3 ms·

Wall of text. Please, write "tl;dr" somebody.

ColinWright 13y ago
It's less than 1250 words - is that really a problem? OK, tl;dr - naming things can change how you think about them. Oh, and in case you're interested, "War and Peace" is about Russia.
- droidist2 13y ago
  I think it seems longer and more taxing to read because the paragraphs are pretty long. It's harder to stay focused both mentally and visually in the middle of a large block of text.
  - acheron 13y ago
    Yeah, I stopped reading the article after 140 characters.
- EugeneOZ 13y ago
  I want to see main idea of article first, then decide if this text worth my time to read. Sorry, if it's offensive for somebody. Author of War and Peace was very frustrated about size of that book :)
  - claudius 13y ago
    > I want to see main idea of article first, then decide if this text worth my time to read. Well, usually you put the main idea of a text in its title.
  - gruseom 13y ago
    Author of War and Peace was very frustrated about size of that book I doubt that's true. I seem to recall that Tolstoy had his wife copy it 9 times by hand as he rewrote it. Also, "wall of text", meaning "something that might take an effort to read", is not considered bad on HN, though verbosity (which is not the same thing) is. Also, the phrases "wall of text" and "TL;DR" are Redditisms that most people here try to keep HN clear of. Other invasive species from Reddit include: addressing people as "sir" in comments; introducing something (usually something distracting) with "obligatory"; and others I can't remember right now. There used to be a sign as you crossed the Alberta-BC border asking people to be careful about inadvertently bringing pine beetles from one province into the other. I feel like we should have one of those.
    - EugeneOZ 13y ago
      Well, it's offtop, but I hate when somebody calls me a liar. In Wikipedia: "6 декабря 1908 года Толстой записал в дневнике: «Люди любят меня за те пустяки — „Война и мир“ и т. п., которые им кажутся очень важными»". In English: (google translate) December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "People love me for the trivia -" War and Peace "and the like, which they seem to be very important". I don't read Reddit at all, so I don't care about their Redditisms.
      - gruseom 13y ago
        That quote expresses Tolstoy's frustration not about the size of his novels but about the importance people attached to them. In his old age Tolstoy wanted people to focus on moral concerns, not artistic ones. For old Tolstoy, War and Peace was empty of significance, but certainly not because it was too long—that would be the last thing he cared about by 1908! Also, please don't use inflammatory language on HN. "Calls me a liar" is about the most inflammatory way you could put that. My comment was hardly about you, and "lie" implies something evil, which is way over the top. I'm merely saying that one of your points was mistaken. Is there a word for the opposite of inflammatory language? That's what we're trying to do on HN, even at the cost—this took me years to figure out—of being a little more boring.
- EugeneOZ 13y ago
  Thanks for tl;dr anyway :)
PavlovsCat 13y ago
Did you really have to write all of that, instead of just "gimme tldr plz"? I will never get those 12 minutes back.
lucb1e 13y ago
Well, it's totally worth reading and it only takes a few minutes. I've seen way longer stuff come by on HN ;)

It's less than 1250 words - is that really a problem? OK, tl;dr - naming things can change how you think about them. Oh, and in case you're interested, "War and Peace" is about Russia.

droidist2 13y ago
I think it seems longer and more taxing to read because the paragraphs are pretty long. It's harder to stay focused both mentally and visually in the middle of a large block of text.
- acheron 13y ago
  Yeah, I stopped reading the article after 140 characters.
EugeneOZ 13y ago
I want to see main idea of article first, then decide if this text worth my time to read. Sorry, if it's offensive for somebody. Author of War and Peace was very frustrated about size of that book :)
- claudius 13y ago
  > I want to see main idea of article first, then decide if this text worth my time to read. Well, usually you put the main idea of a text in its title.
- gruseom 13y ago
  Author of War and Peace was very frustrated about size of that book I doubt that's true. I seem to recall that Tolstoy had his wife copy it 9 times by hand as he rewrote it. Also, "wall of text", meaning "something that might take an effort to read", is not considered bad on HN, though verbosity (which is not the same thing) is. Also, the phrases "wall of text" and "TL;DR" are Redditisms that most people here try to keep HN clear of. Other invasive species from Reddit include: addressing people as "sir" in comments; introducing something (usually something distracting) with "obligatory"; and others I can't remember right now. There used to be a sign as you crossed the Alberta-BC border asking people to be careful about inadvertently bringing pine beetles from one province into the other. I feel like we should have one of those.
  - EugeneOZ 13y ago
    Well, it's offtop, but I hate when somebody calls me a liar. In Wikipedia: "6 декабря 1908 года Толстой записал в дневнике: «Люди любят меня за те пустяки — „Война и мир“ и т. п., которые им кажутся очень важными»". In English: (google translate) December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "People love me for the trivia -" War and Peace "and the like, which they seem to be very important". I don't read Reddit at all, so I don't care about their Redditisms.
    - gruseom 13y ago
      That quote expresses Tolstoy's frustration not about the size of his novels but about the importance people attached to them. In his old age Tolstoy wanted people to focus on moral concerns, not artistic ones. For old Tolstoy, War and Peace was empty of significance, but certainly not because it was too long—that would be the last thing he cared about by 1908! Also, please don't use inflammatory language on HN. "Calls me a liar" is about the most inflammatory way you could put that. My comment was hardly about you, and "lie" implies something evil, which is way over the top. I'm merely saying that one of your points was mistaken. Is there a word for the opposite of inflammatory language? That's what we're trying to do on HN, even at the cost—this took me years to figure out—of being a little more boring.
EugeneOZ 13y ago
Thanks for tl;dr anyway :)

PavlovsCat 13y ago

Did you really have to write all of that, instead of just "gimme tldr plz"? I will never get those 12 minutes back.

lucb1e 13y ago

Well, it's totally worth reading and it only takes a few minutes. I've seen way longer stuff come by on HN ;)