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I really wonder what possesses people to use pullquotes WHAT POSSESSES PEOPLE TO USE PULLQUOTES Its like they don't trust you to read a couple of

I really wonder what possesses people to use pullquotes WHAT POSSESSES PEOPLE TO USE PULLQUOTES Its like they don't trust you to read a couple of sentences or something

chc 10y ago
A couple of reasons: 1. They don't trust people to read everything. A lot of readers drop off before the end of an article just because their attention flits away. Pull quotes are a way of saying, "Here's something coming up that I think is interesting. If you are interested, you should keep reading." 2. A lot of people have trouble with long runs of samey text. Some see it as boring, others as imposing, others as hard to navigate, but for whatever reason, long runs of text are simply hard to read for a lot of people. So pull quotes are a way to break up the text without resorting to vaguely relevant cat pictures.
- deaddodo 10y ago
  Well, I have to agree with OP. If anything, they turn me AWAY from an article that I otherwise may have been interested in.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- RubyPinch 10y ago
  > "Here's something coming up that I think is interesting. If you are interested, you should keep reading." But nearly no one ever uses it to refer to what is coming up, its almost always what has just happened 1 sentence ago. > A lot of people have trouble with long runs of samey text. nothing is more samey than repeating the same sentence! pull quotes like how this article has,punishes the user for reading the article word for word. There are other methods that have the pull quotes outside of the flow! And if it is a really important sentence, then throw some slight yellow background on the text or something, like a highlighter!
  - IanCal 10y ago
    Well, on that side, the pull quotes don't arrive earlier than a 'proper' reader should meet them, and provide a quick summary for the scrollers amongst us.
  - chc 10y ago
    > But nearly no one ever uses it to refer to what is coming up, its almost always what has just happened 1 sentence ago That's true if you read them inline, but pull quotes are generally presented in a large font so that you can see them without having actually read the accompanying text yet. > pull quotes like how this article has, punishes the user for reading the article word for word, There are other methods that have the pull quotes outside of the flow, which I personally would prefer! I agree with that. The pull-quotes on this site are poorly designed and really hurt the flow of the article.
- yellowapple 10y ago
  3. It helps when speedreading/skimming, for me at least. Pullquotes done right can let me work out the gist of an article, such that I can subsequently decide if it's worth reading further.
- ATsch 10y ago
  The way I prefer to see this solved is good section headings. They fulfill exactly the same purpose, except they don't have the annoying disadvantages GP mentioned.
mememachine 10y ago
Not everyone wants to read everything. were not all as interested or free as you may be
- RubyPinch 10y ago
  That's fine, just read: A serverless system must scale dynamically per request. FaunaDB is a globally distributed database that requires no provisioning — you only pay for what you use. Well... I guess it does show that the entire article is just an advert? So maybe useful in that way!
yellowapple 10y ago
I personally prefer that over websites putting the pullquotes somewhere far away from the original quote. That's annoying as all hell. I mean, if my attention sagged and I'm being brought back into engaging with the article via a pullquote, I at the very least expect the quote to at least pull me toward the relevant context. Instead, way too many sites stick the pullquotes way after or way before the actual paragraph from which the quote was extracted, making it incredibly difficult to establish exactly what the context might be for that quote. THAT'S ANNOYING AS ALL HELL See what I mean?

I really wonder what possesses people to use pullquotes WHAT POSSESSES PEOPLE TO USE PULLQUOTES Its like they don't trust you to read a couple of sentences or something

chc 10y ago

A couple of reasons: 1. They don't trust people to read everything. A lot of readers drop off before the end of an article just because their attention flits away. Pull quotes are a way of saying, "Here's something coming up that I think is interesting. If you are interested, you should keep reading." 2. A lot of people have trouble with long runs of samey text. Some see it as boring, others as imposing, others as hard to navigate, but for whatever reason, long runs of text are simply hard to read for a lot of people. So pull quotes are a way to break up the text without resorting to vaguely relevant cat pictures.

deaddodo 10y ago
Well, I have to agree with OP. If anything, they turn me AWAY from an article that I otherwise may have been interested in.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
RubyPinch 10y ago
> "Here's something coming up that I think is interesting. If you are interested, you should keep reading." But nearly no one ever uses it to refer to what is coming up, its almost always what has just happened 1 sentence ago. > A lot of people have trouble with long runs of samey text. nothing is more samey than repeating the same sentence! pull quotes like how this article has,punishes the user for reading the article word for word. There are other methods that have the pull quotes outside of the flow! And if it is a really important sentence, then throw some slight yellow background on the text or something, like a highlighter!
- IanCal 10y ago
  Well, on that side, the pull quotes don't arrive earlier than a 'proper' reader should meet them, and provide a quick summary for the scrollers amongst us.
- chc 10y ago
  > But nearly no one ever uses it to refer to what is coming up, its almost always what has just happened 1 sentence ago That's true if you read them inline, but pull quotes are generally presented in a large font so that you can see them without having actually read the accompanying text yet. > pull quotes like how this article has, punishes the user for reading the article word for word, There are other methods that have the pull quotes outside of the flow, which I personally would prefer! I agree with that. The pull-quotes on this site are poorly designed and really hurt the flow of the article.
yellowapple 10y ago
3. It helps when speedreading/skimming, for me at least. Pullquotes done right can let me work out the gist of an article, such that I can subsequently decide if it's worth reading further.
ATsch 10y ago
The way I prefer to see this solved is good section headings. They fulfill exactly the same purpose, except they don't have the annoying disadvantages GP mentioned.

mememachine 10y ago

Not everyone wants to read everything. were not all as interested or free as you may be

RubyPinch 10y ago
That's fine, just read: A serverless system must scale dynamically per request. FaunaDB is a globally distributed database that requires no provisioning — you only pay for what you use. Well... I guess it does show that the entire article is just an advert? So maybe useful in that way!

yellowapple 10y ago

I personally prefer that over websites putting the pullquotes somewhere far away from the original quote. That's annoying as all hell. I mean, if my attention sagged and I'm being brought back into engaging with the article via a pullquote, I at the very least expect the quote to at least pull me toward the relevant context. Instead, way too many sites stick the pullquotes way after or way before the actual paragraph from which the quote was extracted, making it incredibly difficult to establish exactly what the context might be for that quote. THAT'S ANNOYING AS ALL HELL See what I mean?