As long as it is available on the user settings page, I think the idea is that you can choose to have the listings terminate with "Read more..." after EITHER x number of chars OR not at all. I do agree with you that having to click thru is inefficient and annoying. My personal user settings would remain at "full story". But I think this could make the site more usable for other people, so I'll throw in my vote for BBQ's idea.

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