Several months ago – yikes! – I wrote a column titled “Do you think our letters are too long?” to seek your advice on, well, whether our letters to the editor are too long.

And as is usually the case, you weren’t bashful about offering your two-cents’ worth – and rest assured that your feedback was considerably more valuable than that.

My original query was prompted by a number of factors: anecdotal evidence that too many letters were exceeding our admittedly loose 350-word maximum; other newspapers in the state were capping lengths at either 200 words (New Hampshire Union Leader) or 250 (Concord Monitor); and an exchange in a National Conference of Editorial Writers listserv that found 350-word – or longer – letters were definitely the exception.

Shorter letters, of course, mean we would be able to publish more of your pithy prose, which was the main reason I raised this issue in the first place.

All told, I heard back from several dozen readers either by e-mail or in direct postings to “The Editor’s Blog” version on the Web. All were eager to extol the virtues of shorter, longer and everything in between.

My column also prompted a public scolding from one reader, who took me to task for violating the entire point of my 881-word piece.

“Shame on you,” wrote Steve Morgan, of Amherst, in a letter published April 12. “You did not follow the very guidelines that you want us to follow. If you, as a professional writer, cannot ‘get to the point’ in 350 words, how do you expect us to?”

Ouch!

While Steve was nice enough to acknowledge he was half-kidding – he voted to limit letters to “no more than 881 words” – the point was made. (Though I already can tell he isn’t going to be too happy with this one, either.)

Now, since not everyone included a specific maximum length in their replies, I can’t say the majority of readers who responded agreed on a word limit of X.

What I can say, however, is that based on the responses as a whole, shorter won out over the status quo by a considerable margin.

“I would like to see folks who submit Letters to the Editor be held to 250 words,” wrote Suze Scholl, of Nashua, a member of our Reader Advisory Network.

“Why? . . . If you can’t make your point quickly, then I can only assume that you are writing to please yourself and not the readers. Get a contract to write a novel; forget about Letters to the Editor.”

John Pilla, of Nashua, another RAN member, agreed.

“I like to read letters, but lately they are sooo loong, and I just tire of reading them,” he wrote. “And after a couple of hundred words they’ve made their point and arguments for it (if any). Someone can just as easily get their point across in 200 words. I’d rather see 4 letters each day instead of 2.”

An online poster turned to the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal to make his point.

“I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter,” Pascal wrote in “Lettres provincials” in 1657.

To be fair, not everyone was wild about imposing a shorter word limit.

“I have no strong opinions on letter length other than to comment I’d rather read one well written long letter than four mediocre short ones,” wrote John Weber, of New Ipswich.

As for Bob Scheifele, he thought our current policy was fine.

“I don’t feel they are (too long),” the Nashua resident wrote. “Clearly some will be much too winded and you must edit them, but when someone is trying to make a point, they may need more words than some predetermined limit will allow.”

So here’s the deal. Starting this week, I’m going to drop the “soft” 350-word maximum and replace it with a “harder” 250-word limit. In a perfect world, that means I should be able to publish four letters on most days – instead of two or three – which should add considerably to the number of letters we publish over the course of the year.

Will there be some exceptions made based on merit? Yes. Will I be kind to letters already resting in our active file? Of course.

And, as in the past, longer letters – those in the 500-words-and-up category – will be given some consideration as guest commentary pieces, which traditionally appear on Sundays.

In short, follow the 3-S rule: State your point. Support it. Stop.

Which is exactly what I’m going to do now in anticipation of another public flogging over this 780-word treatise.

Hey, Steve, at least it’s shorter than the last one.

Nick Pappas is editorial page editor at The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6505 or npappas@nashuatelegraph.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at TelegraphEdit.