@gailcalled If you go into the description and type over the limit, after hitting enter, at the top of the screen under “My Account > Edit Profile” a reader bar prompts you with
* description
o Ensure this value has at most 300 characters (it has 516).
I’ve tried it many times. With actual words, sans hypertext, I even held down the letter K for 15 seconds and hit enter to see if it was a word limit instead of a letter limit.
Perhaps it’s a new feature due to aforementioned noobs abusing it for their own personal exposé novellas.