[Help] Post length

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It also depends on whether I think the poster generally posts informed thoughtful content or whether they normally post drivel as to whether i'll bother to read

 

[Commander]

How long does a post have to be on here before you just decide not to bother reading it? I don't mean a quote from an external article, I mean pure unadulterated opinion. For me it does depend on the poster in question but as a rule of thumb I'd say that anything more than say 7 or 8 sentences.

I'm sure everyone is different on this, but there are surely a couple of posters on here who are clearly blissfully unaware of this unspoken tolerance. Those people probably need to realise that essays don't really ever get read even if they are agreeable and well constructed, and in fact they are counterproductive as they make that poster look horrifically self-important and arrogant, that people care so much what they think that they are going to read their chapter of War & Peace.

So this isn't a go at anyone in particular, I'm just wondering what individual tolerances are. I would say that the length of this post is slightly under my own personal tolderance.

Genuinely thought this was going to be about the size of the goals, and some new adaption by FIFA.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

How long does a post have to be on here before you just decide not to bother reading it? I don't mean a quote from an external article, I mean pure unadulterated opinion. For me it does depend on the poster in question but as a rule of thumb I'd say that anything more than say 7 or 8 sentences.

I'm sure everyone is different on this, but there are surely a couple of posters on here who are clearly blissfully unaware of this unspoken tolerance. Those people probably need to realise that essays don't really ever get read even if they are agreeable and well constructed, and in fact they are counterproductive as they make that poster look horrifically self-important and arrogant, that people care so much what they think that they are going to read their chapter of War & Peace.

So this isn't a go at anyone in particular, I'm just wondering what individual tolerances are. I would say that the length of this post is slightly under my own personal tolderance.

TL;DR

Edit - Already been done

 

[Bold Seagull]

Generally a 2.4m post will be sufficient for a 1.8m high fence.

 

[hart's shirt]

How long does a post have to be on here before you just decide not to bother reading it?

To an extent, it depends on the writer.

As an example, I'll happily take time reading through the contributions of @Stato and others on football as they're always considered and informative.

And even though we disagreed on Southgate, @Garry Nelson's Left Foot took the time for a detailed reply, so it's not just about being like-minded.

In contrast, unedifying petty bickering from the same people, usually on the political threads, just leads to deeper entrenched positions and division.

We also generally don't need multiple threads on the same topic, regardless of how important people think it is. One will usually suffice.

 

[Flounce]

To an extent, it depends on the writer.

As an example, I'll happily take time reading through the contributions of @Stato and others on football as they're always considered and informative.

And even though we disagreed on Southgate, @Garry Nelson's Left Foot took the time for a detailed reply, so it's not just about being like-minded.

In contrast, unedifying petty bickering from the same people, usually on the political threads, just leads to deeper entrenched positions and division.

We also generally don't need multiple threads on the same topic, regardless of how important people think it is. One will usually suffice.

I’ll add @Audax on F1, love his posts on that thread. HWT also on just about anything, he is so left field (and left wing)

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Genuinely thought this was going to be about the size of the goals, and some new adaption by FIFA.

You're obsessed with women's football

 

[Withdean South Stand]

It depends how nuanced your post is intended to be. When discussing big topics, a few words doesn't get the job done. How can you make a balanced argument about Gareth Southgate's England tenure without taking a moment to acknowledge the results are amazing, the performances are pathetic and the draws have opened up really favourably throughout his reign.

 

[dazzer6666]

Someone, somewhere is drafting a very long reply to the OP

 

[Chicken Run]

Someone, somewhere is drafting a very long reply to the OP

I wonder who that might be

 

[Easy 10]

If its a binfest rant I might persevere (depending on the author), but I must admit if there's several CHUNKY paragraphs all stacked up then at best l'll skim-read to get the gist, or just move on to the next post. Its the equivalent of being trapped with the pub bore in full flow on his favourite topic.

 

[ConfusedGloryHunter]

At a wild guess I'd suggest you halve your readership for each paragraph you add.

For the half of you that got this far: I'd also suggest that an extremely long paragraph also puts readers off. In light of this it is probably a good idea to review your essays before pressing submit. Look for sentences that don't really add to the narrative and remove them. Delete any sentences that are superfluous. Erase any lines that are unnecessary. Be carefull not to repeat yourself. Avoid rehashing the same thing. In short; be succinct, concise, brief, pithy, even terse and never, ever belabour the point.

Happy to have helped.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I’ve no “rules” but the longer it is, the less chance there is of me reading it.

The worst thing Twitter ever did was allow people to post longer messages.

 

[Commander]

You're obsessed with women's football

Ha. Just wait until Wiegman takes over from Southgate. See how long my post is then.

 

[chickens]

I didn’t come here for a lesson in reading comprehension, communism or paragraph formatting.

I understand the reluctance to engage with longer posts, time is precious and we may feel the poster is taking too long to get to the point.

Against that, our unwillingness to engage with longer form writing and desire for “just the facts as brief as possible” is how we lose all nuance in our conversations, and end up electing governments based on politicians repeating three word slogans like mentally deficient parrots.

Life is rarely as clear cut as we would like it to be, we either engage with complexity or reduce ourselves to children waiting to be fed our next digestible soundbite. We all get to make our own choice on this one.

 

[Simster]

Why ignore something that may contain something that is potentially extremely informative or contain a lot of useful information within, simply because someone may think it might be too long to read ?

I think it is more a sad reflection on the lack of patience and the unwillingness to take time to listen to / read (other) views that has developed in modern society in general (especially with the rise of social media) and how we are more keen to ignore / shut down conversations and viewpoints which then leads to resentment, and the rise of things like Brexit, Trump, and the Reform party for example.

, our unwillingness to engage with longer form writing and desire for “just the facts as brief as possible” is how we lose all nuance in our conversations, and end up electing governments based on politicians repeating three word slogans like mentally deficient parrots.

Obviously there are posts that are well worth reading in full, and I'm using very broad strokes here. But there are some posters who write essays all too frequently.

If you're going to do that too often, with apparently no ability to distinguish between posts which could otherwise be written in 2 sentences and those which are genuinely worth a more considered, lengthy response, then I'm more likely to ignore or vaguely skim read almost everything you write.

 

[Simster]

TL-DR

This is literally the third or even the fourth time this joke has been made on the thread.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

This is literally the third or even the fourth time this joke has been made on the thread.

TS-DR

 

[Han Solo]

I actively avoid smartphone interactions and video or photo based culture to keep my attention span as sturdy as I want it to be.
As long as the text is even vaguely interesting there's nothing inside me that wants to quit reading no matter how long the text is.

 

[studio150]

Someone, somewhere is drafting a very long reply to the OP

I was up to a 1,000 words, but then got bored checking my draft for spelling and typos, and breaking the text up to easy to read paragraphs.

Plus I needed the laptop to watch the golf, whilst watching the cricket on the TV.