Minnesota, USA –December 1, 2011 – Have you ever felt like you can continuously write a Facebook status, but never see the ‘limit’ warning anymore after posting That is because Facebook increased its character limit again; it increased several times in the last couple of years –the limit is just over 63,000 characters now! As exciting as this might be for the ‘blabber mouths’, it’s a sad day for the ‘note’ feature as it likely will not be used as often as in the past –the use was already limited as it is. You can test it out, but I cannot guarantee that your friends will not be annoyed with status updates this long.
While Twitter maintains a short 140 character status, Google+ keeps a large limit of over 100,000 characters; Facebook must be trying to keep up with both social networks by staying in between these limits. However, by doing so it is encouraging its own users to ignore the ‘note’ feature. If users do not use this feature, it is likely that the longer statuses will be even more difficult to read; at least with the note feature it took users to another page to read it by itself.
With the ‘live news feed’ on the right side of the Facebook page, updates this large may cause issues with loading and also frustration from users when a large box appears that never seems to end. Although none of my friends write status updates this long and none of them have tried yet, I may not ever encounter this problem; however, Facebook must realize that some people may post something this long and cause its other users to be frustrated.
When posting online, it is important to remember the basic social networking etiquette; if you plan to post a long story, tips, or anything of this nature, it should be written as a ‘note’ due to the length. If it starts off as a ‘status’, you can always copy and paste it into a ‘note’. You must remember that if you do not read your friends’ updates that are long, they likely do not read yours. Always write in an outlet where you know people will read it. That’s the goal after all, is it not
Happy posting!