Lengthy Threads -- Oh the horror!

[Kims Robot]

Originally Posted by phrontist

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.

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.

[Mike]

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...

[KarenH]

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!

[Ashley Christine]

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.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

lol.

(I love short posts )

[Ashley Christine]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

lol.

(I love short posts )

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

[Katie Reynolds]

Sometimes (especially when longer threads are made at night) I'm just too darn tired to type out the coherent, lengthy response the thread deserves (such is the case with a few threads floating around tonight!) Usually, I go back the next day and say what I want to say.

I should add:

Normally, I read through the entire 'lengthy' thread right away; it just takes a day or two to respond.

[nehalita]

I think i partially fall under the "lazy" category. No doubt, if I see a long response, and there are many of them, i groan. BUT I don't stop there because if the thread's worth it, then it's certainly better finding a meaningless activity to engage in.

There are so many posts here that are worth the time taken to read them. I agree with Ashely, just read them. Even if you have to force yourself to sit there and complete the paragraph (as I find myself in that situation myself sometimes because I have trouble concentrating), do it. It always pays back (psychologically it does: through positive or negative conditioning)

[Scott Morgan]

i agree
you can learn alot from reading long threads
usualy wether or not i read a thread is based on how interesting it is to me
if i'm not particularly interested i usualy just skim over it
however if it is interesting to me i will go all out reading it
the longest thread i ever read start to finish(not hear by the way) was 91 pages when i started reading it and is currently 119
however i know most people are not willing to go to those lengths

anyways discussion threads are generaly contain a great wealth of knowledge and its your own loss if you don't read just because its too long

[sciguy125]

It's the internet. It's supposed to allow for the instantanious dissemination of knowledge. While long posts may be a wealth of knowledge, absorbing that knowledge is far from intantanious. Most of the time that I'm here (on the internet), I'm looking for quick sources of information that are straight to the point. If I don't see anything of interest in the first few sentences, I tend to stop reading. I read with the understanding that the first few sentences (generally the first paragraph) are a summary of what the rest of the article/post/whatever is about. If it doesn't grab my attention right away, I'll move on to something else. Having a long article is fine as long as I know what I'm reading about and can justify spending the time.

[Arefin Bari]

Ashley... you are on a roll today/tonight. Way to be... I am glad that you are expressing these ideas and pointing out some things that are true.

When I first joined Chiefdelphi, I used to ignore the threads that are LONG and has very long posts. That is when I used to just post in the game section of the forum. Wow, I was an Idiot.

As time passed by, I started reading every single thread (even though it was against my will). At times I used to close them right in the middle. But I got used to reading them now. The thoughtful long posts are just worth it so much.

Yes, it might be boring in the beginning to read the long thread. But try to think what one is trying to say. After reading the "long" post, you might learn something. Think positive. Yes, I know a lot of you will be thinking/telling me that I am crazy for asking you to read long posts, but I have been to that point already. There was a time when I used to think that people are crazy for telling me to read but as time changed, I changed... you will too.