<form id="tagboard" action="url/here/" method="post">
<fieldset>
<legend>Tagboard
</legend>
<label for='name'>Name:
</label>
<input type="text" id="name" name='name' />
<label for='message'>Message:
</label>
<span id='charleft'></span>
<textarea id='message' name='message' onkeyup='go()' onkeydown='go()' rows='' cols=''></textarea>
<input id='tag-submit' type="submit" name="submit" value="Tag IT!" />
</fieldset>
</form>
function go()
{
// Number of characters
var LIMIT = 50;
// Get the elements to fiddle with
var textarea = document.getElementById('message');
var span = document.getElementById('charleft');
// if the textarea has less letters then the
// limit, update span with the number of characters
if (textarea.value.length <= LIMIT)
{
var newspan = parseInt(LIMIT) - parseInt(textarea.value.length);
span.innerHTML = newspan;
}
// if the textarea has more, trim down to LIMIT
else
{
textarea.value = textarea.value.substring(0, LIMIT);
}
}