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I recently answered my own question here and decided to lay out most of the mathematical procedure I took to solve the problem. My only concern is that this answer seems very long and I was wondering how I should treat it.

On the one hand, I wanted someone lost like me to be able to follow the path I took and understand my solution, but on the other hand, I might have put too much redundant detail.

What is the community's take on this?

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    $\begingroup$ I've posted longer. Wanting other people to understand the motivation for a solution is itself important for future users, IMO. $\endgroup$
    – PrincessEev
    Commented Jun 7 at 21:30
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    $\begingroup$ You don't know what "long" is, Gyoo, until you've seen the question and answer at math.stackexchange.com/questions/4911385/… $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Jun 7 at 21:55
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    $\begingroup$ Just give you an upvote, for the length of the answer ;). $\endgroup$
    – NN2
    Commented Jun 8 at 20:21
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, it'll be a change from the downvotes I usualy get... $\endgroup$
    – Gyoo
    Commented Jun 8 at 22:17
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    $\begingroup$ Is this too long of an answer? (As per MSE's data query the two answers combined have $85028$ characters). $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Jun 10 at 7:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer: A 2-part answer, another 2-part answer, and a 3-part answer. Currently working on an answer to this question that will include my long-promised (in several comments during the past 11 years) fully expanded version of this answer, which is currently 305,000 characters in length. $\endgroup$
    – Dave L. Renfro
    Commented Jun 14 at 20:38
  • $\begingroup$ @DaveL.Renfro Nice! $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Jun 15 at 11:42
  • $\begingroup$ I once hit the length limit $\endgroup$
    – Arvid Samuelsson
    Commented Jun 16 at 21:20
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    $\begingroup$ @Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer: When I wrote my earlier comment I had forgotten about a second 3-part answer of mine. In this case, I've actually written the equivalent of about five 30,000 character-length answers at this point (this being the case even back in late 2015), but I haven't yet gotten around to finishing up the latter stuff for posting. $\endgroup$
    – Dave L. Renfro
    Commented Jun 17 at 16:43

1 Answer 1

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There is a limited post length. You didn't hit it. (You weren't even very close).

There is nothing intrisically good or bad about the exact length of an answer. Give as much of an answer as you need. Being completely encyclopedic is probably as a waste of the answerer's time. Being too curt is probably unhelpful. But there is a lot of leeway in the middle.

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    $\begingroup$ Just wondering, how long is the post length limit you mentioned? $\endgroup$
    – GSmith
    Commented Jun 8 at 0:49
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    $\begingroup$ @GSmith 30000 characters, according to: A[n] [In]complete Character-Limiting Guide to Stack Exchange. This FAQ post is linked in the character-limit tag-info on this meta and on Meta Stack Exchange. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 8 at 1:18
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for telling me the limit, ( not that I will most likely reach it :-) ) $\endgroup$
    – GSmith
    Commented Jun 8 at 1:19
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    $\begingroup$ Speaking from experience, it's frustrating when you have a polished ~32000 character answer and then have to trim it down to fit $\endgroup$
    – Mark S.
    Commented Jun 10 at 0:59

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