@davew Of the five limits you listed, one does not seem to actually be a limit, while the rest are firmly in the "even worse than it appears" category.

Masto can handle posts with more than 500 characters. That limit appears to only be imposed at the UI. I've written posts on my server that are well more than 500 characters, and they end up on other servers intact. Well, they've had all markdown styles removed (grrr), but the length is there. Most servers seem to put a "Read more" button in the UI, but it's all there. For example, here's a post I wrote on QOTO (which allows 64K-char posts) but visible on IndieWeb.social: https://indieweb.social/@pwinn@qoto.org/109757076022561495

So even the least-common denominator can apparently *receive* and *display* large posts, but won't let you compose them. Even some mobile clients won't let you compose them, which is really dumb.

What's really terrible is that Masto actually *removes* Markdown formatting while syndicating/federating posts. It doesn't just leave it alone or refuse to render it, it actively strips it out. Incredibly frustrating!