get past the character limit. Though, pictures are easy to spot anyway, and could probably be easy to judge what is spam or not.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting to put down something but maybe it will come back. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, how many characters could possibly be decided for this.

 

(Please go easy on me)

[FireFox 82]

I agree. <-- inside joke if you've been following the character limit thread.

 

 

I was thinking a picture should be worth 15 characters. That way a post with a picture would still need 85 characters, which would promote the idea of having at least two sentences. I think that only one or maybe two pictures should count and the second might have diminishing returns and only count as 10 characters. With two pictures you would still need 75 characters and that would eliminate the 3 word posts and make the >50<100 character people happy. Of course, I have no idea if something like this is even possible to implement.

 

p.s. the emoticons should count as a character or two as well since typing out :-) is three characters and using the really cool supplied emoticons currently count as zero.

[MrL0LZ 866]

I have to say I agree, I find it annoying how things like videos and pictures don't count towards post count, where some threads are about posting pictures. And i'm going to leave it at that.

[PonyEcho 1,610]

well if a picture speaks a thousand word should it just count for 10 charactors

 

honestly seems none impactful because i dont think this would do anything unless somepony wants to post a picture to avoid typing 100 charactors.

also if someone was to add a picture i would at least add some imput to there opinions which would be alot longer then 100 charactor, also if all someone can do is add a picture just to provide their opinion, they shouldn't bother posting. no offence

[HomuraBL 851]

if all someone can do is add a picture just to provide their opinion, they shouldn't bother posting. no offence

But they wouldn't just post a picture. That was my point. I'm trying to say that there should be more easier ways to reach the 100 character limit that will also have a benefit to some.

[PonyEcho 1,610]

But they wouldn't just post a picture. That was my point. I'm trying to say that there should be more easier ways to reach the 100 character limit that will also have a benefit to some.

 

yeah i do see the point your trying to make. the picture would help because i know some people would post a picture response and type something out but they would have ended up typing something out anyway and it would likely be over 100 characters

the best way for someone to reach the minimum limit would be to post what they truly think.

 

e.g i was trying to respond to another thread but my post only made it to 80 characters, and i kept thinking what else to add, but the i stopped thought about it and rewrite it and it wended up being over 300 characters.

 

i just think we don't need these cheap ways out when were we're already capable of typing over 100 characters easily

[HomuraBL 851]

yeah i do see the point your trying to make. the picture would help because i know some people would post a picture response and type something out but they would have ended up typing something out anyway and it would likely be over 100 characters

the best way for someone to reach the minimum limit would be to post what they truly think.

 

e.g i was trying to respond to another thread but my post only made it to 80 characters, and i kept thinking what else to add, but the i stopped thought about it and rewrite it and it wended up being over 300 characters.

 

i just think we don't need these cheap ways out when were we're already capable of typing over 100 characters easily

 

Look, I'm completely fine with 100 character limit. I do exactly what you say. But you want to know something? I just want it to be easier for everyone else, so this character minimum thing can be put to rest.

[PonyEcho 1,610]

Look, I'm completely fine with 100 character limit. I do exactly what you say. But you want to know something? I just want it to be easier for everyone else, so this character minimum thing can be put to rest.

 

you mean it hasn't its been over a week now and even tho I complained about it at first (but for a different reason to others), i have pretty much adjusted to it all

 

I think its all down to "can it be done" so a picture just counts as 10 characters, but it rely isn't going to amount to much unless I start seeing picture responses to more and more threads.

Edited August 3, 2012 by PonyEcho

[Jonke 3,743]

1 picture = 1 character for the proposed idea, if anything but let's be realistic, would 1 extra character really help you build your own sentences? Would 10? 15? Not really, it only gives our members more routes to circumvent the limit. It's nice of you to propose it but i'm afraid it will not solve people's problem to get past the limit "fairly".

 

Also it would be quite nuisance if we start to see pictures more often in posts on the forum, i really don't want to crawl through tons of pictures to get the message.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Jonke

[Vicke 3,189]

I do not agree to this.

I don't want to see 1image in every single post here. It would get annoying and frustrating.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Vicke

[NavelColt 22,880]

Makes sense. It would be nice to have at least some little amount count towards the total post count. I myself often use images, along with my post content, so that would be really cool to have. I can see why it would cause a lot of irritant though, so, eh.

Edited August 3, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Shift 4,272]

Meh, i'm leaning on either side here. I use pictures a lot and this might be helpful, but I don't want to see pictures wherever I go. I'm really in the middle here.

[Shiki 5,855]

The only reason I ever post images is whenever I'm on some kind of thread like, "What's your internet speed?" to where, you kind of need to post the test results, which is an image. I'm actually getting somewhat annoyed at the fact that everyone's making a big deal out of this character limit. I've been on forums that have 150 character limits, and I have no trouble doing that in any way, shape, or form.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

I'm in favor of the image contributing as a character, however I think it should only count as 1, because it's only one posted object.

 

But with the suggestion of 15, someone might just posts six picturs of basically nothing and then type "Fluttershy" and that would constitute 100 characters.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

Remember one thing, if someone posts a 1x1 transparent pixel as an image, it would still count, so having it as 1 character seems like the best deal we can get, otherwise it will become the way to circumnavigate the character limit.

 

Like other mentioned it would create image spam, which is also unnecessary.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

Remember one thing, if someone posts a 1x1 transparent pixel as an image, it would still count, so having it as 1 character seems like the best deal we can get, otherwise it will become the way to circumnavigate the character limit.

 

Like other mentioned it would create image spam, which is also unnecessary.

 

Posting a 1x1 rgba image would be kind of a dick move. Although it's virtually invisible, it's just as big of a waste as posting

 

"Raindow Dash aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

[False Perception 482]

I would LOVE to have pics count towards character limit, as most times the pics I post sum up my feelings on the subject I'm posting on. However, @ has a good point, as people could spam invisible pictures. AGAIN, like we made invisible text not count towards the limit, what if we have images that are smaller than X not count towards the limit? How about every ten pixels of height count one character? It would be possible, right?

 

In any case, I think all these complaints all just stupid. Lot's of forums that are nowhere near as balling as we are have character limits, but almost nobody complains on them. Do you want to know why? It's because it's considered a universal forum standard. One of the first things I did joining here was mail a moderator about character limits. I think you should be grateful that the moderators here are looking to enhance the average forum user's experience here by adding in a character limit in hopes of encouraging more intelligent posts. Maybe you should stop being a complainy complainerpants.

 

I also know this is overused, but 100 characters still isn't that much...

 

I have 1116 characters excluding this sentence.

[moneyshredderofdeath 414]

I don't think there'd be much of a point in making images count. An image won't be a deciding factor in whether the post is a quality one or not. Images are useful as a visual aid but if they could provide an extra 10 characters there's no doubt they'd be abused for padding that could be more constructively attained by bulking out your text-based thoughts.

[Strife 455]

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. And if a word averages five characters, then a pictures is worth 5000 characters, right?

 

All silliness aside, I find the idea fair. Have the first picture contribute 20 characters, that is 1/5 the minimum.

 

On the other hand, it would needlessly over complicate the system and can be abused.

 

Perhaps we shouldn't.

 

Edit: sometimes I fail at editing before hitting post.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Strife

[Marshmallow 1,137]

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The average word in the English language has 5.1 letters, so a picture should be worth 5100 characters!

 

Okay.. maybe not

All silliness aside,

edit: Damnit @@Strife, ! I swear I hadn't read your post before typing that!

 

I think that it's a good idea. 10 characters for a picture seems reasonable enough. It isn't a lot, and you could as well just add about two words to your post, but I find that pictures often do add content and make a post more interesting to read (to me at least).

Edited August 5, 2012 by Marshmallow

[False Perception 482]

It may noy be much, but ppl could still spam 1x1 pics, and if nobody reports it, then the mods are in the dark lest they see it themselves. If the IP.Boards software could only count pics so big/small as chars, then this might work. I don't think it works that way though.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The average word in the English language has 5.1 letters, so a picture should be worth 5100 characters!

 

Okay.. maybe not

All silliness aside,

edit: Damnit @@Strife, ! I swear I hadn't read your post before typing that!

 

I think that it's a good idea. 10 characters for a picture seems reasonable enough. It isn't a lot, and you could as well just add about two words to your post, but I find that pictures often do add content and make a post more interesting to read (to me at least).

 

[Pulcinella 1,016]

I heavily agree, being part of the avatar and signature teams, I think we should be able to quote the request, post the sig or avi, and ask if they like it while passing the limit. Good idea.

PS, I think quotes and spoilers should count too.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

This sounds like a great idea until you realize the following:

 

Remember one thing, if someone posts a 1x1 transparent pixel as an image, it would still count, so having it as 1 character seems like the best deal we can get, otherwise it will become the way to circumnavigate the character limit.

 

Honestly, an image isn't exactly worth "nothing". In fact, it can make or break many types of topics. But there is so much potential for abusing this mechanic that it would be a herculean lost cause to reprogram the character counter to try and catch every possible way to cheat the counter with an image. Really, it's one of those cases where I unfortunately have to say that the idea sounds good and fair on paper, but is unlikely to work as intended in practice.

[Acoustic Cloud 2,202]

well they say a picture is worth a thousand words... but in this case it would only make forum posts lazy and uncoordinated.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Rainbow Dashey

[Bronium 512]

Sometimes, a picture adds to the the content of a post (such as a graph) and would make the post a lot more simpler to understand. It takes a such a smaller amount of space, relative to the amount of space it would take if you actually describe what you mean in words. Like a population over time graph and a population over time over time graph. Try explaining that without using a graph. They are part of your posts and should be recognized as such.

 

Oh and for spammy pictures how about a button for a mod to just remove the pictures (if it's to circumvent the character count) and if that reduces the character count to below 100, then the whole post would be removed? I don't know how hard it is to implement that, but spammy pictures, which do not expand on the post, would clutter up the forums less. So for example.

 

[Picture not relating to the post]

Text.

 

The [Picture not relating to the post] is removed and the text stays there by itself.

 

This might just add more workload for the mods,some might say. (God knows they need it). But I say that it's the same amount of work done, if they need to take care of spam.

 

If it's a spammy post:

>Member reports spam, giving a description saying it's spam.

>Mods see the report, sees the post and judges whether it's spam.

>If it is, the post is removed.

 

Fairly simple, right?

 

If it's a post with spammy pictures:

>Member reports spam, giving a description saying it's a post with spammy pictures.

>Mods see the report, sees the post and judges whether the pictures are of a spammy nature.

>If it is, the pictures are removed. If this reduces the character count to below 100 characters, the post is removed automatically.

 

I can only assume this is how mods react to reports. But fairly the same amount of work.

 

And for the invisible pictures thing, the idea still works. If a post seems to be less than a 100 characters, then mod could still remove the pictures and then if the lack of pictures give a <100 character post, then the post is automatically deleted.

 

Take an example, if an image contributes 1 character, having two missing characters won't destroy the quality of the post. So it's not that much of a big deal. And they'll probably just add an extra full stop instead of the invisible pixel.

 

If an image contributes 10 or 15 characters, and if you had two extra invisible pixels, then if there are 20-30 missing characters and it's pretty clear that the post is <100 characters.

 

For example:

aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa. Is a hundred char sentence.

is a hundred characters and

aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa aaaaa and 2 invisible pixel is a 100 char sentence but the difference is pretty visible difference (at least to me, it is).

 

The hardest part about this would be spammy pictures in the middle of useful pictures.

A possible solution would be when clicking the button to remove the images, certain images can be removed (chosen by the mods) by ticking a box next to the images but that would increase the mods work a lot (if you have to do that multiple time).

 

Just saying, it would not make removing invisible pixels impossible as a tick box would still show up next to the invisible pixel and now the mod can actually know that there's a invisible pixel, instead of having to assume it.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Bronium