There needs to be a way to limit the character length of status updates. I have members posting whole threads there.

ditto
char length size/limits code mod would be wunnerful ;)

edit/add-on - sorry - i did find some help in search i hadn't seen before

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/318240-limiting-lenght-of-status-updates/page__p__2003692__hl__limit+status+updates__fromsearch__1#entry2003692
this works well in status update block, but not from profile page

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/323991-status-updates-max-size-and-how-to-alter/page__p__2037841__hl__limit+status+updates__fromsearch__1#entry2037841
this one i'll try on profile page

Open admin\sources\classes\member\status.php and find in _parseContent method:

		return $content;

Change to:

		return IPSText::truncate( $content, 30 );

Change 30 to a number you prefer...