How long is too long?

We can have 128 characters for a title of a POI, and 512 characters for it’s description.

Is that enough, or too much? Have you ever hit the limit on either or even both when nominating a Wayspot?

Do longer titles/descriptions put you off when reviewing or do you dislike short descriptions such as “local pub”?

I’ve had a few that have hit 512 characters on description, and have a few that are 100+ characters in length on the title. Maybe they don’t fit great on gifts on Pokémon GO etc. but I don’t really care about that.

Comments

  • Belahzur-INGBelahzur-ING Posts: 632 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I make my titles with Ingress key-sorting in mind, so I try to make them specific to a name and/or place, easier to find and remember which key is from where at x location I've been to... which I guess helps in all/other games too though I'm not too fussed about them.

    I tend to use all 512 description characters, fill out as much information about my sub as possible, and then carry on with even more in the supporting, along with web links.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Based on my own nominations:

    • My nomination descriptions are about 220 characters on average. My aim is usually below 256 or 280 characters.
    • The longest title I've ever submitted in the last two years was "Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church and St Joseph's Convent School History" = 77 characters.
    • I've never hit the limit for any of the title, description or even the supporting statement.

    To answer your questions:

    • I think the title and descriptions are just right. Regardless of how they appear in any of the games, they don't really bother me.
    • Titles which are actually sentences or jampacked with keywords such as "Coronet Theatre Plaque - the former Olympic No1 theatre site "the bug house" - Corner of Waverley St and Oxford Street" or "A community picnic/bbq area for the streets of greenacre and their families" are horrendous and get immediate rejections from me. Conversely, if a description is shorter than the title (which is a solid internal rule that I go by), they are also reviewed much more harsher.

    But man, when supporting statements are overkill, unfortunately I pretty much skip it entirely and read what is visible. If I have to expand the ellipses during a review to see what was written, then the nominator hasn't done a good job in keeping my attention and making a good first impression. That being said, apart from my strict grammar and title/description internal rules (which is commonly frowned upon), I am quite the lenient reviewer. ^_^

  • 1253mi-PGO1253mi-PGO Posts: 49 ✭✭
    edited November 2021

    You could write a novel in Japanese on a postcard. 512 characters is a lot :)

    My titles are short. My descriptions are usually short as well. If I were writing in English they'd be much longer character wise but say the same thing.

    There are a few I've written up longer because I felt they needed more description to satisfy reviewers.

  • oscarc1-INGoscarc1-ING Posts: 366 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I keep titles concise as possible, so never really hit the limit.

    Descriptions, depending on what it is, I tend to put more detail in there and have reached the limit on multiple occassions. It was better during Ingress [Redacted] when there was no limit on descriptions - or at the very least, make it like 600 characters and that should be sufficient.

  • CipherBlakk-PGOCipherBlakk-PGO Posts: 309 ✭✭✭✭

    The job of reviewers is to read the information presented. It shouldn't matter if you have to make a single click to expand a decription. The character limit is set by Niantic, not personal preference.

    The only thing that matters is whether the description is good and supports the POI decently. Personally, I think you should aim for concise and to the point, and make sure every piece of info directly supports the POI in a way that will convince viewers to approve without rambling. At the same time, you need to offer enough info to 1) make the reviewing effort worth it and show you care about your nomination (if you write nothing but "local pub," reviewers will think you don't care and neither will they), and 2) make a visitor interested enough to take a small detour to see your POI.

    I like longer descriptions that will teach me something new about something, but it depends on what your POI is and whether there's anything to say about it. I don't need long descriptions for parks, gyms, sports fields, trail markers, etc. They tend to speak for themselves. Other things need more convincing, and you might need all the space to include the relevant pieces.

    I like shorter titles just because they're catchier. Though I'm not sure I would choose to **** down someone's hard work and potential upgrade just because the title was long, as long as it was still appropriate for the object. There's no reason to. The title has its own category. I might 1 or 2 star the title and evaluate the rest of the POI on its own merits.

  • X0bai-PGOX0bai-PGO Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The only time I’ve hit the character limit is for a URL in the supporting info.

    Titles should be long enough to specify the subject of the nomination and short enough to lack superfluous words. I mix up my titles to prevent any two POIs from having the same short name when viewed in-game.

    Nobody wants to read a novel in a nomination. Know your audience. Two reasonable sentences max for a description, supporting info should briefly state what criteria the nomination meets and, if necessary, what pedestrian access is available and URLs to verifying sources.

  • Ochemist-INGOchemist-ING Posts: 355 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The current description length is ok, but was much too short before they fairly recently doubled it. My descriptions are usually well-below the current character limit, but I also submit a lot of things like historic buildings that really need a meatier description. Businesses, etc. also often need detailed descriptions.

    I’ve had a few Redacted historic buildings with 700-900 character descriptions.

    I try to keep most titles concise, though, and hate, hate, hate the occasional title-cum-description I come across.

    Generally, I think that overall there are many more submissions that would benefit from a longer description than those with unnecessarily long write-ups.

  • Elijustrying-INGElijustrying-ING Posts: 5,482 Ambassador

    The title length is plenty, could be shorter but don’t think it’s worth tinkering with.

    I would prefer the possibility of longer descriptions. Lots of times it is plenty. However there times where there is an interesting story to tell about why this is a great place to explore. Yes I know that very few will stop to read it when it goes live, but some will be curious as to why this is important and the description should be able to explain that. I have gone to the trouble of researching to find information out, why not share it.

    I enjoy finding these snippets.

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