What do you think of the wall of text tl:dr development?

[Lark]

I didnt know that it meant too long : didnt read until lately and the wall of text thing, what do you think of them?

I can understand someone wanting broken up text or forum ettiquette to a certain extent but does it really mean that people dont pay attention anymore or wont concentrate? If its difficult or demanding are people in the west just inclined to give up and avoid it? Is slacking a cultural norm?

 

[Tyrinth]

Well, wouldn't it depend on what it is? I mean, saying that if it's difficult or demanding we're inclined to give up... That can't really cover everything can it? It really has to do with how your level of interest compares to the difficulty of what needs to be done... Meaning, a wall of text won't deter me if I'm truly interested in what's being discussed, and likewise, I won't bother reading a wall of text if I'm only moderately interested in what's being discussed.

Oftentimes, I think TL;DR is just used to mess with people, not always of course. Also, I don't think it's contained to the West, by the way.

Sorry, I'm honestly not sure what you're wanting here, and my thoughts are a bit chaotic right now. I hope my response was at least close to being on topic.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I think it comes down to this: If the author of the information takes little care in presenting it in its best light, I don't see why I should have to make the extra effort to do the work they neglected to do. They're trying to convince me, not the other way around.

If you're writing something and want people to read it, best to make it comprehensible. That means paragraphs and a little bit of self-editing. It's similar to running a store. If you want to sell your stock, put it on a shelf neatly and display it properly instead of just throwing all your wares in a big bin and letting the customer sort them out for himself.

It's curious to me that you lay the label of slacker on the reader in cases like these.

 

[Salomé]

What did you think it meant?

 

[Stanton Moore]

Cost/benefit. One may well regret spending the time to read a long, convoluted post, so many simply don't read it, and hope that the replies will fill in the gaps in meaning. As a strategy it's only partially successful at best...

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

I've noticed that length of post and degree of introversion can be generally related - with longer posts being associated with introversion. I personally appreciate people taking the time to develop ideas rather than tossing about soundbites. That is apparently what Facebook is for after all. Although, in the end I don't see the point in people trying to control the way other people communicate. If some want to use soundbites, concise statements, well developed and detailed posts, or run-on ideas, it has never been too difficult to just scroll past if it doesn't appeal personally.

 

[Randomnity]

I didnt know that it meant too long : didnt read until lately and the wall of text thing, what do you think of them?

I can understand someone wanting broken up text or forum ettiquette to a certain extent but does it really mean that people dont pay attention anymore or wont concentrate? If its difficult or demanding are people in the west just inclined to give up and avoid it? Is slacking a cultural norm?

lol, "anymore"? That phrase is about as old as the internet.

It's not "slacking" to avoid pleasure reading that isn't pleasurable to read for any reason - including being a wall of text. Browsing a website for fun doesn't obligate you to read every post on it.

 

[Salomé]

..longer posts being associated with introversion.

Source?

 

[Lark]

lol, "anymore"? That phrase is about as old as the internet.

It's not "slacking" to avoid pleasure reading that isn't pleasurable to read for any reason - including being a wall of text. Browsing a website for fun doesn't obligate you to read every post on it.

Its not as old as the internet since I used the internet from its earliest days and was familiar with the most ancient and arcane bulletin boards and never heard it.

 

[Lark]

What did you think it meant?

I thought it was some bullshit and ignored it. When people do that I know they arent worried whether they're understood or not. Abbreviations and assumptions like that are a pet peeve of mine, I hate people doing it at work too.

 

[Salomé]

I thought it was some bullshit and ignored it.

How perfectly circular of you!

Edit. In all seriousness, I tend to use it when I am late to a gazilion-post thread, and can't be bothered/ don't have time to read all the responses. It's a sort of apology for any unintended redundancy on my part.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Source?

I haven't read a specific article on it lately, but it combines the basic premise of introversion with my own observation (i.e. 1. the directing of interest inwards towards one's own thoughts and feelings rather than towards the external world or making social contacts).

A long post does not typically invite social interaction, banter, brainstorming, etc, but if anything it focuses on internal idea space whether that subject matter is subjective and personal or discussing a more objective concept. It requires a narrower focus both from the individual writing and the supposed reader. It seems that a more extroverted approach will take in a broader scope, skim along, and select bits that appeal. It appears like the cyber-space version of how an introvert vs. extrovert tends to communicate in any setting.

Obviously it wouldn't apply consistently and could only be a general tendency as I noted - since an extreme introvert may read threads and never post at all, and when they did, it might be just one sentence. It has to do with whether you compare the written text to the verbal communication or the internal thought processes of the intro/extro-vert. It can represent either because of its detachment from the more concrete social world. Many other exceptions could be noted as well, but in any case, a long post does not typically invite social interaction.

 

[sprinkles]

Some times it's legitimate.

Like when I'm speaking about economy of words and repeat the same things over and over multiple times redundantly, reiterating phrases that I've said before in a different way and making statements that are in fact quite similar yet worded differently to what I've stated prior as a way to illustrate redundancy and superfluousness, creating a recursive Droste effect image which paints a picture where the picture is repeated inside itself, and then I let the cat outside and then return to resume my loquacious oratory speaking upon the nature of palaverous and circumlocutory dissertations which are also unnecessarily wordy and roundabout and formed in a periphrastic and overly circular manner, I'd say tl;dr

 

[Salomé]

...

I'm not sure this generalisation holds for all introverts.
IME, INTPs (at least) highly value, and actively cultivate, brevity.

 

[Randomnity]

Its not as old as the internet since I used the internet from its earliest days and was familiar with the most ancient and arcane bulletin boards and never heard it.

LOL. yes, if you haven't heard of it, it must not have existed. Is this the logic that you usually bring to forum discussions?

Let me clarify. I first learned what tl:dr meant on a gaming forum that I frequented for a few years in high school, which would have been around 2002ish. I assume that I didn't manage to see the term in its first ever usage, since it appeared to be a commonly understood term at the time, and the internet's been around in more-or-less the present day form since the mid-to-late 90s, hence me concluding that it's "about as old as the internet" (slightly different from "exactly as old as the internet")

 

[sprinkles]

LOL. yes, if you haven't heard of it, it must not have existed. Is this the logic that you usually bring to forum discussions?

Let me clarify. I first learned what tl:dr meant on a gaming forum that I frequented for a few years in high school, which would have been around 2002ish. I assume that I didn't manage to see the term in its first ever usage, since it appeared to be a commonly understood term at the time, and the internet's been around in more-or-less the present day form since the mid-to-late 90s, hence me concluding that it's "about as old as the internet" (slightly different from "exactly as old as the internet")

I've never had someone speak to me in Polish over the internet so I must conclude that...

Never mind. Can't do it with a straight face.

 

[garbage]

I think it comes down to this: If the author of the information takes little care in presenting it in its best light, I don't see why I should have to make the extra effort to do the work they neglected to do. They're trying to convince me, not the other way around.

If you're writing something and want people to read it, best to make it comprehensible. That means paragraphs and a little bit of self-editing. It's similar to running a store. If you want to sell your stock, put it on a shelf neatly and display it properly instead of just throwing all your wares in a big bin and letting the customer sort them out for himself.

It's curious to me that you lay the label of slacker on the reader in cases like these.

Man, this exactly.

If our collective attention and concentration seems to be waning over time, it's likely because we're getting overburdened with new information and ideas. With more and more information presented to us, we have no choice but to be more and more selective--to turn to some heuristic to decide what's important and what isn't.

So, if some huge flippin' wall of text doesn't have a hook, doesn't seem worthwhile, and/or doesn't come from a trusted source, then people will move on. The speaker can only control his own part of the communication--he can't force anyone to listen.

 

[ceecee]

I think it comes down to this: If the author of the information takes little care in presenting it in its best light, I don't see why I should have to make the extra effort to do the work they neglected to do. They're trying to convince me, not the other way around.

If you're writing something and want people to read it, best to make it comprehensible. That means paragraphs and a little bit of self-editing. It's similar to running a store. If you want to sell your stock, put it on a shelf neatly and display it properly instead of just throwing all your wares in a big bin and letting the customer sort them out for himself.

It's curious to me that you lay the label of slacker on the reader in cases like these.

This. The only issue I have with the wall o text is a total disregard for punctuation, paragraphs, etc. It's up to the author to make their posts readable, not the other way around. I also wonder why slacker was used. I would assume most people don't have unlimited amounts of time to decipher what someone is trying to say.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Some times it's legitimate.

Like when I'm speaking about economy of words and repeat the same things over and over multiple times redundantly, reiterating phrases that I've said before in a different way and making statements that are in fact quite similar yet worded differently to what I've stated prior as a way to illustrate redundancy and superfluousness, creating a recursive Droste effect image which paints a picture where the picture is repeated inside itself, and then I let the cat outside and then return to resume my loquacious oratory speaking upon the nature of palaverous and circumlocutory dissertations which are also unnecessarily wordy and roundabout and formed in a periphrastic and overly circular manner, I'd say tl;dr

If it happened a lot I would wonder if the person had autistic/Aspberger tendencies and would become more interested in their posts.

 

[animenagai]

Longer posts annoy me, because the same point can often be explained in a more compact way. If you want people to read what you write, it's up to you to package it in a readable way. You have to remember that you are writing on an internet forum, not an academic journal. You can't expect people to read posts that are too long or technical.