Requesting to remove the Subject length limitation

[DYING_S0UL]

I'm entirely not sure whether it's possible in SMF, but I would like to request theymos and PowerGlove (those with the power) to increase the character limit/size for the subject box. I am aware, for post body it is limited to 65535 bytes / 64k character, however I don't know what's the limit for the post's subject/title.

For English, it isn't a big deal, but for other languages like Bangla, it becomes challenging to fit the complete title in the subject box. My language and some other language takes more character space than English!

I recently translated a topic with the title: [Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step .

As you can see, it's a long title. But when I translate it into Bangla and try to use it as the title, half of it gets cut off and shows random texts. This forces me to shorten the title by removing certain parts.

The original title was supposed to be "[গাইড] কিভাবে কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস তৈরি করবেন (ভ্যানিটিজেন) -  স্টেপ বাই স্টেপ".
But I was forced to make it shorter to "কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস (ভ্যানিটিজেন)".

Test it in the archive section yourself!

"Please ignore any messy texts and broken terms!"

[notocactus]

For English, it isn't a big deal, but for other languages like Bangla, it becomes challenging to fit the complete title in the subject box. My language and some other language takes more character space than English!

I recently translated a topic with the title: [Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step .

As you can see, it's a long title. But when I translate it into Bangla and try to use it as the title, half of it gets cut off and shows random texts. This forces me to shorten the title by removing certain parts.

It can be a limitation from SMF forum software, I don't know, but it can be a limitation set up by Bitcoin Forum's admins too.

This long topic title, in my opinion, can be shortened like this.

[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step

Shortened to "[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen)", or "[Guide] How to create your Bitcoin Vanitygen Address".

Additionally, theymos has his guide for Topic title.

• Bitcointalk posting etiquette.
• Topic title style guide
• Make you.r topic title, posts more attractive

[DYING_S0UL]

It can be a limitation from SMF forum software, I don't know, but it can be a limitation set up by Bitcoin Forum's admins too.

It could be the case. They can answer it better!

This long topic title, in my opinion, can be shortened like this.
"[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen)", or "[Guide] How to create your Bitcoin Vanitygen Address".

And the most funny thing is that, I can't even post the shorted version witch you just provided!
This is as far I could fit in the subject box without crossing the limit, "কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস (ভ্যানিটিজেন)".

[arhipova]

For English, it isn't a big deal, but for other languages like Bangla, it becomes challenging to fit the complete title in the subject box. My language and some other language takes more character space than English!

I recently translated a topic with the title: [Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step .

As you can see, it's a long title. But when I translate it into Bangla and try to use it as the title, half of it gets cut off and shows random texts. This forces me to shorten the title by removing certain parts.

It can be a limitation from SMF forum software, I don't know, but it can be a limitation set up by Bitcoin Forum's admins too.

This long topic title, in my opinion, can be shortened like this.

[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step

Shortened to "[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen)", or "[Guide] How to create your Bitcoin Vanitygen Address".

Additionally, theymos has his guide for Topic title.

• Bitcointalk posting etiquette.
• Topic title style guide
• Make you.r topic title, posts more attractive

Surely a limitation of SMF.

[God Of Thunder]

The original title was supposed to be "[গাইড] কিভাবে কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস তৈরি করবেন (ভ্যানিটিজেন) -  স্টেপ বাই স্টেপ".
But I was forced to make it shorter to "কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস (ভ্যানিটিজেন)".

First of all, Thank you for creating this thread.
I faced this issue countless times for years but never thought I would look for a solution. I just accepted how it was and tried to adjust. I have dozens of Tutorials/Translation posts where I couldn't write the thread title. I first encountered this issue about two years ago when I first translated a topic of GazetaBitcoin. Then, I noticed the same issue in another Language. That is Russian. Ratimov also translated a topic of GazetaBitcoin, which he wasn't able to post in a single post. He had to reserve a post first to post it in two parts. But his topics are not in the forum anymore since he deleted all of them.

Anyways, A humble request to theymos, If you can lift the limit, please do it.

[Peanutswar]

Actually one of our struggles too as part of the translators because some of them words of the subject is equivalent with extended number of words or letters so to make it more still acceptable with the limit. I guess still it's a good help. Well even the main objective of the subject is just the brief idea.

[dzungmobile]

And the most funny thing is that, I can't even post the shorted version witch you just provided!
This is as far I could fit in the subject box without crossing the limit, "কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস (ভ্যানিটিজেন)".

You can try to ping PowerGlove for his investigation on this.

Topic title RTL weirdness (SMF patch). I guess it is issue for Arabic, Hebrew and maybe similar languages. Maybe it is something else, than only subject length limitation.

[Cryptomultiplier]

The obvious solution is to shorten your text, besides this, I wonder how possible it is to make the subject box accept more text.

I also think one of the reasons why the subject box has text limits is due to one fact that if there weren't any limitations, individuals will post longer topics that has already done enough to explain what the content of the post is talking about. There will be no reason to read through much post with long subjects because it may have already been explanatory, thus causing shallow replies and empty meaningless words.

[Eternad]

You can use the top part of your post for the complete title that want while use only a summarized title on the top part. Most of us here use search function for finding specific topic while only few manually browsing topics as per title.

The search function will detect the keywords that you put on the body of your thread.

Actually one of our struggles too as part of the translators because some of them words of the subject is equivalent with extended number of words or letters so to make it more still acceptable with the limit. I guess still it's a good help. Well even the main objective of the subject is just the brief idea.

This is the only problem there’s no way shorten a translated language if the counter part is really a long word. I do feel your hardship on your translated thread in our local board. 

[DYING_S0UL]

You can try to ping PowerGlove .....

Topic title RTL weirdness (SMF patch). I guess it is issue for Arabic, Hebrew and maybe similar languages.

I hoping he would see my post and reply with with an explanation whether it's really possible or not! Anyway, I'll try to ping him regarding this later!

AFAIK, Bangla, Arabic, Russian and similar languages takes more space than others!

Actually one of our struggles too as part of the translators because some of them words of the subject is equivalent with extended number of words or letters so to make it more still acceptable with the limit. I guess still it's a good help. Well even the main objective of the subject is just the brief idea.

If I am the OP, it wouldn't matter what I write in the title. But since I am making a translation, I try to keep the translation as identical as possible to the real one!

[Mia Chloe]

I too have encountered similar  maximum character issues a couple of times not only when I'm making translations but also sometimes when I'm creating a new thread and the best solution I've always come up with is to shorten the title by summarising it just like tranthidung mentioned too. Sometimes switching or translating across languages can either get bulky or shorter as the case may be.

Hopefully Theymos sees to this and increases the limit if it's something the forum can do independent from SMF but I doubt so because I think there would always be a shorter version every single time.

[FatFork]

This limitation comes from the SMF software and I'm not sure if an admin would be willing to change this as it could probably mess up a lot of other things. The thing is that the subject line of post messages is stored in the database as a tinytext data type. This means that it is limited to a maximum of 255 bytes, which in the case of English usually means 255 characters. Problem with other languages like Bangla is that they require more bytes per character than English, so you'll hit the limit sooner.

[Zoomic]

The reasons in op is tangible enough to make the expansion, especially for languages other than English. But for English section of the forum, I think it is just fine. I personally don't make lengthy titles. I try as much as possible to shorten it and make it captivating. But this is not the case with many people.

I also see some newbies in the English section abusing the title space if expanded. You will be surprised that people will start explaining an idea in the title space. It could be an effect of copy and paste.
PowerGlove has a thread he entertains little things that bugs you in the forum

[PX-Z]

The reasons in op is tangible enough to make the expansion, especially for languages other than English.

Or make it short and on point subject. There's so many ways how to do it, you don't need to change the system just because few have problem where most don't. If this is always happens system will end up in a mess and it need resources to do it, well, good thing we have contributor developer and admin too is developer but that doesn't mean they will be available always.

[PowerGlove]

I'm entirely not sure whether it's possible in SMF, but I would like to request theymos and PowerGlove (those with the power) to increase the character limit/size for the subject box.

It's a whole thing this...

There's an 80-character limit in the markup:

Code:

<input type="text" name="subject" tabindex="1" size="80" maxlength="80" />

(This limit is, I think, enforced in most browsers as a limit in terms of UTF-16 code units.)

Then there's some PHP:

Code:

// Make sure the subject isn't too long - taking into account special characters.
if ($func['strlen']($form_subject) > 100)
	$form_subject = $func['substr']($form_subject, 0, 100);

(This limit is enforced, roughly, in terms of ISO-8859-1 string length after accounting for out-of-encoding characters being represented as entities.)

Then there's (as FatFork pointed out) a limit which comes from the database schema:

Code:

CREATE TABLE {$db_prefix}messages (
  ...
  subject tinytext NOT NULL,
  ...
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

(I'm not much of a DBA, but, as I understand it, columns of type TINYTEXT can only store up to 255 bytes.)

And, even if the previous three hurdles were cleared, there's a SUBSTRING('$msgOptions[subject]', 1, 255) that happens while the post is being inserted into the database.

Anyway, I've sent theymos a PM, and I'll look more deeply into this issue if he responds positively.

[DYING_S0UL]

-snip-

Anyway, I've sent theymos a PM, and I'll look more deeply into this issue if he responds positively.

Thank you, PowerGlove, for the quick response and the detailed explanation of this situation. I was hoping that you would respond, and you did! I don't think he will make changes since nobody from global raised this issue until now, and because it's related to local language only! But anyway, it was nice seeing you reaching to theymos regarding this!

The reasons in op is tangible enough to make the expansion, especially for languages other than English.

Or make it short and on point subject. There's so many ways how to do it, you don't need to change the system just because few have problem where most don't. If this is always happens system will end up in a mess and it need resources to do it.....-snip-

It’s not about making it short, it’s already short! I can only fit around four-five words. I just want to post a title like we do normally in English, for example the title of this topic. I’m not asking for a massive title space. What’s normal sized in English appears tiny in Bangla!

I am aware of the consequences of changing the code! Anyway, it was just a humble request! 

[Vod]

Or make it short and on point subject. There's so many ways how to do it, you don't need to change the system just because few have problem where most don't.

My first thought too.  Use this opportunity to reduce the "content creep" that happens during translation.

[Guide] How to create your customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen) – step by step

[Guide] Create customized Bitcoin-Address (vanitygen)

Changing this would be trivial on PG's side, but possibly catastrophic on Theymos' end.

[DYING_S0UL]

Or make it short and on point subject. There's so many ways how to do it, you don't need to change the system just because few have problem where most don't.

My first thought too.  Use this opportunity to reduce the "content creep" that happens during translation.

Personally speaking, if it was my own topic, I would have tried to make it short! But since it's a translation and sometimes related to local boards, that's what's concerns me! Other than that it's totally not an issue!

Changing this would be trivial on PG's side, but possibly catastrophic on Theymos' end.

VALID point! I also imagined this scenario, after seeing some of the comments, it could lead to some catastrophic instability! And I certainly don't wanna give them any pain !

[NotATether]

There's an 80-character limit in the markup:

Code:

<input type="text" name="subject" tabindex="1" size="80" maxlength="80" />

(This limit is, I think, enforced in most browsers as a limit in terms of UTF-16 code units.)

Then there's some PHP:

Code:

// Make sure the subject isn't too long - taking into account special characters.
if ($func['strlen']($form_subject) > 100)
	$form_subject = $func['substr']($form_subject, 0, 100);

(This limit is enforced, roughly, in terms of ISO-8859-1 string length after accounting for out-of-encoding characters being represented as entities.)

We should be able to easily double the limit without having to touch the database, or creating exorbitantly long subjects that make the browser's horizontal viewport very large (i.e. scrolling horizontally to read the title).

Also, nobody really uses UTF-16 anymore. It's just a relic from Java and other legacy systems. Almost everything is done in UTF-8 nowadays, but I know charset conversion is a PITA so let's leave that be.

[PowerGlove]

Also, nobody really uses UTF-16 anymore. It's just a relic from Java and other legacy systems. Almost everything is done in UTF-8 nowadays, but I know charset conversion is a PITA so let's leave that be.

I mean, Bitcointalk hasn't chosen to involve UTF-16 in this, it's just how the maxlength attribute works:

The length is measured in UTF-16 code units, which (for most scripts) is equivalent to the number of characters.

We should be able to easily double the limit without having to touch the database, or creating exorbitantly long subjects that make the browser's horizontal viewport very large (i.e. scrolling horizontally to read the title).

Of the barriers that I pointed out in my previous post, it's mostly the 255-byte database limitation that's behind OP's example problem...

The title that OP wanted to use would have almost made it past the maxlength check, and would have, I think, made it past the entity-aware PHP check(s). The main problem, I think, is with the "ISO-8859-1 with entities" representation being truncated to 255 bytes by the database.

The intended title would have been represented like this (approximately; I haven't really rolled up my sleeves and looked into this deeply yet):

Code:

[গাইড] কিভাবে কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস তৈরি করবেন (ভ্যানিটিজেন) -  স্টেপ বাই স্টেপ

And chopping that ~480-byte representation down to 255 bytes is what's behind the title changing from this:

Code:

[গাইড] কিভাবে কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস তৈরি করবেন (ভ্যানিটিজেন) -  স্টেপ বাই স্টেপ

To this (with maybe some extra junk at the end, too, like &#2):

Code:

[গাইড] কিভাবে কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস তৈ

And that result is what forced OP to come up with a title short-enough to survive the truncation:

Code:

কাস্টমাইজড বিটকয়েন এড্রেস (ভ্যানিটিজেন)

(So, long story short, I think if theymos left everything else the same, but changed the column's data type from TINYTEXT to TEXT, and then changed the 255 in that SUBSTRING('$msgOptions[subject]', 1, 255) to something a little roomier, then entity-rich topic titles would stop getting truncated so aggressively. But, like I said, I'm no DBA, and I can't anyway even see, let alone reason about, Bitcointalk's actual database schema, so, only theymos can really estimate if this is worth doing or not.)