A few people I know seem to complain a lot about making journal entries that aren’t well thought-out. I won’t even start on the obvious explanation to these folk about how setting a baseline “intelligence” is completely hypocritical. But I will explain something that I’ve noticed… I’ve said it before, and really, this works.
I barely ever post long entries anymore. Check back a few years ago in this journal and you’ll see really long stuff. Stuff that I actually thought about writing before I went to update.bml. Stuff sorta like this! But get this – even though I’ve had around the same readership for quite a long time, most people have only commented on my short, concise entries. Additionally, I find that I, along with most people, tend to skip over long paragraphs. Even though they might be the meatiest, most important parts of an entry, the sheer mass is too much for casual LJ readers to handle. If I wasn’t trying to make a point, I’d probably already be splitting this paragraph into about 5 smaller ones.
I was basically testing my friends and other readers last year by gradually decreasing the size and content of my individual entries. The slightly growing readership was nothing compared to the much bigger amount of comments that I got when I posted something short and sweet, compared to my big exposés on whatever.
What I’m basically pointing out is that those who aim to “raise” intelligence or intellect or whatever the hell you want to call other people’s brains while browsing the Internet are going about it the wrong way.
Sure, go and restrict yourself to writing nothing less than a thousand-word entry. Pretend you’re a columnist. That’s fine! But don’t freaking think that those who are short and sweet (and therefore get more feedback, more following conversation, and much more social attention) are dumb.
If you have something smart to say, odds are you don’t have to back it up with loads and loads of crap to convince people how right you are.
I find that, while I do tend to read a lot of longer entries, either all of my comments have already been addressed in the post, or the post has skipped over too many different points and I can’t choose one to comment about, leading me to say nothing at all or IM said poster.
I find that saying “Hear, hear!” is almost like leaving no comment at all.
Hear hear!
That was a stealthy comment
“I agree.”
I think he wants comments like these.
But I agree with you.
It’s good to be concise.
But then again it’s not good to be vague!
Slashdot realized this a long time ago and so regularly posts blurbs that are incorrect or heavily biased so as to generate a healthy(if predictable) discussion.
Perhaps you should post biased and incorrect blurbs too and get even MORE comments.
I do that sometimes, it’s really fun 🙂
I comment on entries that I find interesting.
While most people skip entries, entries that do not interest me are skimmed through.
You must think about this: as you kept writing, your name on LJ was spread around through other means… maybe someone checked one of your friends, and clicked on your journal.
Maybe you linked it at other places.
Your readership goes up and up as you meet people and maintain your LJ in ANY fashion. Once you have over 10 friends… and have interests listed in LJ, people FIND you as long as you keep updating.
Which means if you update about poo, foo, goo, fubar, foogoo… chances are, someone will find you and readership will go up.
People add more friends than they take away friends off their list, usually.
I’ve read some of your past entries, and they actually interest me more than the entries you are producing now. I’ve already done enough of that random stuff in my life away from LJ, why must I keep it in my journal as well?
Most LJs and LJ entries are not only short, but they lack actual CONTENT. It is possible to be concise and full of content. Length doesn’t mean anything at all sometimes.
And if you have something smart to say, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can convince people to believe you without loads of crap. Assertions without backing only causes others to label you negatively. Hence the development of the persuasive essay.
Some people are too lazy to bother reading through thick paragraphs. But nearly every one of my entries get many comments, and my entries are lengthy. Fact is, people read different LJs for different reasons. There are those who simply want to read LJs with two sentences about someone’s day at class. And there are some who like to read LJs beloning to those you dub wannabe “columnists.” Fact is, these cater to different people.
You can’t make a statement as fact based on only your experience. Many of my longer entries in fact, do attract the most attention. But I will not go out and say that since that is my experience, it is a fact that longer entries garner more comments.
And the Internet is one of our primary modes of communication and sources of information today. While I personally do not aim to educate people through the Internet, it seems to me that you can definitely reach many people through the Internet. So, why not?
In the end, it is personal preference. I find that your claim lacks solid evidence. Your experience alone does not speak for all others.
The more thought you put into a statement the more you can condense it. Also I think it’s worth noting that as pomp and pretentio-faggery increase the misuse of commas does too. That all said, usually when I post something more than a reasonably small paragraph in length I don’t expect anybody to read it as much as I might hope they would. What’s worth 3 pages of mental masturbation to me will only be worth the time to read to a very small very random smattering of people. The value in writing as far as I’m concerned is the act itself not the effect it has on everybody that comes within 5 feet of the work. The need to recieve attention from it is a dangerous methanphetamin byproduct.
why the hell are you analyzing an online journal? idiot.
because your goddamn mom
i usually gloss over long posts becuz i’m lazy. =P
Damn, since when did LJ become about readership? I mean christ, it’s an online diary, it’s not MEANT to be read, strictly.
I think despite the fact that most people read over long paragraphs, the message is gotten across. It’s not that they don’t read them, they just don’t read them well.
Read my posts and tell me what you think of my formatting. I try to use a lot of paragraphs to form separate ideas rather than use sentences for that task, and hopefully that leads to a easier to read journal. Agree?
Oh, and asking questions especially hiding ones in your text is a good way to find out how well people are reading your LJ.
You could just put a poll at the end saying “Did you read this entry?” – you’d get hilarious results =P
[crap, forgot to log off my friend’s account… reply to this one if so inclined :P]
That is a good point – not everyone really cares about readership when it’s a diary… but if you really think about it, if people didn’t care about putting what they had to say out there, they’d probably make it private.
It’s different for other people, but I’m happy when new people start reading my stuff, and I know that a whole bunch of people are really, really bitchy if someone removes them from their friends list.
I tried really hard to refrain from saying something really ironic at the end of this entry like “DURRR THX FOR READING THIS WHOLE THIGN IF YOUV CUM THIS FARRR”