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UraniumDonGER  Marie Curies last wish  2yr ago (image post)   2904 thread views

Greetings Mottizens!

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I come in peace, just want to see whats around here



							

						

					


					
							
							

								

				
						

						

					

					

					

						

						

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The culture of this forum, and the forums it descends from, dislike brevity; it may be the soul of wit, but it is the bane of rationalists, whose idols are all infamous for taking a thousand words to say a hundred-word idea.  That is not to say that the best posts and favorite posters have nothing interesting to say, merely that the shapers of the culture did not know how to speak succinctly, and it has colored the perspective of everyone drawn to these spaces.


The ideal post is interesting and high-quality, but undeniably you look better if your posts are longer.  I greatly dislike this, but I get it; it's not perfect, but the effort to write out an essay is often incompatible with low-effort shitposting.


I sincerely hope this can change.  If a sentence gets the point across, a paragraph is wasted time for everyone.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If a sentence gets the point across, a paragraph is wasted time for everyone.




If.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
					

				
			
		

	



						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
90 percent of the time I short post and I've never gotten shit for it. Except for when I'm a dumbass, but that isn't really a length issue


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
					

				
			
		

	



						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We've never modded posts just for being one-liners if a single line expresses a point succinctly. The vast majority of posts on themotte, even those that received AAQCs, were not long essays.


What we dislike are "lol," "I agree," "These people suck," etc. (even if expressed in complete grammatical sentences), and various forms of shitposting. The more you tolerate one-line zingers or adds-nothing "likes/dislikes," the more the place starts to look like every other Internet forum.


Maybe the end result is that we tend to select for wordiness. Shrug.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, I get it.  Wordiness is a proxy for effort, but like all proxies, it eventually starts being valued for its own sake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
					

				
			
		

	



						
					

				
			
		

	



						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah. The reason I ask is because a considerable amount of (really, most of) the effort I put into a post is paring it down from a stream on consciousness ramble to something that actually will get my point across.


Like if you really want long posts it would be trivial for me to produce long meaningless essays that state the same point in fifteen different ways, but personally; as a reader, that type of writing style can be frustrating.


If the reader feels like their time is being wasted it will be difficult to convince them to seriously consider an opposing view. Patience is a limited resource, after all. Plus, I'd hate to have someone waste all their effort reading my bullshit and then forgo reading something actually meaningful as a result.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
					

				
			
		

	



						
							



	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You can get away with short posts here as long as you state your point clearly. Keeping things laconic takes a lot of effort and skill in language but it's hard to tell the difference at a glance between a nessessarily short post and a lazy shitpost.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			 
				
					

						
					

				
			
		

	



						
					

				
			
		

	




	

	

	

	

	

	
	

	
	

	
 















	






			
			

		

		
			
				


	

		
	


	


		
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