Maximum number of characters in thread title

[Wrichik Basu]

The maximum number of characters allowed in a thread title seems to be 70. I have often faced trouble while trying to maintain this limit and make a meaningful title at the same time. Can this be increased to 100 characters at least? The limit for the thread summary is 250 characters, so 100 characters for the title seems to be a good number.

 

[fresh_42]

What can you say in 100 what you couldn't in 70? Nobody wants to read a novel in the title. Just leave out formulas which are hard to find by search engines anyway.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

What can you say in 100 what you couldn't in 70?

Consider this title: "Java is introducing jpackage: a command-line tool for creating executables from jar files" (89 characters). I can replace "creating executables from" with "packaging", and that makes it 73 characters. I can further replace "Java is" with "Java's", but I am not very fond of contractions in the title.

Someone will surely be able to contract the title further, but I cannot keep posting titles here, requesting people to shorten it out.

Nobody wants to read a novel in the title.

You have an insight article with the title "A Journey to The Manifold SU(2): Differentiation, Spheres and Fiber Bundles". In my opinion, this is not a novel, although it is 75 characters long.

100 is just a round figure. Even making the length 80 or 90 characters will be helpful in most cases.

 

[berkeman]

The maximum number of characters allowed in a thread title seems to be 70.

I've noticed that after I create a new thread with its title, etc., that I can go back later and edit the title and make it longer. Have you tried that? Maybe give that a try to see what the maximum is for an edited title. It may be a Mentor superpower, or it may be available to everybody...

 

[Wrichik Basu]

I've noticed that after I create a new thread with its title, etc., that I can go back later and edit the title and make it longer. Have you tried that?

Nope, because I didn't know the title can be made longer if I edit it later. Just tried it in this thread, and the limit was 150 characters. Thanks a ton! Problem solved.

 

[fresh_42]

Consider this title: "Java is introducing jpackage: a command-line tool for creating executables from jar files" (89 characters). I can replace "creating executables from" with "packaging", and that makes it 73 characters. I can further replace "Java is" with "Java's", but I am not very fond of contractions in the title.

Someone will surely be able to contract the title further, but I cannot keep posting titles here, requesting people to shorten it out.

".exe files from .jar files by jpackage" Where is the problem?

You have an insight article with the title "A Journey to The Manifold SU(2): Differentiation, Spheres and Fiber Bundles". In my opinion, this is not a novel, although it is 75 characters long.

That is title (insight) and subtitle (part 1). Transcripted to a thread it would have been title and summary.

100 is just a round figure. Even making the length 80 or 90 characters will be helpful in most cases.

And I think 50 would be sufficient. Also a nice round number. Babylonians might have considered 60 a nice round number. Or 32 measured in bytes. Or 36, a word. This is meanwhile hardly an argument. The rule for titles is: the shorter the good.

 

[fresh_42]

Thanks a ton! Problem solved.

Problem worsened.

We have a nice German word for that: "verschlimmbessert". Improvement by worsening.

 

[berkeman]

Nope, because I didn't know the title can be made longer if I edit it later. Just tried it in this thread, and the limit was 150 characters. Thanks a ton! Problem solved.

But please keep in mind that lots of long thread titles will clutter up the forum, so still try to keep the title fairly brief but very descriptive. Just as 1-2 word titles are not descriptive and may prevent folks from clicking into the thread, a long verbose title may have the same effect.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

This is done because Google cuts off titles around 65 characters. Long titles also crowd the thread list pages.