[WikiEN-l] About tl;dr

[Amory Meltzer]

If everyone spent all day at their computers, and read each email
individually as they came in, that would be fine - each one is okay by
itself.

But people work, and people eat, sleep, and do many other things that
prevent them from waiting for a mailing list.  I may care about the
issue, but reading emails on just one topic (a topic that, in spite of
all of its merit, really can't compare to whether or not I put
mozzarella or cheddar on my burger) becomes a lot less likely when it
requires a lot of work to read them.

~A



On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:48, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd at lomaxdesign.com> wrote:
> At 11:28 AM 6/3/2010, Steve Summit wrote:
>>It doesn't matter how you justify a too-long screed; if its
>>length prevents people from reading it (and it will), your
>>message is lost.  It's as simple as that.
>
> Problems with this concept:
>
> Length will not prevent all from reading it. Rather, those will read
> it who are interested. Others won't. The message is not lost, it's in
> the archive, and, in any case, I know for a fact that some read the
> long posts, and appreciate them. Some comment on list, a few. Others
> take the trouble of thanking me by email. So, you can blame them!
>
> "Screed" implies an emotional state on the part of the writer. It's a
> snap judgment, if you don't read the piece. And this is one of the
> "assumptions" I wrote about that can interfere with understanding.
>
> Basically, length will indeed prevent some from reading, but these
> are not my target audience, except for a few. (I.e., there are some
> who don't read simply because they don't have time.)
>
> Underneath all this is a presumption that I have time to write more
> condensed material. I don't, generally. When I do have the time, and
> have a point to make, i.e., some message I consider necessary to
> communicate effectively to a broad audience, I do it.
>
> So, practically speaking, the choice is between writing what I write,
> or not writing at all, not between writing longer or shorter pieces.
>
>
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