ajaym@ihu1h.UUCP (Jay Mitchell) (11/29/83)
I too usually skip articles more than 20-30 lines long unless the title gives some indication of deep interest. In fact, in general, I find the titles of most articles to be rather poor. Reading net.wanted and reading a title of FOR SALE almost guarantees that at least I will not read something so totally uninformative.
fmc@pyuxqq.UUCP (F. M. Carlson) (11/29/83)
I generally hit 'n' if an article is > 25 lines. KEEP IT SHORT.
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (11/29/83)
I generally assume that people who don't read long messages don't read a newspaper, watch anything more taxing than "We've Got it Maid" on tv, or write very good documentation, so I wonder why they are even bothering to page through the net? T. C. Wheeler pyuxa!wetcw
grunwald@uiuccsb.UUCP (11/30/83)
#R:ittvax:-113400:uiuccsb:3200023:000:271 uiuccsb!grunwald Nov 29 19:22:00 1983 I tend to skim and skip. Also, I tend to skip almost anything that does not have vertical spacing between paragraphs. Mongo globs of text are really hard to read. Dirk Grunwald University of Illinois USENET : ihnp4 ! uiucdcs ! grunwald CSNET : grunwald.uiuc@Rand-Relay
wbpesch@ihuxp.UUCP (Walt Pesch) (11/30/83)
I wonder if the criteria for short messages meets the same criteria
put forth for reading people magazine in "The Big Chill", namely that
the average message can be read during a stay in the washroom. (Quote
rephrased in case there are any kiddies reading this).
--
Walt Pesch
Specialist in Removal of Oral Insertions of Feet
AT&T Western Electric
ihnp4!ihuxp!wbpeschjohn@genrad.UUCP (John Nelson) (11/30/83)
Excuse me, but that's a crock; some of us have to work for a living. If I were to read EVERY article that goes over this net every day (and maybe reply or followup to 10% of them), I could easily spend ALL of my time with news. I firmly believe that most messages could be kept short - to approximately one page on a display terminal - without diminishing their content whatsoever. I use vnews, and if the first page of an article does not REALLY pique my interest, I usually skip the rest of the article. (the 'n' key works ANYTIME in vnews!)
alex@aecom.UUCP (Alex S. Fuss) (12/01/83)
I don't mind long mesasges IF every word tells. Read Strunk & White:
Elements of Style and apply it.
--
Alex S. Fuss
{philabs, esquire, cucard}!aecom!alexrlw@wxlvax.UUCP (Richard L. Wexelblat) (12/02/83)
Some people have missed the point about long messages. Avoiding them is not a value judgement on the intentions of the author. Nor is it a judgement on the significance of the content. Rather, it is a judgement of the proper allocation of the time of the reader. I doubt that any of us have time to read at length all of the items in all of the groups that might interest us. Given my limited time and limited attention span, I opt for quantity. I don't believe I sacrifice quality thereby. As Samuel Butler said, Brevity is not only the soul of wit, but the soul of making oneself agreeable and of getting on with people, and indeed of everything that makes life worth having. [Note: agreeability is in the psyche of the beholder. Let's not get into a spitting match on who has to or hasn't to make oneself agreeable to whom.] --dick wex... (...decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!rlw)