Too long, didnt read! Or TL;DR for the super lazy...

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Does this drive anyone else crazy, or am I the only one? You write something up when talking with people online in whatever form, and the reply is: "TL;DR".

Drives. Me. Up. The. Wall.

It's like, if you're going to converse with me in whatever form, READ WHAT I BLOODY WELL TYPE, YOU DAMN IDIOT! I can get kinda long-winded, sure, but that's mostly just on forums, as it's hard to have a back-and-forth of quick, shorter comments when a conversation can take days due to waiting for the other person to reply. But even when the response time is very quick (and thus whatever I'm saying is much shorter), still.... "TL;DR". Even when it takes like 10 seconds to read it.

Just... ugh. I always have to repress the urge to fire off a barrage of insults when this one happens. It's like, you know what... if you're going to do that, I cant take anything you say seriously, because you dont even know what I just said. So... GO AWAY.

...and heck, they're so damn lazy that they have to abbreviate it that way. Gods forbid they actually type the words out. That might take a whole few seconds! If that...

Really, crap like this is a big part of why I'm so anti-social.

Sorry but I'm going to say that posts should be concise. While I think it would be rude of me to respond with tl;dr, I often think it with a lot of posts I see on WP. See to me it's more my job to be considerate to my reader by being concise, than it being their job to have to spend 10 or more minutes of their life on me. Often with a wall of text I have to read it two or three times, because of the haphazard way it's pounded out. Ironically the otherwise chatty teens in my teen forms, all have being concise down to a fine science.

I post long stuff sometimes. My feeling on other's long stuff is that if it's on topic, relevant and useful, it should be read. If I'm conversing directly with someone, it's more important to read and be read. At least have the decency to skim.

If it's off topic, a side conversation I'm not involved in, or just a rant, it can be ignored, imo.

Tl;dr is flippant and dismissive enough that I'd be likely to just stop responding to that topic altogether. Why should I bother if you aren't going to read it?

That's the thing: It doesnt ACTUALLY have to be a "long" post at all. People will often do this if it's more than like, 3 sentences. I've seen them do this with a post of the length you just wrote here, in fact. This is part of why I get so irritable about it.

....also it seriously does take about 10-20 seconds to read even a long-ish one.



Yeah, pretty much. Typically when someone does it to me, I'm like "You know what... if you couldnt even be bothered to read that, your end of the conversation is complete: shove off, and dont bother posting directly at me again, as there's little point since I wont take you seriously enough to actually converse with you further". Of course, me being the way I am I dont always phrase it quite like THAT...

Also, I notice it tends to have a much higher chance of happening during an arguement. Like "TL;DR, so I win" sort of thing. That's more rare (I dont argue often, I hate confrontation) but way more irritating.

I'm sorry but no. Just no. That's the time it takes you to read long posts. For reasons I don't yet know, I'm slow at reading. I haven't read anything other than the title and this bit here.

I usually have to re-read because my mind switches off and none of it goes in. Only if I'm interested will I try to stay with it, or only if it's short. For a lot of the things here they're just too long and I'm not interested enough. I won't say "TL;DR" because it's pointless.

And I prefer short paragraphs, though I don't always make them myself.

But for you to suggest it takes everyone 10 seconds to read some huge essay is ridiculous. If you can do that, that's an amazing skill and I'm jealous. But don't say everyone can do it. That's unfair.

Fine. It takes a couple of minutes then.... seriously, even for a slower reader, it's not THAT bloody long. And if someone has time to be sitting there in a back and forth conversation ANYWAY... there's no excuse for it.

I know this generation of people used to their phones to send a half-assed, misspelled sentence tends to be a TAD impatient (not implying that of anyone here; I mean in general), but... ye gods, even *I* can handle this, and few people are as absurdly impatient as I am.

Hell, it's no different whatsoever IRL rather than online. If someone I'm talking to rambles for 5 minutes straight without me saying anything, I'll bloody well listen to all of it if I want to remain in that conversation at all (and I dont GET into conversations to begin with if the subject is uninteresting or pointless). They are taking the time to converse with me and tell me their thoughts on the matter (whatever that matter may be)... the least I can do is listen.

Also, again, you overestimate what I mean by "long post".

If it's like, 3 pages of rambling, then that's one thing. But a post as long as the one I am writing right here is what I mean as "long". And really, if someone thinks THIS is too bloody long to read... they can find someone else to talk to.

....and also, they can simply not reply at all. If you're not going to read it... dont bother replying, is what I usually say.

I don't reply if I really can't get through it, or will only reply to the bits I do read (like in this and my previous one).

Even when watching things I have to go back and rewatch it sometimes if something happened really fast.

I do listen in conversations. I used to be friends with someone who loved talking. What she was saying wasn't particularly interesting but it helped when I was lonely and I did learn an awful lot about horses from her. I do miss seeing her. It was always hard to say anything if you got her going but that didn't matter to me because I didn't have anything to add. I do wonder what she's up to now. Genuinely nice girl.

I am not impatient for the most part. Can get frustrated sometimes. Just it can be hard to read. If I think there will be something of interest to me of course I will read it, and I will read it all thoroughly until I understand. Usually takes a few times though. The more complex the more times. Sometimes I genuinely can't understand even after looking things up so I move on. I don't think I've ever said TL;DR.

This still comes off as being demanding of others to read what you write. It just simply doesn't work that way. It's up to the author to make the kind of posts people are willing to read.

The longer the post, the more time you spend writing it, the less people are going to read it. Fact of internet life.

Yeah, people aren't obliged to read what you write. And that's a very good point. Does pay to be concise and get your information across effectively and not ramble on. Wrong planet has no character limit but quite a few other sites do, and using those does help you cut out pointless bits of information that nobody wants to read. You're good at explaining EzraS Never really thought about it before.

I really don't care about TL;DR comments. Particularly if some others have responded.

I don't demand that anybody read anything of mine, if I've been too long winded, nobody is forcing them to read it. I don't understand why the TL;DR person doesn't jut not read it and move on with leaving the snarky comment?

I freely admit I have a tendency to write too much--it's like the post equivalent of monologuing, perhaps: I have something inside that I NEED to get out. But no one is being forced to read it, so what's the harm?

I wish I could always be clever, concise and pithy... but sometimes it takes time to work through a thought.

It seems to me this isn't something to get worked up about. People should be tolerant and respectful of their differing needs and abilities. It's all OK. It's all good. Relax and enjoy the rich diversity of life.

I have to agree with EzraS on this one. I won't say tl:dr but if a post is too long, I won't read it more than a light skim of opening sentences per paragraph. Unless those opening sentences tell me that the post is chock full of vital information, then I won't invest the 5 minutes or whatever to read it. If there are no paragraphs, then forget it. Conversation over. Conversation probably over anyway.

I will say that short paragraphs are a strong bonus- example with Adamantium above. A long post that is also broken into many paragraphs stands a good chance of me reading it.

Actually yes, it does, in a way.

This isnt about forum posts. This is about conversations (as in, direct, not over a long course of time like on a forum) that have ALREADY STARTED. If you're going to talk to me... and most importantly, if you're going to talk AT me (because the part that most infuriates me is when someone gives a TL;DR but RESPONDS ANYWAY to a post they did not read), then read what I say (because why in the world start talking to me in the first place otherwise?). Otherwise, disengage, and dont bother trying any further. Or better yet, dont talk at me in the first place. Nobody said the person HAS to A: read or B: respond to my original, usually-long post.

Typically also, these conversations *arent* started by me. These are started AFTER something I initially say, which is typically a general statement not directed at anyone. Like, you know, how topics here often go, someone might start with "So I like this thing and these other things and here's why, but what do you all like?" and I might give a very similar response just as others are doing.I'll often just state an opinion, and leave it at that (I do this on this forum very frequently, and it's my usual posting style; me starting a topic or directly striking up a conversation with someone is very rare), and if anyone gives a damn, they can respond, and if they dont... no troubles there. My typical post length is established with whatever my first post is... it becomes kinda hyper obvious. So I get someone that'll jump in, say some stuff which is directed at me and clearly expecting a response, I respond with a post of similar length, and then "TL;DR", and it's like.... why in the bloody hell did you bother talking at me in the first place?!? THAT is the bit that irritates me. It's not like I leap onto someone unexpectedly with a wordblob and then get angry at the lack of a response. That doesnt even make sense. They can already SEE the sorts of responses and such that I'm going to give. This being because they already read one.




Yeah, I can agree with much of this. Particularly the snarky comment bit, though moreso the part where they respond directly to a post they didnt read (by ASSUMING I said things in the post that I did, in fact, not say; this is VERY frequent).

Though, again, if I were writing hyper-long posts and THEN getting this response, it wouldn't be a problem. But no, I mean the sort of length where it's very, very clear that the other guy is just bloody lazy. And again, these times that this usually happens is in direct conversations... as in, 2 or 3 paragraphs *at most*. It's not a bloody novel.


As for why I get worked up, it's because I ALWAYS get worked up. Getting worked up is like my whole thing. I tend to be in that state sorta by default. Not actually a big deal. In this case, it's added to because this particular issue gets old. And it makes me get that feeling of "you know, this is why I just never talk to anyone in the first place most of the time".


EDIT: And yes, I know *this* post is long. I'm not in a good mood and everything hurts, so I'm more irritated and thus more wordy than before. Not actually my usual way of talking in a direct conversation.

Off-topic: In some (presumably) rare cases, some people seem to need the reality check of some version of a TL;DR comment. They make insanely long posts, so long that people resent the necessity of spending ages scrolling past them to the next comment, so long that certainly almost no one is reading them, and thus these posters are perhaps wasting their time without knowing it.

Like someone said, it's kind of pointless to respond with just tl;dr - why is it necessary for the offending poster to be notified that their post was ridiculously long, when you can just leave the thread and never click on it again??

For me, if the post is longer than about three good-sized paragraphs then I don't bother. It's hard enough to concentrate on reading a lot of the posts here, but a wall of text is just - no.

I agree with everyone posting so far to some degree on each.

I too have trouble with reading and absorbing information. Just found out recently that it's a family trait in my family.

I would never post tl;dr. There are too many negative things I can think about that comment and almost never any positive. There are other snarky comments too, though. Someone basically told me yesterday that I had repeated everything already said in a thread and did it in a very stabbing manner. I actually did not repeat anything. He just didn't care to read it.

I can't always get my mind to focus on long posts and understand what I am reading. I have to concentrate on the words and form a picture to understand it and I am too lazy for long posts sometimes. But I will never post TLDR, I think that is rude. I don't see why that is even necessary.