How much text to people read?

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dans79
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Joined: 03 Mar 2013, 19:33
Location: USA

Re: How much text to people read?

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I have no problem reading a post that's a few thousand words long, as long as it's written well.

By written well, I mean organized thoughts, and paragraphs.
197 104 103 7

mendis
19
Joined: 03 Jul 2022, 16:12

Re: 2022 Oracle | Red Bull Racing F1 Team

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Just_a_fan wrote:
17 Oct 2022, 00:21
mendis wrote:
16 Oct 2022, 09:08
Sorry to ask an offtopic question. How many people here read more than 3 or 4 lines if a post is written like a blog post? Personally, i would skip the whole stuff if it visually looks like more than 5 lines.
I guess you've never read a book then. Or did it just take you a very long time?

4 lines. Walk away.

Come back. 4 more lines. Walk away

Etc.


:lol:
You are right. I don't read books! Academics was the most painful experience of my life. :D
Thanks to online video learning portals of modern times!

johnny comelately
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Joined: 10 Apr 2015, 00:55
Location: Australia

Re: How much text to people read?

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There is an associated interesting matter actually.
It brings up literacy, articulation, eloquence but all that has nothing to do with the message the author has.
So the drawback in this forum is it functions somewhat in a populist and elitist manner with an adversarial undertone, is that what gives everybody a fair hearing, fair being the operative word.

That leads me to the case of godlameroso, who had much to offer but was badly managed.
Quite unfair in my opinion.

To avoid misunderstanding my post is not meant as a criticism as such but a prompt for remedy

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Sieper
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Joined: 14 Mar 2017, 15:19

Re: How much text to people read?

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Apparently people do not read much text at all as the subject line still reads "to" instead of "do".

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RZS10
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Joined: 07 Dec 2013, 01:23

Re: How much text do people read?

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Big Tea wrote:
16 Oct 2022, 16:02
For example, right now I have 3 topics up, say one of which I do not want updates on = Is the RB18 dominant, but I want all others unless I add (remove) another. (picked that one at random)
Only other thing might be going via subscription to threads, but it would list all of them, not just unread - having unread only for subscribed to threads would be ideal.
_______

With regards to long-ish posts:

Five lines is barely more than two sentences and seemingly way less than the average post length here.

The moment one adds some quote or source it's instantly more and most of the times it's impossible to continue a discussion which already contains longer posts without writing something slightly longer oneself.

I personally don't mind long posts as long as they're written in a way that allows me to skim through them and by that i mean separate throughts in separate paragraphs (so essentially what dans mentioned), longer lists formatted as such etc. even if it makes the post appear longer than it actually is, visually stretching it out - most users here do compile their posts that way, fortunately.

I run my own posts through the preview multiple times, changing the formatting to the point i'm happy with it and where i wouldn't be put off if it was written by anyone else.

The opposite of well composed posts are 'wall of text' style ones where everything is just a massive block, add missing punctuation and i'm not reading it, unless it is a reply to me directly.

Case in point:
With regards to long-ish posts, five lines is barely more than two sentences and seemingly way less than the average post length here. The moment one adds some quote or source it's instantly more and most of the times it's impossible to continue a discussion which already contains longer posts without writing something slightly longer oneself. I personally don't mind long posts as long as they're written in a way that allows me to skim through them and by that i mean separate throughts in separate paragraphs, longer lists formatted as such etc. even if it makes the post appear longer than it actually is, visually stretching it out - most users here do compile their posts that way, fortunately. I run my own posts through the preview multiple times, changing the formatting to the point i'm happy with it and where i wouldn't be put off if it was written by anyone else. The opposite of well composed posts are 'wall of text' style ones where everything is just a massive block, add missing punctuation and i'm not reading it, unless it is a reply to me directly.

johnny comelately
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Joined: 10 Apr 2015, 00:55
Location: Australia

Re: How much text to people read?

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Just saw these rules on another forum, thought it was worth a larf :lol: :

" Don't be a dickhead to each other, or about others, or other subreddits

Assume questions are asked in good faith, and engage in a positive manner

Avoid political threads and related discussions

No medical advice or mental health (specific to a person) content"

Just_a_fan
591
Joined: 31 Jan 2010, 20:37

Re: How much text do people read?

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RZS10 wrote:
17 Oct 2022, 12:40

With regards to long-ish posts:
[...]
One of big issues regarding post length is people that insist on quoting entire posts which are then quoted again. The result is several posts, often consecutive, that are mostly just big quotes with one or two lines added by them. It makes reading threads on a phone very tedious. It's simple laziness as it can be avoided easily enough.

One can even delete the entire quote and just leave the user name tag part. Then other people can easily click on arrow next to the quoted name to be taken to the original post if necessary.

But even selecting text and deleting the rest, as I did here, can be very helpful to keeping thread flow.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.

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Big Tea
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Joined: 24 Dec 2017, 20:57

Re: How much text do people read?

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Just_a_fan wrote:
18 Oct 2022, 13:42
RZS10 wrote:
17 Oct 2022, 12:40

With regards to long-ish posts:
[...]
One of big issues regarding post length is people that insist on quoting entire posts which are then quoted again. The result is several posts, often consecutive, that are mostly just big quotes with one or two lines added by them. It makes reading threads on a phone very tedious. It's simple laziness as it can be avoided easily enough.

One can even delete the entire quote and just leave the user name tag part. Then other people can easily click on arrow next to the quoted name to be taken to the original post if necessary.

But even selecting text and deleting the rest, as I did here, can be very helpful to keeping thread flow.
I agree very much with this, especially if it is a pic or vid. Also (and I am as bad as any) 50 lines of text and vids by several posters to reply to one sentence of it.
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.

Just_a_fan
591
Joined: 31 Jan 2010, 20:37

Re: How much text to people read?

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A good example of the excessive use of quoting is seen in this thread: viewtopic.php?p=1094976#p1094976

A very long, and extremely informative, post is repeatedly quoted three or four times in one page of the forum.

On some forums I use, mods would dive in and edit most of that out and leave "excessive quoting removed - don't do it again!" messages instead. Others have in-built rules that prevent excessive quoting, although I have no idea how such things are implemented.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.

LM10
119
Joined: 07 Mar 2018, 00:07

Re: How much text to people read?

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The question if a text longer than a few lines should be read is disrespectful to those who write them. Furthermore it’s awkward to ask this in a forum which exists for, well, exactly that.

If you want to ignore posts with more than 5 lines, try out Twitter.

mendis
19
Joined: 03 Jul 2022, 16:12

Re: How much text to people read?

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LM10 wrote:
18 Oct 2022, 16:22
The question if a text longer than a few lines should be read is disrespectful to those who write them. Furthermore it’s awkward to ask this in a forum which exists for, well, exactly that.

If you want to ignore posts with more than 5 lines, try out Twitter.
Lacking context is a dangerous thing! I asked this question in Red Bull thread where a few posts were just getting longer and longer. A mod decided that it can become it's own thread. If you didn't like this thread, you could have ignored this!

viewtopic.php?p=1094772#p1094772

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Big Tea
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Joined: 24 Dec 2017, 20:57

Re: How much text to people read?

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LM10 wrote:
18 Oct 2022, 16:22
The question if a text longer than a few lines should be read is disrespectful to those who write them. Furthermore it’s awkward to ask this in a forum which exists for, well, exactly that.

If you want to ignore posts with more than 5 lines, try out Twitter.
I think most posters here know who's long posts are going to be worth reading, and who's is hammering the same points to death for the umpteenth post in several threads.

Skipping a post because you can not be bothered is not the same thing as skipping it because you have heared it several times already.
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.

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RZS10
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Joined: 07 Dec 2013, 01:23

Re: How much text do people read?

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Just_a_fan wrote:
18 Oct 2022, 13:42
One [big issue] regarding post length is people that insist on quoting entire posts which are then quoted again.
[...]
Yep.

Jolle
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Joined: 29 Jan 2014, 22:58
Location: Dordrecht

Re: How much text to people read?

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How much what?

johnny comelately
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Joined: 10 Apr 2015, 00:55
Location: Australia

Re: How much text to people read?

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johnny comelately wrote:
18 Oct 2022, 12:00
Just saw these rules on another forum, thought it was worth a larf :lol: :

" Don't be a dickhead to each other, or about others, or other subreddits

Assume questions are asked in good faith, and engage in a positive manner

Avoid political threads and related discussions

No medical advice or mental health (specific to a person) content"
But on a more serious note and following this theme about other sites guidelines regarding netiquette:

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It would be better if the tone here was less trying to adversarially prove someone wrong sometimes by quite derogatory means and gravitate towards helpful learning from each other because the collective knowledge in here is amazing.
In that way the moderators would be essentially out of a job, how utopian ! :wink: