I found an odd issue whilst using the beta version of Viewer 2 recently, one of my classifieds had been torn apart and there wasn’t much text left. I felt that this may have been an accident carried out by me, possibly whilst drunk, so I decided I better rectify it and found out I couldn’t. I was unable to add any more text to the classified description, I thought little of this, it was one advert and I’m using a beta viewer, no biggie.
However today I have discovered the cause of the problem, it’s a bug that limits classifieds to 64 measly characters, well there’s a Jira about it, so it must be good hey, but …and it’s a big but, the Jira itself, STORM-577 has some rather worrying revelations in it and some odd guys called “productEngine” posting there.
The Jira itself is self explanatiory: “Creating classified ads in viewer 2.2 beta seems to be limited to only 64 characters which is not even enough to write one descriptive sentence. This issue needs to be fixed in order to allow more descriptive ads to be placed using viewer 2.2 (beta).
Character limit should be set at 256. ”
Wait a minute? 256 characters, surely there must be some mistake, my classifieds are generally longer than 256 characters. Alexa Linden then steps into the fray with a repro, and comes to a more sensible conclusion:
“Verified and reproduced.
In viewer Second Life 2.2.0 (211499) I am only able to enter 64 characters into the description field of a new classified.
In Viewer Second Life 2.1.1 (208043) I am able to enter 1,023 characters into the description field of
a new classified.
In Viewer 1.23 512 characters can be entered into the description field of a new classified.”
Phew I think! 512 is more reasonable, 1,023 would be nice, I can’t recall what the old limit was, I know it was more than 256 characters, but then things get disturbing.
Dessie Linden “Important: The Classifieds Description field is supposed to have a character limit of 256.”
Since when? When was this limit introduced? Then the projectEngine guys come in, welcome to Seth, Vadim and Grumpity productEngine….whomever the hell they are. Seth mentions there’s a fix that increases the character limit to 256 characters, Vadim then gets concerned and states that limiting the description to 256 characters may truncate existing classifieds, and then along comes Grumpity:
“Discussed with all involved parties. Please set limit to 256. Thanks!”
Which parties? Whom has this been discussed with and what on earth is going on? I did try and ask Jack about this at tonight’s office hour, but didn’t manage to get an answer at all. What are they playing at here?