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Why I downvote "tl;dr" comments on Hacker News

15 points by raganwald 16y ago

stereo 16y ago
tl;dr (sorry, had to)
PHPAdam 16y ago
never posted tl;dr or knew what it stood for. If its posted though, it may not add to discussion but should educate the OP to post shorter, why you shouldn't downvote it.
dschobel 16y ago
I can't decide whether my inability to tell whether this is satire reflects a failing of mine or of the author. Writing a long-winded blog post about a simple idea, which itself is about distilling ideas to their essence is too obvious, right?
mnemonicsloth 16y ago
Why does everyone insist on putting a semicolon in "tl;dr"? It makes a perfectly good acronym 25% longer than it needs to be.
- fnl 16y ago
  now I am laughing tears... :D I'd love to give that one 10 votes...
Jd 16y ago
tl
philcrissman 16y ago
Does this mean there's no place for http://tldrd.com http://tldrd.com ? :-)
cubicle67 16y ago
I like reading long posts, and it makes me sad to see people I like to read, like yourself, Steve Yegge and a few others start to write as if you're embarrassed and you're wasting our time. You're not, and here's why: You write well, you're interesting, and (for me, anyway) reading is an experience; I enjoy it. Sure, I'm learning things or being exposed to different ideas etc, but I also enjoy reading it. The shorter your writing, the less time I get to spend reading it.
8ren 16y ago
Sorry to write such a long blog post, but I didn't have time to write a short one. Another solution is an appendix, as a sort of purgatory for zombie passages. Or a short and long version of the same blog post - your own tl;dr. Perhaps best is the idea of chapters: treat the first blog post as an introduction or introductory chapter (or even as an abstract thereof), and the cool sentences you think of - that in reality are expansions of the main point - can move to a chapter, where they become first-class citizens, being directly relevant to that chapter's own thesis. Each chapter is a blog-post (and named, and linked to, as such). If you don't yet have enough material for one of these chapters, leave it as a draft for a while (or publish it as a skeletal chapter). Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. aka kill your darlings
fnl 16y ago
tl;dr :)
c1sc0 16y ago
Another reason to downvote tl;dr comments is that such a comment is simply not up to the quality level expected at HN. If you can't be bothered to read the original article & post a thoughtful comment, simply don't comment.
- wnoise 16y ago
  "tl;dr" doesn't only mean "It's too long so I didn't read it". It's also commonly used as "I thought this was too long, and can get across what I consider important in a much smaller space. If you might have found this too long and didn't read it, here's a summary for you." I agree that bare "tl;dr"s should be voted down. But clear condensations shouldn't be just because of a "tl;dr" prefix.
Mz 16y ago
I tend to be long-winded. I have been criticized for that at times. But I have also found that when I shorten my comments too much, people really misunderstand me. My take on the world seems to be uncommon. So it apparently takes extra effort most of the time to effectively communicate my views. I also found that if I ignore the eye-rolling and complaints of long-windedness, other people eventually get more comfortable speaking at length. And the end result tends to be better online conversations. I think the "blurb" culture where no one has time or interest to read more than 2 sentences at a pop is one that is really very socially rejecting. My opinion: If you don't actually want to engage in social intercourse, you are free to just read the articles and not click on "comments" here. I never can wrap my brain around the practice of joining a discussion group and then bashing people for talking. The "comments" are the discussion part of HN and are totally optional.
junklight 16y ago
While I have no problem with the OP down voting tl;dr I do think as a comment its an important pointed stick: First off to remind you that most people hardly read anything - either through lack of time, lack of attention span or just that they only read stuff they agree with. If you want to get a message across you need to meet the needs of these people too. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago in the work place. Secondly - for those who do read - sometimes you start reading something and your eyes/brain glaze over. Rambling, unpolished prose etc. all do this to me. By the same token there are texts that you start reading - just to see what it is about and are compelled by the authors carefully constructed prose to read to the end. And of course sometimes as a comment tl;dr is just funny....

15 points by raganwald 16y ago

tl;dr (sorry, had to)

never posted tl;dr or knew what it stood for. If its posted though, it may not add to discussion but should educate the OP to post shorter, why you shouldn't downvote it.

dschobel 16y ago

I can't decide whether my inability to tell whether this is satire reflects a failing of mine or of the author. Writing a long-winded blog post about a simple idea, which itself is about distilling ideas to their essence is too obvious, right?

mnemonicsloth 16y ago

Why does everyone insist on putting a semicolon in "tl;dr"? It makes a perfectly good acronym 25% longer than it needs to be.

fnl 16y ago
now I am laughing tears... :D I'd love to give that one 10 votes...

Jd 16y ago

philcrissman 16y ago

Does this mean there's no place for http://tldrd.com http://tldrd.com ? :-)

cubicle67 16y ago

I like reading long posts, and it makes me sad to see people I like to read, like yourself, Steve Yegge and a few others start to write as if you're embarrassed and you're wasting our time. You're not, and here's why: You write well, you're interesting, and (for me, anyway) reading is an experience; I enjoy it. Sure, I'm learning things or being exposed to different ideas etc, but I also enjoy reading it. The shorter your writing, the less time I get to spend reading it.

8ren 16y ago

Sorry to write such a long blog post, but I didn't have time to write a short one. Another solution is an appendix, as a sort of purgatory for zombie passages. Or a short and long version of the same blog post - your own tl;dr. Perhaps best is the idea of chapters: treat the first blog post as an introduction or introductory chapter (or even as an abstract thereof), and the cool sentences you think of - that in reality are expansions of the main point - can move to a chapter, where they become first-class citizens, being directly relevant to that chapter's own thesis. Each chapter is a blog-post (and named, and linked to, as such). If you don't yet have enough material for one of these chapters, leave it as a draft for a while (or publish it as a skeletal chapter). Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. aka kill your darlings

fnl 16y ago

tl;dr :)

c1sc0 16y ago

Another reason to downvote tl;dr comments is that such a comment is simply not up to the quality level expected at HN. If you can't be bothered to read the original article & post a thoughtful comment, simply don't comment.

wnoise 16y ago
"tl;dr" doesn't only mean "It's too long so I didn't read it". It's also commonly used as "I thought this was too long, and can get across what I consider important in a much smaller space. If you might have found this too long and didn't read it, here's a summary for you." I agree that bare "tl;dr"s should be voted down. But clear condensations shouldn't be just because of a "tl;dr" prefix.

Mz 16y ago

I tend to be long-winded. I have been criticized for that at times. But I have also found that when I shorten my comments too much, people really misunderstand me. My take on the world seems to be uncommon. So it apparently takes extra effort most of the time to effectively communicate my views. I also found that if I ignore the eye-rolling and complaints of long-windedness, other people eventually get more comfortable speaking at length. And the end result tends to be better online conversations. I think the "blurb" culture where no one has time or interest to read more than 2 sentences at a pop is one that is really very socially rejecting. My opinion: If you don't actually want to engage in social intercourse, you are free to just read the articles and not click on "comments" here. I never can wrap my brain around the practice of joining a discussion group and then bashing people for talking. The "comments" are the discussion part of HN and are totally optional.

junklight 16y ago

While I have no problem with the OP down voting tl;dr I do think as a comment its an important pointed stick: First off to remind you that most people hardly read anything - either through lack of time, lack of attention span or just that they only read stuff they agree with. If you want to get a message across you need to meet the needs of these people too. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago in the work place. Secondly - for those who do read - sometimes you start reading something and your eyes/brain glaze over. Rambling, unpolished prose etc. all do this to me. By the same token there are texts that you start reading - just to see what it is about and are compelled by the authors carefully constructed prose to read to the end. And of course sometimes as a comment tl;dr is just funny....