Long Posts - How long is too long?

riv1 wrote:I'm usually accused of doing the opposite so i gotta say, the longer the better!

Silent K wrote:I don't mind length, as long as it's organized, well-formatted, and interesting.

But you Custom Member Title needs to be shortened, Wade. Srsly.

riv1 wrote:I'm usually accused of doing the opposite so i gotta say, the longer the better!

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:Simple question: How long is too long when it comes to posts? Where does one draw the line? I often joke about other posts being too long and have been known at times to be long-winded myself and while I understand everyone has their own level of how long is too long, I'm curious how long is "too long".

shark6495 wrote:

riv1 wrote:I'm usually accused of doing the opposite so i gotta say, the longer the better!

thats what she said..... I look at it like my professors in college looked at writing papers, it should be as long as it needs to be. If you are going into the physics of how superman is able to fly, well that warrants a longer response. If you are talking about the flavors of an ice cream cone and how they explode into your mouth, write on brother. But if you are using just off the wall examples to get your point across when you could have just used 1 sentence, then yeah you typed too much into your post.... also if it seems you have made your point but you have a tendency to continue making your point, sort of like scoring more points after the home team has stopped trying, then you may be making your posts a bit too long....

so in short... as long as they need to be to get the point across.....

Mnemosis wrote:I'm with Knize on post length. Personally, you're going to hold my attention more with a few short paragraphs than with a giant block of text.

Aussiemandias wrote:

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:Simple question: How long is too long when it comes to posts? Where does one draw the line? I often joke about other posts being too long and have been known at times to be long-winded myself and while I understand everyone has their own level of how long is too long, I'm curious how long is "too long".

This is one of the shortest posts I've seen from you.

Mnemosis wrote:I'm with Knize on post length. Personally, you're going to hold my attention more with a few short paragraphs than with a giant block of text.

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:
I can understand this. I don't mind block of texts. Then again, I think it speaks to how I read posts, in that I read it as if someone were talking to me. So a block of text does not bother me as much. Often, when I see something split into paragraphs, it bothers me and causes me to skim rather than read or even ignore the whole thing as a whole and read only the last line.

In terms of posting, I tend to post as if I were talking. What's posted is what I would say in real life and all that. I tend to favor large blocks of texts since it correlates with my train of thought and manner of speech. I guess that serves as a downside and discourages people (as already stated). It can also lead to the speaker digressing, which I can imagine is vexing in itself.

Heytherejeffro wrote:I've often considered this point. Many times, while perusing the internet, I find page after page of message boards just filled with rambling, long-winded, on-going, relentless, never-ending posts about trite, unimportant, banal, overly-expressed minutiae. Think, if you will, that the internet, as well as most forms of popular culture, has become a gathering place of self-important, overly-opinionated, brash arrogance. Most people will type a post because they are interested in seeing not only the responses that they might garner, but simply to admire the "art" that they've produced on the screen. One could easily call to numerous points in the past in which we've been cornered at some form of social gathering (think "message boards filled with living humans") in which a person would consistently and voraciously express their opinions about multiple subjects while barely taking a moment to let another person rebut.
I think it was Voltaire, or possibly an episode of the now-long-defunct sitcom "Boston Common" that taught me that the key to good communication is brevity. I couldn't agree more! When looking to make an impression, is it not the short words of wisdom that stay with us, as opposed to the long drawn-out speeches that leave (one can assume) both the reader and speaker exhausted? There's a reason that Chinese restaurants serve fortunes in cookies, and not cakes; the longer the message, the less memorable it will be.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are two (2) lines that tend to be the most quoted. Most famously, Hamlet's soliloquy beginning "To be or not to be, that is the question..." is almost universally known, but it's message (one of both the symbolism of the flaw of procrastination as well as the common questions man has about his own mortality) has been lost amongst the masses. Ironically, when the much lesser-known Polonius is imparting some fatherly advice to Laertes, he states "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Which message do you think has lasted more strongly throughout the ages? While many people can spout out the beginning of the young Prince's words, do they really understand it's meaning (or can they even give the next 3 lines)?
In short, if one is truly interested in having your words heard and making a lasting impression, one must break up one's thoughts into smaller, more manageable chunk. Time after time, one will find that one serves oneself better by making proper use of their thoughts, and consequently their time and effort, by utilizing that time-honored tool of brevity.

Mnemosis wrote:

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:
I can understand this. I don't mind block of texts. Then again, I think it speaks to how I read posts, in that I read it as if someone were talking to me. So a block of text does not bother me as much. Often, when I see something split into paragraphs, it bothers me and causes me to skim rather than read or even ignore the whole thing as a whole and read only the last line.

In terms of posting, I tend to post as if I were talking. What's posted is what I would say in real life and all that. I tend to favor large blocks of texts since it correlates with my train of thought and manner of speech. I guess that serves as a downside and discourages people (as already stated). It can also lead to the speaker digressing, which I can imagine is vexing in itself.

This was one of the first posts by you I've ever actually read.

Heytherejeffro wrote:I've often considered this point. Many times, while perusing the internet, I find page after page of message boards just filled with rambling, long-winded, on-going, relentless, never-ending posts about trite, unimportant, banal, overly-expressed minutiae. Think, if you will, that the internet, as well as most forms of popular culture, has become a gathering place of self-important, overly-opinionated, brash arrogance. Most people will type a post because they are interested in seeing not only the responses that they might garner, but simply to admire the "art" that they've produced on the screen. One could easily call to numerous points in the past in which we've been cornered at some form of social gathering (think "message boards filled with living humans") in which a person would consistently and voraciously express their opinions about multiple subjects while barely taking a moment to let another person rebut.
I think it was Voltaire, or possibly an episode of the now-long-defunct sitcom "Boston Common" that taught me that the key to good communication is brevity. I couldn't agree more! When looking to make an impression, is it not the short words of wisdom that stay with us, as opposed to the long drawn-out speeches that leave (one can assume) both the reader and speaker exhausted? There's a reason that Chinese restaurants serve fortunes in cookies, and not cakes; the longer the message, the less memorable it will be.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are two (2) lines that tend to be the most quoted. Most famously, Hamlet's soliloquy beginning "To be or not to be, that is the question..." is almost universally known, but it's message (one of both the symbolism of the flaw of procrastination as well as the common questions man has about his own mortality) has been lost amongst the masses. Ironically, when the much lesser-known Polonius is imparting some fatherly advice to Laertes, he states "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Which message do you think has lasted more strongly throughout the ages? While many people can spout out the beginning of the young Prince's words, do they really understand it's meaning (or can they even give the next 3 lines)?
In short, if one is truly interested in having your words heard and making a lasting impression, one must break up one's thoughts into smaller, more manageable chunks. Time after time, one will find that one serves oneself better by making proper use of their thoughts, and consequently their time and effort, by utilizing that time-honored tool of brevity.



(Reason for edit: I had more to say)