Friday, June 3, 2011

How impolite! How impertinent! How rude! How...um, true.

I've heard of it, but I've never actually run across it in the comments section of any of the blogs I read on a regular basis. Though, if I'm honest, some of them may have *cough* deserved it on occasion, mine included.

What, you may be asking yourself, could Linda be talking about?

The dreaded...


Yes, the old "tl;dr" in the comments. Shorthand for "too long; didn't read."

Ack. How impertinent. How rude.

How...*whispers* sometimes true.

Now, seeing the tl;dr in the comment stream doesn't mean a post is bad. It could be fantastic -- well-written, informative, witty. A true joy to read. But regular readers of blogs tend to read a lot of blogs. If one blog takes a long time to read, and you multiply that by ten or twenty, or more...well, a good chunk of your day can disappear real fast. Or else you have to stop commenting at all, and that's no fun.

Hearing about tl;dr got me thinking, though. Does the opposite hold true? Is there such a thing as "ts;wb" (too short; why bother)? (Hmm. That one might come in handy for situations other than blog reading...)

Or maybe "jr;tyfnbtlots" (just right; thank you for not being too long or too short)?

There probably is and ideal range for blog post length, though I confess I'm not sure what it is. Long enough to have some substance. Not so short nobody can think of anything to say about it in the comments.

What do you think? Do you like your posts long or short? (No, that is NOT a euphemism!) (Okay, maybe it is. But let's not go there.)

Also, can you come up with a good comments acronym? (STFU has already been taken, so don't use that one. No matter how tempted you are...)

24 comments:

Anne Gallagher said...

I must be living under a rock. I have never heard of this. And acronyms really get me. I have no idea what STFU means. All you young kids have that whole text thing going on, I don't know how long it took me to catch on to TSTL (too stupid to live). Or ROTFLMAO. I think I need a brain transplant from a younger hipper cooler dudette.

Jennifer Shirk said...

Too funny. I try--keyword TRY--to keep my posts pithy. If a blog post is too long, I usually have to go back when I have more time to read it. :)

Teri Anne Stanley said...

OMG, ROFLMFAO:
I do, of course worry that people will think I am TSTL (too stupid to live), and I do worry about the length of my posts...and the length of my comments. As the license plate on a Mini Cooper in my parking garage reads: SZ MTRS !

Linda G. said...

Anne -- Try goodling "internet acronyms." It's a real eye-opener. ;)

Jennifer -- Your posts are always great. I love reading your blog. :)

Teri -- Ha! I love that Mini Cooper license plate.

Unknown said...

uh...I hate to admit it, but I'm sure the tl;dr should probably appear in comments my blog gets. I know I'm a bit long-winded at times, but hey, that's how I roll :)

Summer Frey said...

Do people actually leave that in comments? Maybe it's the Southern in me, but that's really f'ing rude. If I ever see that, I will leave a random combination of letters and punctuation in return that will plague them to understand the meaning.

eabd* (yes, I have a translation for this one, and it's not very nice)

Linda G. said...

Karla -- Your posts are never too long for me! :)

Summer -- I know! I'm a southern gal, too, and I couldn't believe it when I found out about this. But come on...you HAVE to tell me what eabd means. Even if it's rude. ;)

Dawn@Lighten Up! said...

Wow! I hope I never get a comment like that! Srsly. Why bother leaving a comment at all if it's negative? Just don't say anything. So rude!
MY acronym for some blogs? (Emphatically not yours Linda) : YCSAYCKRBTSOM. (Your continual stories about your cute kids are boring the shit outta me).

Patty Blount said...

Brevity is always a challenge for me. :)

Michele Shaw said...

Ah, Linda! You have hit on one of my pet peeves, TYVM! I HATE it when blogs go on forever. I am one of those people who does read a lot of them, and if they're too long, I move on. I have to. It's a question of time. I think there is a happy medium, though it can be hard to hit. I lean toward shorter posts on my blog. I LOVE acronyms. Twitter has turned me into an ac-freak. I like the oldie but goodie: SSDD ;)

Anonymous said...

God, really? How awful, never heard of it and I certainly wouldn't dream to leave a comment like that.
If you've got nothing nice to say...

Linda G. said...

Dawn -- LOL! But cute kid stories are the BEST!

Patty -- I think you do fine with it. :)

Michele -- Same Stuff, Different Day? Ha! Tough to avoid sometimes. Once you've been blogging for a while, new material gets harder to find.

Elle -- Really. I was so appalled when I found out about it, I had to do this post. ;)

Bess Weatherby said...

Oh boy. I think I probably get the "Too long" quite a bit. I'm too verbose for my own good!

Tagged you in a post, by the way. And it's not TL or TS it's JR (just right :)

Jen Stayrook said...

I'm with @Summer on this one. People really leave comments that say those things? (Southern girl, too.)

As for me, I can be REALLY long-winded, so I try to be as concise as possible when writing blog posts, but sometimes it doesn't happen. I think around 500-600 words is the perfect length. I shoot for that.

Maybe it's the overachiever in me, or the PTSD from grad school, churning out 20 page papers in under 3 hours. See? I can't even leave a normal sized blog post.

LOVE THE POST, LINDA!

Linda G. said...

Bess -- I love reading your posts! You have such a unique perspective on NY. Which is great for me, since my current WIP is set there, in large part. :)

Jen -- I doubt it happens much blogs that center around writing (or reading), but apparently not everyone is as polite as we are. ;)

Elena Solodow said...

Huh, I've never heard of this - does seem very rude. If you didn't read it, then just don't comment on it. I prefer my posts short, just because everyone has a lot of blogs to get around to and time is of the essence.

Dianne K. Salerni said...

I'll be googling STFU right after leaving here today ...

I tend to skip blogs that are too long -- or at least not read them all the way through. Personally, I try to keep mine under 500 words -- unless it's a critique, and then I cut it as close to 500 as I can get.

I've even trained my occasionally guest-blogging brother-in-law. I kept stripping the posts he gave me down to 500 words. Now, he does it himself so he decides what gets kept!

As for tl;dr -- I think that really is rude. If you have nothing good to say and you post a comment anyway ... you're headed into troll territory, IMO. (I know that one!)

Kimberly Sabatini said...

My you are witty today-can't believe I came late to the party!!!! TTFN

Linda G. said...

Elena -- That's what surprised me, too. I mean, if you don't have time to read the post, why take the time to leave a rude comment? My guess is, most who leave the tl;dr do it anonymously. It's easy to be rude when no one knows who you are.

Dianne -- Shut The F*** Up. Er, not you. That's just what it means. *grin*

K-pop -- (Tee-hee. Have to call you that now.) I can't see TTFN without thinking of all the Winnie the Pooh videos I watched (over and over and over again) with the kids when they were little.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

There's probably some "perfect" length for a blog, but it's kinda nice to come across a reeeeeeally short one every once in a while. Like a mini-vacation. Some do definitely run on and on and on, but if the topic's intriguing, I'll go back and read it when I have more time. But to leave a rude tl;dr notation is stupid. Too long? Fine. Don't READ it! And like Thumper said, "If ya can't say something nice, don't say nuthin at all!"

Anonymous said...

I subscribe to about 50 blogs, and sporadically read dozens of others. I keep my posts around 500 words because I assume everybody else is reading as much as I do. And I tend not to subscribe to blogs that run on and on, but I'd certainly never leave a rude comment like TL;DR. I'm pretty sure nobody died and made me the Blog Length Goddess.

If one of my "regular" bloggers does a long post, I'll generally read or skim the whole thing. And I don't feel cheated by short posts. I saw a great one-liner today that made me laugh, and, like Susan says, it felt like a mini-vacation.

Your blog, however, is jr;tyfnbtlots. And that's straight from the mouth of the Blog Length Goddess-In-Waiting. So there. :-)

Al said...

I would say your posts are just right.
ie. how you made them.

abby mumford said...

yet another example of how not hip i am. i've never heard of tl;dr. while it may be true, umm, to have someone type it to you?!?! what? that is rude. what's that golden rule? if you don't have something nice to say, just don't comment.

and, for the record, i try to vary the lengths of my posts because sometimes i am long winded and i want to get it all out without boring my readers, so i intersperse some short ones to keep them guessing. :)

Hallie Sawyer said...

I have never seen that in the comment section before but now I'm worried! Maybe I deleted it and thought it was spam! :/

I have to admit, I skim over some posts if they are too long. Time is of major importance and too long sometimes just isn't possible. But if I like what I'm reading and want to go back, I will save it or favorite it to go back to.

Hmmm, can't think of an acronym now. However, I'm sure I'll be inspired as I work my way through my Google Reader. :)