Limit on post size ?

[unboggling]

Hi. Is there a limit on the size of a large post? I've been frequently adding content to a post. It's approaching 180 KB.

[pholy]

There may not be an official limit, but anything more than a few paragraghs will quickly get a Too Long; Don't Read label. If you must include all that, make it an attachment after a brief introduction. Long posts take way too much effort to scroll through.

[unboggling]

Yeah, I know. Sigh.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by pholy

There may not be an official limit, but anything more than a few paragraghs will quickly get a Too Long; Don't Read label.

This isn't quite the same as the posts unboggling is talking about. His posts are more of a "how to" that are well broken up and labeled for easy viewing.

[HarryT]

But surely it would be better as a series of posts, with one post per topic, would it not? 180k in a single post seems a little excessive to me, especially for those reading on mobile devices.

[Alexander Turcic]

180KB of text content in a single post? WOW! That's quite a record.

At this point it'd be a good idea to consider splitting up the post into multiple ones. Would the content be suitable as how-to content for the Wiki?

[unboggling]

This is the post: How I Manage eBooks with calibre

I revise it frequently, usually daily.

I could do it as one attachment to a short post, but that is not really practical with the frequency of revision. I think having to download it to read it might annoy some potential readers more than one big post, particularly if they are aware of the frequency of revision.

Splitting it into 2 or more posts is doable. I've been thinking about that. But how split should it be? Should it be 2 posts each 90 KB? Should it be 4 posts of 45 KB? Should it be 9 posts approx 20 KB? 36 posts at 5 KB? What is a reasonable limit for the size of each post? Wouldn't a large number of small posts with lots of links pointing back and forth between them all be a lot more annoying than one big post? Particularly for anyone reading those posts on a mobile device? Also it doesn't seem practical to have to revise content across so many different linked posts, rather than one post, at this frequency of revision.

Regarding wiki, in my opinion that's not practical either. The target audience is calibre users who want examples of how someone does specific things. Not the general public who might stumble across a wiki article. I suppose I could link from a small post in calibre forum to one or more wiki articles. But this would move the content away from its calibre-user audience. I think the number of views/hits would decrease significantly.

Rather than do any of the above, I think I'd rather redo it as a separate independent web site. Linked to from a post in calibre forum. I'd been trying to avoid that solution because it seemed foolish to move the content away from its audience, people browsing calibre forum or people searching the forums. But this is an attractive solution in that it gives me more freedom for layout and formatting, plus allows internal links.

Attachment size limits are 1 MB for TXT, 5 MB for DOC, and 20 MB for EPUB, PDF, or ZIP. But what is the limit for the size of a post?

I'm open to any other ideas or advice.

[David Munch]

Looks to me to be a perfect thing for the Mobileread Wiki.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Splitting it into 2 or more posts is doable. I've been thinking about that. But how split should it be? Should it be 2 posts each 90 KB? Should it be 4 posts of 45 KB? Should it be 9 posts approx 20 KB? 36 posts at 5 KB? What is a reasonable limit for the size of each post? ... Attachment size limits are 1 MB for TXT, 5 MB for DOC, and 20 MB for EPUB, PDF, or ZIP. But what is the limit for the size of a post?

The good news is we don't have a set limit. So if it's almost 200 KB, that's not a problem, as long as it is still usable from a user's perspective.

Particularly for anyone reading those posts on a mobile device?

Yes, this could mean someone on a mobile device has some more data usage when visiting the particular post. But we're talking about 200 KB of text content, which compresses very well and which isn't that much compared to the standard size of images used on Websites.

Regarding wiki, in my opinion that's not practical either. The target audience is calibre users who want examples of how someone does specific things. Not the general public who might stumble across a wiki article. I suppose I could link from a small post in calibre forum to one or more wiki articles. But this would move the content away from its calibre-user audience.

That sounds reasonable. The best of both worlds might be to include the content in both, the forum post and a copy of it in the Wiki. The Wiki would allow for more formatting than a forum post does.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Regarding wiki, in my opinion that's not practical either. The target audience is calibre users who want examples of how someone does specific things. Not the general public who might stumble across a wiki article. I suppose I could link from a small post in calibre forum to one or more wiki articles. But this would move the content away from its calibre-user audience. I think the number of views/hits would decrease significantly.

You may perhaps misunderstand. We're talking about the MobileRead Wiki - the thing you get to when you click the "Wiki" link at the top of the screen - not Wikipedia. The Wiki is a much better place to put "reference" type information than a forum post.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

The good news is we don't have a set limit. So if it's almost 200 KB, that's not a problem, as long as it is still usable from a user's perspective.

Good. Hopefully, it's usable. Despite that the spoilers add the extra step of having to expand the spoilers first to see any search highlighting, and then the long expanded post is too long to conveniently eyeball for the search highlights.

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

…But we're talking about 200 KB of text content, which compresses very well and which isn't that much compared to the standard size of images used on Websites.

So that's good too.

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

…The best of both worlds might be to include the content in both, the forum post and a copy of it in the Wiki. The Wiki would allow for more formatting than a forum post does.

Pro for wiki article alone. More flexible formatting.

Con for wiki article alone. Anyone can edit a wiki article, which seems unsuitable and unmanagable from my point of view, because the content is intentionally tailored to how I do things as a framework for very specific examples.

Con for forum post alone. Awkwardness of spoilers/searching. Awkwardness of scrolling, I don't consider a con - if it's too much trouble to scroll, don't read it, and a big wiki article would also require scrolling.

Pro for content on forum and wiki. The wiki content might get additional audience.

Con for content on forum and wiki. The markup for forum post and wiki article are entirely different. So unless there is a tool or script for converting markup from bbcode to wiki, each of the frequent revisions would require twice the work for formatting. I'd want to keep the formatting as simple as possible to switch from one type of markup to another, so taking advantage of the additional complexity of wiki markup wouldn't be a benefit. I suppose I could write a script.

Originally Posted by HarryT

You may perhaps misunderstand. We're talking about the MobileRead Wiki - the thing you get to when you click the "Wiki" link at the top of the screen - not Wikipedia. The Wiki is a much better place to put "reference" type information than a forum post.

I was referring to the MR Wiki. Perhaps some of my assumptions about MR Wiki are wrong.

First, I haven't seen anything like the "How I Manage…" post on the MR Wiki.

Second, a wiki article editable by anyone would need a different and multiple-user framework, in which various users could enter their own examples. Since calibre is so flexible and answers different needs for various users, a multiuser framework would be a very different kind of document. Incorporating specific examples from multiple users would engender a lot more confusion. I have a hard time imagining that being as useful as a document that covers examples of needs, strategy, workflow, etc of just one user. Last year I tried to accommodate every user and every case in specific workflows, and that just didn't work. Which is why I let it evolve toward how one person does things. Is how one person does things suitable content for a wiki? It is specific how-i, not generic how-to.

[Jellby]

I believe you can have a user page, which should be only editable by you. Once you log in the Wiki, click on your username (top, leftmost item) and then you can create your user page if it doesn't exist. Check mine: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/User:Jellby

Con: You have only 1 page, I guess.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I believe you can have a user page, which should be only editable by you. Once you log in the Wiki, click on your username (top, leftmost item) and then you can create your user page if it doesn't exist. Check mine: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/User:Jellby

Con: You have only 1 page, I guess.

Interesting. I checked it out. Would it be appropriate to have 180 KB of topical content on my user page? I assume not.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Interesting. I checked it out. Would it be appropriate to have 180 KB of topical content on my user page? I assume not.

I have no idea what the answer is, but to "assume not" seems odd to me. Give it a try and see if you can get the formatting to your liking.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I believe you can have a user page, which should be only editable by you. Once you log in the Wiki, click on your username (top, leftmost item) and then you can create your user page if it doesn't exist. Check mine: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/User:Jellby

The user namespace isn't restricted either, anyone can edit it. It would not be the best place to find relevant content on the Wiki.

I guess as long as unboggling's content is so frequently updated, it's probably best to stick to the editing forum post. It stays fresh and easily noticeable for everyone there.