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Is there a reason to use a character limit on a textarea?

  • A client of mine had recently requested a character limit on the 'message' portion of their contact page and I had told them it wasn't a good idea because it feels rude to limit a person's message.

    Is there a reason you would ever use a character limit on a textarea?
  • I can't particularly think of one, but I'm sure there must be a reason to do so for certain situations.

    If you're going to implement it, it would be super beneficial to the user to show them a 'remaining character' count, much like Twitter does.
  • - Design reasons, force a user to "keep it short"

    - Database reasons, avoiding bloat, keeping within real tech limitations

    - Security reasons, limitless storage might be exploited