Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Is my non-engineering sense picking up sarcasam? hmmm, i need to analyze it more.

But yes Ashley has brought up quite a valid point, looks like this is the week of lengthy posts. I thought this is summer and we are supposed to be on vacation? As in taking a break from everything. Well I guess some people have school starting up, meanwhile I'll enjoy the 20 days and 21 hours i have left. But one more word of advice for everyone:

Ladies and Gentlemen of Chiefdelphi Forums, take a break, we got a long season coming soon. Did I mention its gonna be the best season ever?

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Well, there is some truth in that it's the audience. But not the CD audience - the audience in general.

It's been proven that the average web surfer spends seconds looking at a website before they move on or decide to keep reading. Newspapers use a term called "above the fold" or "below the fold": referring to the fold in the newspaper - the most important stuff is put above the fold so that when it's seen in the newsstand the headlines attract your attention. This stuff happens all the time.

Yes, lengthy posts are sometimes skipped over because of length and....well, in the end it's the reader's loss if they don't want to read it. But there are ways to add a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

• Formatting is your friend! We have all these neat tags on the forums, we might as well put them to good use. Use bold to accentuate what you're trying to say in a really long post, and more likely than not even if the body is long but the bolding is still at the part of the screen where you don't have to scroll, it will be read.
• Break up the post. Not only with the enter key, but adding lists make your post seem easier to swallow.

And, if you're a reader and you want to catch up on a long thread, in the "Thread Tools" box there is "Subscribe to thread" - subscribe to the long ones so that you don't have to dig for them later! You can set your settings so that you're not recieving emails every time someone replies to the thread as well.

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Yet the quote in your signature is from one of those "lengthy" threads... so apparently you read it... oh and one of the "engineers" started that thread... Im sure he reads it... and oh, Im an engineer... I read it... I dont see the weight to your argument :)

The best "engineers" are the ones who can effectively communicate their points and discoveries... without "liberal arts" engineers are nothing but useless computers with no communication skils.

And Ashley, You are on a roll :)

And Jessica, perfect addition to this thread... I cant stand a post when it is a page full of solid words with no punctuation and no capitalization... that blows up my brain (and is what will make me skip a post).

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

JOKING! Argh, I wasn't aware humor had fallen out of style! Maybe I'm just bad at it...

Of course I don't believe that any non-hard-science profession is worthless. I was attempting to parody, by taking to an extreme, the attitude I see in a lot of "nerdy" types.

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

I knew you were kidding (or at least figured you were...) thats why I had the smiley face :) :) :)

Humor often falls out of typed messages... thats why I try to use the smilies or "lol" or something of that sense to indicate when I am joking. I think in typed text that is often needed (especially in discussions/debates as deep as the one's we've been in lately!! lol). People tend to take you seriously unless otherwise indicated, because most of the other posts are so serious.

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

I didn't feel like reading this whole thread, which, as I understand, is talking about people not wanting to read long threads. The irony kills me...

The reason why I didn't read this whole thread, is that it would take me probably like... 10 minutes. I'm not gonna lie and say I have better things to do, because I don't. But I don't feel like taking 10 minutes to come to the conclusion of "People should read long threads because usually they have good stuff", which is most likely where this thread has said, or will say.


EDIT: Some (relatively) common knowledge in the web development community is that a visitor to your site usually takes about 13 seconds to decide if he/she wants to stay. If nothing grabs their attention within those 13 seconds, they will leave. What exactly this has to do with this thread, I'm not sure. I'm sure some people could make a link or something...

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Take it for what it's worth:

Some pre-Internet wisdom I was taught long ago:
--Your paragraphs should be from 3 to 10 sentences long (my 9th grade English teacher)
--"Telegraph talk" is the inability to communicate with sentences longer than 10 words (I don't remember where I heard this one)

A suggestion, based on recent experience:
If you have trouble wading through long posts on this forum, spend some time carefully reading Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Once you have mastered Melville's convoluted sentence structure, you will have no trouble reading anything posted here! ;)

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Okay... Yes and no I agree with some of what you guys are saying. and I think from now on I will take some of your advice into consideration -- Good speeling of tings, B r e a k i n g things up. Making important things bold, underlined or italic. And whatever else.

Also, I think that by thread I more specifically meant POST. But when people just read the first post of the thread the do miss important things that are said by other people throughout the thread.

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

lol.

(I love short posts :) )

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Psh, thats only because you are challenged. :p
Haha. Just playin... you still rock.. I guess.

Re: Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!
 

Pre-internet wisdom??? I believe that almost all of my books on building a website say the same exact thing. People will almost always look over anything that appears to be very long.