Opinions on thread posts

[Fuzzed]

Do you ever feel the first post of a thread is too long or too complicated? How about any post in general? So much so that you just give it a miss? Or do you read everyone's post all the way through no matter what?

For me there is a point where I won't read a post. Not because of content, just because its toooooooooo loooooooooooooooooooooong.

 

[farscythe]

im not bothered by the length of a post as long as i can read it without hurting my brain...
so yea...i went to the religionand politics forum...i think between the legalese and the people talking out of their arse..about 1 in 8 posts there..dont hurt my brain...


so yea..r&p causes me to call posts a miss very often

 

[Rawne1980]

I don't bother with posts if they are too long unless it's something i'm really interested in.

And, as with farscyth, I avoid R&P. Never seen so much bullshit by clueless folk in one place. Some of the posts there make me wonder how people dress themselves. It's not that they are too long or complicated just that a lot of them are full of shit.

 

[Dead Seerius]

Tl;dr.
Sorry, OP. I'd say any post that surpasses 1 line of text is beyond my attentions span.

Kidding, kidding. Yeah, I don't read every post in a thread, especially the long ones, but I make it my business to read the entire OP so I know what the discussion should be focused on and what the poster may already know.

 

[Ljs1121]

If a first post is really, really long, then I tend to quickly sift through it looking for main points, or read a tl;dr section if there is one present. But that's only if it's longer than, let's say, your average research paper. Otherwise, I'll read the whole thing.

Alternatively, if it's a topic that interests me a lot or something that I really want to know more about, I'll read it regardless of length.

I also read through every post in a controversial topic because of the glorious infighting that always occurs within said topics.

 

[lRookiel]

If it's a wall of text I will just /ignore

Unless it's a specific topic I share great interest in.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

I usually don't have a problem with reading long posts, so long as they are structured in such a way that reading them is a viable option. If they ignore punctuation, constantly misspell even the simplest words, or just don't form their sentences in a coherent way, then I skip 'em. If it's an OP, then that usually means I just give the entire topic a miss. If it's a reply, then I'll just ignore it.

And, like pretty much everyone else, if it's something that interests me, I'll usually suffer through the bad posts to see what's being said. Or if it's a topic that's inspired incredible aggression for some unknown reason, or a post that's caused the poster to be banned, I'll persevere.

I would just like to say, though, since it's been brought up, that just because you're posting on an internet forum, doesn't mean all rules of grammar and syntax have gone out the window. It's always nice to be able to comprehend what I'm reading.

 

[thesilentman]

No problem with long thread posts. If the poster has a point and is proving it quite well, I don't mind. If I don't feel that the OP is stating his point well, I lose interest.

 

[Meatspinner]

It depends on how clear and to the point the post is. If it takes 5 sentences for the poster to get her/his point across I usually give it a pass. That also goes for posts that I have to use the "Page Down" button on, unless it's about something I care about

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Depends on the content I guess. If the post is a massive rambling wall of text with no clear direction then I won't bother to read it.

 

[shrekfan246]

I'm glad you ask this question.

You see, I'm a person who believes in the joys of waxing poetic. I believe that a silver tongue is endemic to the denizens of this esteemed website. But it has also occurred to me that there is a certain amount of laziness present within people who spend their time perusing the internet. It seems that people spend their time doing what they call 'relaxing', and that reading long-winded posts appears to not be considered part of that. It would appear that some people believe reading to be wasting their time. It would appear that they believe not in brevity being the soul of wit, but in brevity being the golden rule. I cannot abide by that, unfortunately. I appreciate those who give their time toward reading lengthy posts, and I give consideration to those who type them. For how much can you know about a person if you don't put the time into reading them? Nothing at all, I'm afraid.

There is, of course, such a thing as being 'too rambly'. Many things can make a post come across as such, limited not only to sentence structure and punctuation but also the content of each paragraph. And some people simply lose interest. Things become 'too wordy', which I believe brings us back to the aforementioned laziness of people on the internet. This is one of the things that makes me question my desire to become an English teacher, because I see all of these people who simply don't care and I wonder to myself, Would high school students be any different? They wouldn't. They would scoff as I assign them their homework of reading To Kill a Mockingbird or any number of Stephen King novels. They would look upon me with smug smirks as they proudly announce to the class that they didn't have the time to finish their last assignments. And I would match their gaze with an equally smug grin as I give them zero after zero, and make them attend summer school to make up for their lazy coursework.

It behooves me to give due attention to those who post in a thread before I make my own contribution. If somebody has said what I already wanted to add, I have no need to make a post. How can I know if I would feel like engaging in conversation if I ignore the other posts that have been made? This open forum is built around discussion; Making a singular post and then forgetting a thread exists does not engender discussion.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I actually have a very specific length that I find compact enough to read:
I put the top line of text at the very top of the page and if I can't see the entire thing on the screen it's too long for me.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Short and concise for me.

Make your point, justify it, move on. If I can't determine what you're saying with a quick glance, it's not important.

 

[Johnny Impact]

If the topic doesn't seem interesting, I don't click the thread in the first place.

If the poster is disingenuous with his thread title and I realize I'm not reading what I thought I was, I usually stop. Whether that happens at the first sentence or the last doesn't matter.

If the OP is coherent and interesting, I finish the post no matter its length.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I tend to be somewhat guilty of long wall of text style posts, mostly since my mental workings tend to lead me to alot of semi-related tangents and extra details. As for others, as long as the topic is fairly interesting I will read a long post.