

Suggest HN: Stricter Char Limits on Who's Hiring? - mattm

The Who&#x27;s Hiring threads were great when they started because it was mainly limited to people on HN.  But now it&#x27;s obvious word has gotten out and for people looking through the threads it becomes such a chore.  Companies are just copying and pasting their standard job descriptions which take up a full screen for each one.<p>For example, this comment I need to page down 4 times to get through it - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8681941<p>Would it be possible to have even stricter character limits specifically for the Who&#x27;s Hiring threads?  I think it would help make the postings more focused and geared towards HN rather than just blindly copying and pasting what they have posted elsewhere.
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dang
That sounds like a good idea. What should the limit be?

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JacobAldridge
The OP in this thread is 116 words and includes a link - I imagine 150 words
would be plenty to get the point across for any job posting.

100 may be sufficient - the purpose isn't to replicate a job board
advertisement, rather to give the headlines and enough information so the
relevant people get in touch (or go read the longer piece elsewhere, if
necessary).

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mattm
I agree with this. It's enough for a small blurb about the companies, the
technologies and link/email for more info.

If it's possible, it might even be better to limit by number of lines. The
example I posted uses only 470 words but over 100 lines! I think around 15
lines should be plenty.

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dang
I think you guys are on to something good here. A reasonable constraint will
make the job posts better by requiring a bit of creativity to keep within the
limit. And there's no question it will make the thread more readable overall.

And yes, the limit should be on both newlines and total size. We'll try to
have this ready for next month's whoishiring threads.

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codegeek
Also, if possible, restrict using characters like ----- just by themselves in
a line to unnecessary add underlines etc for formatting. they don't add
anything to the content anyway.

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jerrythompson
I'm guilty of this and have edited down as much as possible with 6 positions
that opened up.

