Why I dislike long posts

[Loaf Warden]

This explains why no one pays attention to me. I'm too verbose.

Okay, my argument in a couple of nutshells:

-I like long posts if they are well-written. This means more than just good points put comprehensibly, though that is important. It also means using paragraphs in the right places.

-The only exception to the paragraph rule is Dumb pothead's brilliant aria earlier in this thread. I read it all and loved every word.

-Repetition is not inherently bad. To say something a couple of times reinforces what you've said, helps it stick in the memory, and can help to clarify anything that was left unclear the first time around. The medieval Mongols had a custom whereby if a person felt he had said something well, and he had the spare time, he would say it again with different wording. To quote Genghis Khan biographer R. P. Lister: "A thing worth saying is worth saying more than once; and a man could show his mastery over his thoughts and his tongue by saying it the second time in a slightly different fashion." I subscribe to this philosophy.

-Repetition only becomes bad when you say the same thing so many times it becomes condescending.

-I meant to make this post brief. I really did. I can't help that my posts go longer than most people are comfortable reading. I don't think in epigrams, and I don't talk in them either.

-No one has bothered to read this far, so I can say anything I want to here. Ozzy Osbourne rules!

-I'd rather read one ten-paragraph post with good writing and valid points than ten brief, poorly written, vacuous posts any day.

-I wish SpacemanSpiff were still here. His posts commonly reached the level of essays, but they were always, always worth reading.

-Give long posts a chance. Sometimes they're long because they had something of value to say that can't be expressed in a single sentence.

Edit: Edited to correct the repetition of the phrase "slightly different fashion" in relation to the Mongols. I didn't even notice I had done that when I first posted. Irony? Not irony? Who cares?

 

[Matrix]

Originally posted by Loaf Warden
-Repetition is not inherently bad. To say something a couple of times reinforces what you've said, helps it stick in the memory, and can help to clarify anything that was left unclear the first time around.

That's where we fundamentally disagree. What you're saying is only true when you talk about speech, but not in such a forum. If you want to emphasize something, you'd better use bold and/or a bigger size.

I remember a thread in the Civ2GOTM where someone infinitely repeated his opinion, saying it in an infinite number of ways, but he only cluttered the thread. I started to skip his posts because I already knew what he was about to say. Waste of time.

 

[Xen]

any one notice the irony about how somthing posted by a person who hates longs posts has turned itself into a rather long thread

 

[Portuguese]

When I want the other to give it up, I generally punch him with a looooong post. Sometimes it works. Other times, I have to quit or made up a better argument

Now more serious, I second you all and I just hope this comes to the ears of some posters here...

 

[Dell19]

Why?

Why respond to a thread that must be over 5 pages old by now. The last post was at Christmas, yet now it has been revived.

 

[Achinz]

I'm not too fast a reader on the screen anyway - so it's a definite putoff. I think links to websites for the info is just as bad if they are not a concise summaries.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I hate longposts. I can read fast, but that doesn't mean I necessarily want to.

 

[KaNick]

Originally posted by Dell19
Why?

Why respond to a thread that must be over 5 pages old by now. The last post was at Christmas, yet now it has been revived.

Because Matrix has a like to this thread in his Sig. although this doesn't explain why it was posted in, only why it was more likely to be revived.

 

[Goober]

I am starting to get annoyed by people re-opening old threads . . .

I am a skim reader, so when faced with a long post, I will skim read it fast to get an idea of what the person is typing about, and if I care about what it is, I will read it slower. If not, I will go onto the next post. I do not do long posts generally, unless I am ranting/rambling about something (usually rambling . . . )

I have done a couple long Spam posts (I am bad . . . ), but meh . . .

 

[LLXerxes]

I like short posts. I am not as old as most people here, sooo, I usually read short posts, and sometimes long ones. But I try to read as many as I can, so I can reply.

P.S.
Smilies Rule!
Ect.

 

[Dell19]

Matrix still has this thread in his sig?

 

[addiv]

Long posts can be good but I'm just too lazy to read (or write) posts more than 15 lines or so on the internet, unless I'm really interested in the subject. Same reason why I don't read news articles online.

 

[Darcia]

When there's a discussion and you want to make 'a good point' (i.e. convince as many people as much as you can), in real life the trick is to speak as much as possible. Thus you're more heard and people will remember more about what you said.

I think that on a forum this works contradictorily. Here, when you want to make a point, it's necessary to say what you want to say in as less words as possible. The more words you use, the more your point will blur. I tend to read faster and faster when I see I have so much to read as well. And I also tend to read smaller posts more closely than long posts, for the same reason.

Final point: use decoration, like bold, italic, or smilies. That makes a text more easy to read.

But I'm especially interested what others think about the first two paragraphs.

Sorry I was making this post for a yes or no answer.

 

[Rambuchan]

Now that this thread has been bumped from 6ft under....

I read long posts. I read short posts. I write both as well. It's the content and style that count.

When there's a discussion and you want to make 'a good point' (i.e. convince as many people as much as you can), in real life the trick is to speak as much as possible. Thus you're more heard and people will remember more about what you said.

I think that on a forum this works contradictorily. Here, when you want to make a point, it's necessary to say what you want to say in as less words as possible. The more words you use, the more your point will blur. I tend to read faster and faster when I see I have so much to read as well. And I also tend to read smaller posts more closely than long posts, for the same reason.

I see no truth in this observation myself. It really depends what kind of a poster you are and what kind of a reader too.

 

[classical_hero]

It depends, sometimes I read them and sometimes I do not, just depends on the topic.

 

[BCLG100]

Generally avoid them unless its a subject im especially interested in but what a bump!!!

 

[The Condor]

I always read short posts but really don't read very long posts unless A) they are by a good poster, B) they are in a thread of mine, or C) are in a interesting thread that has a good debate going on.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

Posts should generally be kept short.

Long posts are fine as long as their is no 'flab'.

 

[punkbass2000]

I see no truth in this observation myself. It really depends what kind of a poster you are and what kind of a reader too.

Indeed. To my mind, if Matrix's idea is one's main strategy for having a discussion, I don't see why you'd bother.

 

[Rambuchan]

Hence we see Matrix involved in very little discussion, at least not nowadays.

If I'm being perfectly honest, and I'm presuming the same happens to others, I do catch my breath when presented with a long post. But then I ask myself one question:

Am I sitting here to learn something or to waste some time?