I see your point about new members being a bit shy. It is tricky indeed.
The whole reason for creating my community was that I was tired of the “short and lazy” quick posts, and link-dropping I’ve seen in every Facebook Group I am in and Social Media in general =/
I don’t think 250 characters (Not even 2 Twitter messages) is a “long post” if the whole purpose of the community is to provide value in every new topic. It’s only for new topics btw, for replies I have it set at 80 characters.
Sincerely,
Mike