Irritation of the Moment

[jackofallgeeks]

Why does LiveJournal limit us to 150 Interests? I'm interested in far more than 150 things, even if you generalize subjects a little bit.

Comments

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

How badly do you want to scroll past an Interests section consisting of every single proper noun, including names, that's ever appeared in a Harry Potter book?

I think it's probably okay to file the Interests count under "limitations create possibilities."

Also, just so I don't get read as too snide - SB/RL.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, I suppose, though I still find the argument "someone might abuse it, so we're going to deny it to everyone" as a pretty weak argument. Frankly, if someone has such a laundry list of effectively-meaningless Interests, I'm probably not looking at their profile page, anyways. Further, how often *do* users look at profile pages? The potential for irritation, I think, is far outweighed by the ability to do good. Or something.

I guess it's probably OK to file the Interests count under "limitations create possibilities," but I'll probably still complain about it.

And, uhm... What? "Also, just so I don't get read as too snide - SB/RL"?

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't thinking about "abuse" so much as "use for insipid purposes." Like you say, long lists of effectively-meaningless interests. Even the fairly lenient limit of 150 interests forces you to pick things that are fairly relevant - which is why I file it under "limitations create possibilities." Out of curiosity, what fills your life such that 150 short phrases are insufficient to the task of describing the subset of your brain that you want the public at large to know about? What's the upside on this?


If I were annoyed, it'd be that the limit is the arbitrary 150 instead of the fairly sensible 127 or 255.



SB/RL is shorthand from the Potter ... community.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Well, I would put "use for insipid purposes" under the unbrella of "abuse," but to each their own. And, looking at my current Interests, I could probably stand to pare it down a little, remove things that I'm less-so interested in in favor of more-interesting things, and perhapse that's for the best, but... Bits I'd want to add, currently? Time travel, cognitive dissonance, madness, to name a few.

-smirk- 'Arbitrary' is subjective. Just because some of us have been trained to think like computers doesn't mean that 127 or 255 makes any intuitive sense to anyone else. Where as 150, being a multiple of ten, makes more sense to people who's whole world-view is based off counting in tens.

-wince- Black/Lupin? You've got to be kidding me. (coyotesong, if you're reading this, I'm glaring at you.)

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Well, I would put "use for insipid purposes" under the unbrella of "abuse,"
To clarify - neither would I.

As for 127 vs. 150, I'm pretty sure that when we're talking about what LJ's database can support, that approaches relevancy. "Approaches" because like you say it's just text and they can afford to just throw cycles at it until it goes away, but still.

Pretend this post has that Harry/Lupin "You're a werewolf?-Yes.-Are you fucking serious?-Yes, that too.-What?-Never mind." avatar that I see floating around.

Another note: I could prune my interests a little, but yes, sure it'd be nice to put up more than 150. My reckoning, however, is that when that shows up it'll be for Paid accounts, which mine ain't.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Re: alleged icon -- Ha! Ha ha. ha ha. Wow. That shouldn't be so funny. :p

My account is Permanent. I had spare cash the last time they were handing them out. So I'm half a step better than Paid. :p Still, what a dumb feature to reserve for paid members... :p

[photoholic62.livejournal.com]

I think you've posted this before...

Or maybe I'm deja vu-ing?

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

I probably have. I find it mildly irritating, as I'm sure it wouldn't cost them much room on their servers; text is cheap.

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

just don't put commons between things

"I like unicorns and flowers and stars and my boyfriend OMG WHFIGITZ and uhmm my friends cause they are so kewl ~~~{~@"