

Why I downvote "tl;dr" comments on Hacker News - raganwald
http://raganwald.posterous.com/why-i-downvote-tldr-comments-on-hacker-news

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8ren
_Sorry to write such a long blog post, but I didn't have time to write a short
one._

Another solution is an appendix, as a sort of purgatory for zombie passages.
Or a short and long version of the same blog post - your own tl;dr.

Perhaps best is the idea of chapters: treat the first blog post as an
introduction or introductory chapter (or even as an abstract thereof), and the
cool sentences you think of - that in reality are expansions of the main point
- can move to a chapter, where they become first-class citizens, being
directly relevant to that chapter's own thesis. Each chapter is a blog-post
(and named, and linked to, as such). If you don't yet have enough material for
one of these chapters, leave it as a draft for a while (or publish it as a
skeletal chapter).

 _Read over your com­po­si­tions, and where ever you meet with a pas­sage
which you think is par­tic­u­larly fine, strike it out._ aka _kill your
darlings_

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mnemonicsloth
Why does everyone insist on putting a semicolon in "tl;dr"?

It makes a perfectly good acronym 25% longer than it needs to be.

~~~
fnl
now I am laughing tears... :D I'd love to give that one 10 votes...

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junklight
While I have no problem with the OP down voting tl;dr I do think as a comment
its an important pointed stick:

First off to remind you that most people hardly read anything - either through
lack of time, lack of attention span or just that they only read stuff they
agree with. If you want to get a message across you need to meet the needs of
these people too. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago in the work
place.

Secondly - for those who do read - sometimes you start reading something and
your eyes/brain glaze over. Rambling, unpolished prose etc. all do this to me.
By the same token there are texts that you start reading - just to see what it
is about and are compelled by the authors carefully constructed prose to read
to the end.

And of course sometimes as a comment tl;dr is just funny....

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cubicle67
I like reading long posts, and it makes me sad to see people I like to read,
like yourself, Steve Yegge and a few others start to write as if you're
embarrassed and you're wasting our time. You're not, and here's why:

You write well, you're interesting, and (for me, anyway) reading is an
experience; I enjoy it. Sure, I'm learning things or being exposed to
different ideas etc, but I also _enjoy_ reading it. The shorter your writing,
the less time I get to spend reading it.

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dschobel
I can't decide whether my inability to tell whether this is satire reflects a
failing of mine or of the author.

Writing a long-winded blog post about a simple idea, which itself is about
distilling ideas to their essence is too obvious, right?

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c1sc0
Another reason to downvote tl;dr comments is that such a comment is simply not
up to the quality level expected at HN. If you can't be bothered to read the
original article & post a thoughtful comment, simply don't comment.

~~~
wnoise
"tl;dr" doesn't only mean "It's too long so I didn't read it". It's also
commonly used as "I thought this was too long, and can get across what I
consider important in a much smaller space. If you might have found this too
long and didn't read it, here's a summary for you."

I agree that bare "tl;dr"s should be voted down. But clear condensations
shouldn't be just because of a "tl;dr" prefix.

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philcrissman
Does this mean there's no place for <http://tldrd.com> ? :-)

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PHPAdam
never posted tl;dr or knew what it stood for. If its posted though, it may not
add to discussion but should educate the OP to post shorter, why you shouldn't
downvote it.

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Mz
I tend to be long-winded. I have been criticized for that at times. But I have
also found that when I shorten my comments too much, people really
misunderstand me. My take on the world seems to be uncommon. So it apparently
takes extra effort most of the time to effectively communicate my views.

I also found that if I ignore the eye-rolling and complaints of long-
windedness, other people eventually get more comfortable speaking at length.
And the end result tends to be better online conversations. I think the
"blurb" culture where no one has time or interest to read more than 2
sentences at a pop is one that is really very socially rejecting. My opinion:
If you don't actually want to engage in social intercourse, you are free to
just read the articles and not click on "comments" here. I never can wrap my
brain around the practice of joining a _discussion_ group and then bashing
people for talking. The "comments" are the discussion part of HN and are
totally optional.

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stereo
tl;dr (sorry, had to)

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fnl
tl;dr :)

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Jd
tl

