Number of characters in a torrent title

[workerbee]

I wonder if someone can explain the rules governing the number of allowable characters in a torrent title.

I've just uploaded a collection of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's works (http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/10287056/). Based on previous uploads, I calculated the maximum number of characters I could use in the title and called it "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle & other works (10 books)", but once the torrent was posted, the title became truncated to "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle & other works (10".

The previous ebook torrent to mine was called "Graeme R. Newman - Crime and Punishment around the World, Volume"

Compare the lengths of each:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle & other works (10 books)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle & other works (10
Graeme R. Newman - Crime and Punishment around the World, Volume

I don't understand why my original title was somehow disallowed when another torrent uploaded moments before was much longer. Does the problem arise because I'm using an ampersand and 2 numeric characters?

[bob5695]

maybe because "&" gets replaced with "_amp_" ?

[SectorVector]

Looks like 64 is the magic number (Limit on number of characters in title).

Also looks like '&' is HTML encoded as & and counted in.
Numeric characters are fine; each is counted as single character only.

[workerbee]

Also looks like '&' is HTML encoded as & and counted in.

That makes sense, thank you. Where I thought I was saving space by using an ampersand, in fact it lengthens the title by four additional characters, as in this example:

Laurel & Hardy
Laurel & Hardy

You can actually save space by typing out "and" instead of using "&".

[lebeque]

Where I thought I was saving space by using an ampersand, in fact it lengthens the title by four additional characters

as i remember, this has been fixed and ampersand now counts as a single character

[SectorVector]

^ I wish so. But it is the only explanation I can think of. /Insert famous Sherlock Holmes quote :-)

Some more where the title is cut off at 60 characters.
- http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/9504917/ (Jan 2014)
- http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/10288139/ (Today)

When in doubt, one can use a site like http://htmlentities.net/ to double check before uploading.
Here you enter the ASCII text and it outputs the encoded text. One can check if the output length is <= 64.

Or, if you have just one '&' in the title, simply limit the title to 60 characters.

[lebeque]

^ I wish so. But it is the only explanation I can think of. /Insert famous Sherlock Holmes quote :-)

Some more where the title is cut off at 60 characters.
- http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/9504917/ (Jan 2014)
- http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/10288139/ (Today)

my memory isn't clear indeed
with your examples it still counts as 5 characters
so the only thing the was fixed was just that ampersand is no longer displayed as &amp; but as & already

[SectorVector]

Ah Yes! Now, I think I remember that. :-)
Yes it is 5 characters in all. But 4 _extra_ characters in the title. Hence the suggestion for 60. (64 - 4).

Eg., if the LIMIT were 9 instead of 64, use 9-4 = 5 as the new limit.

a & b = 5 chars (should display fine)
a &amp; b = 9 chars.