The New York Times has decided that its readers have been a little too verbose and have taken advantage of the online comments section of the paper. As a result, they have chopped the maximum character count for future posts.

Readers were informed by the paper of the decision in the following note:

A Note to Readers

Starting today, the character limit on comments will be reduced from 5,000 to 2,000 characters. The shorter length will allow for an improved experience for commenters and readers alike. As always, we encourage you to share your opinions and reactions.

Aron Pilhofer, the editor of interactive news for the Times, told TheWrap.com that:

“We’ve had one of the highest character limits known to humanity for a long time. We’ve gotten feedback from readers and frequent commenters, as well as internally, that our character limit is too high, that maybe we should force people to be a little more succinct.

“5,000 [characters] is a lot,” he added. “That’s not a comment, that’s an article.”

Pilhofer is right that the 5,000 character limit was extremely generous, but he may have swung a little too far in the other direction as a check of arch-rival The Washington Post shows that they have a 3,000 character limit for comments.

Readers may complain, but there is little they can do. It might have been wiser if the paper had just ratcheted down the character count a little more gradually, making it easier for readers to adjust.  The drastic nature of cutting back the count in one fell swoop is likely to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many readers at a time when the paper can ill afford to lose even one set of eyeballs.

At this rate the paper will soon be asking for comments in a Twitter-like 140 characters which would save them even more time and money, while restricting comments that need a little more explanation than one can give in such a format.

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