Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

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townbikemark
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by townbikemark »

bikepacker wrote:Many such posts turn me off and I can’t be bothered to read them. Is this just me or do any of you feel the same? Some contributors indulge in what has been described as; literal diarrhea

One of the skills I tried to instil in my employees was; not to use six words when one will do.


Seems to be a sign of the times, as does stating the obvious. Could be a bit of narcissism too - lots of people talk at you, not to you whilst seemingly ignoring anything you have to say.
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TonyR
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by TonyR »

townbikemark wrote:Seems to be a sign of the times, as does stating the obvious. Could be a bit of narcissism too - lots of people talk at you, not to you whilst seemingly ignoring anything you have to say.


Its down largely I think to Mark Twain's comment in a letter to a friend - "I'm sorry I've written you a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one" coupled with the modern way which is to type a stream of consciousness and then cut and paste it into some form of shape rather than the traditional style Mick F sets out of thinking about and structuring what you are going to write before you write it.
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mjr
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by mjr »

Mark Twain? I'd heard that attributed to Pascal.
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TonyR
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by TonyR »

mjr wrote:Mark Twain? I'd heard that attributed to Pascal.


Its attributed to lots of people http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
Bicycler
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by Bicycler »

TonyR wrote:Its down largely I think to Mark Twain's comment in a letter to a friend - "I'm sorry I've written you a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one"

Certainly in my case. Concision is a skill and not one which comes naturally to me. I'm also reluctant to sacrifice reasoning for the sake of brevity. Discussions are much more meaningful as a series of reasoned arguments than unsubstantiated assertions.
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elPedro666
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by elPedro666 »

Bicycler wrote:Discussions are much more meaningful as a series of reasoned arguments than unsubstantiated assertions.


This is nonsense. Shorter is better.









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TonyR
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by TonyR »

Bicycler wrote:I'm also reluctant to sacrifice reasoning for the sake of brevity. Discussions are much more meaningful as a series of reasoned arguments than unsubstantiated assertions.


Its a balance though. Too long and people quickly lose interest so all those reasoned arguments never get read. It needs to be short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover what it needs to.
cicatriz
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by cicatriz »

tl;dr

If you're going to post a wall of text, and there are a plenty of valid reasons for doing so, you can always put a tl;dr (too long; didn't read) paragraph at the start or the end with a summation of the text. One of the few forum conventions I actually like.
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661-Pete
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by 661-Pete »

mjr wrote:.... Astonished as travelling assistance or unreserved oh pianoforte ye....
(along with a whole host of other incisive and subtle comments)

Did I ever mention that, some months ago, I went up by train (sans 'assistance') to visit a piano dealer's at New Malden, with a view to buying a new piano? I tried out several instruments, one or two of which really sounded great, but I couldn't make up my mind to buy one. And I didn't reserve any. In fact I still haven't made up my mind.................. :?

No. I don't think I did mention it....... :twisted:
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661-Pete
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by 661-Pete »

OK, to be serious for a change..... :roll:

Mea culpa. Or at any rate, I'm perfectly capable of writing a long rambling post (which no-one's going to be bothered to read to the end) if I feel like it.

Mea culpa - also - in that I've been guilty of dissing a couple of 'other places' where I had an unhappy sojourn, beset by trolls as I saw it. Indeed, even to refer to them as 'other places' is mildly disparaging. So to redress the balance, I should point out that it wasn't all bad - far from it! The proprietor of CycleChat - bless him! - came up with the superb idea of a section where people could post their more long-winded cycling anecdotes. I took up the challenge with glee and am quite proud of my contributions there. Such as this one. (Took a bit of digging to find it. I note that the section has now become "Members' travelogues". Ah well...)

A possible idea for this forum perhaps?
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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elPedro666
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by elPedro666 »

Nearly twenty four hours has passed and still no one has returned from reading 661-Pete's travelogue to comment - just how long is it?!
TonyR
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by TonyR »

661-Pete wrote:Did I ever mention that, some months ago, I went up by train (sans 'assistance') to visit a piano dealer's at New Malden, with a view to buying a new piano? I tried out several instruments, one or two of which really sounded great, but I couldn't make up my mind to buy one. And I didn't reserve any. In fact I still haven't made up my mind.................. :?

No. I don't think I did mention it....... :twisted:


Clearly choosing a piano is not your forte :wink:
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by bikepacker »

elPedro666 wrote:Nearly twenty four hours has passed and still no one has returned from reading 661-Pete's travelogue to comment - just how long is it?!


Sorry can't help as I don't read travelogues. Like many of the cycle touring books out there I find most to be; long winded, badly written and full of mediocre adventures. The later is probably due to me doing at least four months of touring each year.
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661-Pete
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Re: Does anyone else get turned off by long rambling posts?

Post by 661-Pete »

elPedro666 wrote:Nearly twenty four hours has passed and still no one has returned from reading 661-Pete's travelogue to comment - just how long is it?!

It wasn't really a travelogue - more of an aggro-logue. And it does come to an end! Scout's honour!
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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