diff --git a/src/story-mode.ts b/src/story-mode.ts
index 680d79a2..0b873702 100644
--- a/src/story-mode.ts
+++ b/src/story-mode.ts
@@ -61,8 +61,12 @@ export const STORY_LIMITS = Object.freeze({
   todoItems: 12,
   eventsPerPage: 800,
   panelsPerPage: 12,
-  /** Characters of output, hunk and helper text per page; older events give theirs up first. */
-  pageTextBudget: 400_000,
+  /**
+   * Characters of output, hunk and helper text per page; older events give theirs up first. Sized on
+   * 3,855 local turns: 94% never reach it, and the longest live page went from 157 KB to 74 KB
+   * gzipped (it is refetched every few seconds while it changes).
+   */
+  pageTextBudget: 120_000,
   turnsListed: 60,
 });
 
diff --git a/src/web/public/story-mode.js b/src/web/public/story-mode.js
index 922bda41..3db4c310 100644
--- a/src/web/public/story-mode.js
+++ b/src/web/public/story-mode.js
@@ -3448,7 +3448,9 @@ Object.assign(CodemanApp.prototype, {
           'story-empty',
           edit.hunks?.length
             ? 'Some lines of this edit were left out. Open the file to see all of it.'
-            : 'What changed is not in the transcript: a script or another program wrote this file. Open it to see it as it is now.'
+            : edit.added || edit.removed
+              ? 'The lines of this edit were left out to keep a long turn fast. Open the file to see it as it is now.'
+              : 'What changed is not in the transcript: a script or another program wrote this file. Open it to see it as it is now.'
         )
       );
     return section;