longer titles

[htimreimer]

 we need to be able to submit longer titles i added a edutainment game called "Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games: The Entire Collection Of His Scientific American Columns"
and all i see is "Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games: The Entire Collection Of His Scientific American Columnscan col"

[soera]

It looks like you added too much.

[htimreimer]

It looks like you added too much.

thats why we need longer titles

[bugs181]

It looks like you added too much.

thats why we need longer titles

I'd have to disagree. The way the database works - people think that the database size is only the size of data that is added, however this is untrue. Longer titles require a longer length field in the database and ALL titles regardless of their length will use this much data.
Lets throw some imaginary numbers out there to explain.

IE: If the database was set to use 60 characters long, each table row would be roughly 4KB long EVEN if they were empty.
Say you added the game: Crysis
One would think that this would only use 6 bytes (characters) of database room, but that's not how it works.
Even with the title being only 6 bytes, it would still use the full 60 character length causing each table row to be 4KB

These numbers are purely speculation but that's how a database works. The database / table row size all depends on the amount of fields and their default length values.

Increasing the max title size just for the benefit of a FEW games would be such a waste of database space. Try using some abbreviations in your title or find an alternative name that users will recognize without the full title length. Thanks.

[amauriel]

Very well said, @bugs181. It's so hard to explain how this works, but you did an excellent job.

Also, I was actually very surprised that they are as long as they are NOW, given the amount of storage required.

[tpugmire]

Matt increased the title length a while back, and I haven't seen any titles cut off since.  In this particular case, re-read the original post.  The whole title is there.  There is a little bit at the end that doesn't belong.  I think that is your problem.  I submitted an edit for the title, so it's good now.

[scott]

Increasing the max title size just for the benefit of a FEW games would be such a waste of database space. Try using some abbreviations in your title or find an alternative name that users will recognize without the full title length. Thanks.

Bugs, the title field needs to be as long as the longest title we know of. The point of the site is to list things as accurate as possible, this means using full titles, without abbreviations or alternative names. Lowering the number of character available for the title and having folks use abbreviated or alternate names, will not only cause more dupes (since folks might not be looking for these abbreviated names), but it will also make it harder for us admin to find these duped entries and remove them from the database.

Sure having enough characters available to use for only the longest of the long titles may seem like a waste of space, but when you need ever title to be listed accurately, then there is no other choice.

[matt]

Increasing the max title size just for the benefit of a FEW games would be such a waste of database space. Try using some abbreviations in your title or find an alternative name that users will recognize without the full title length. Thanks.

Bugs, the title field needs to be as long as the longest title we know of. The point of the site is to list things as accurate as possible, this means using full titles, without abbreviations or alternative names. Lowering the number of character available for the title and having folks use abbreviated or alternate names, will not only cause more dupes (since folks might not be looking for these abbreviated names), but it will also make it harder for us admin to find these duped entries and remove them from the database.

Sure having enough characters available to use for only the longest of the long titles may seem like a waste of space, but when you need ever title to be listed accurately, then there is no other choice.

While I agree mostly, there is no reason to update the entire database simply to fit in one odd-ball game that no one has in their collection. If this becomes a problem with more games I'll make that change.

[foxhack]

You can add the complete title in the description box instead; that way, Google will pick it up at least.