….or post them on the blog. I’ve written to a few of you individually to ask you to sub your entries and thankyou for doing that. I won’t be in the future- if your comment takes me 30 seconds to scroll down reading it, it won’t get posted, just as we don’t allow people to make speeches on the programme. I hope that’s clear!
24
Apr
08
RSS feed
BBC World Have Your Say 
Crystal.
🙂
Hi Mark,
I suggest that contributors who want to make long comments should do so on their blogs or website. On WHYS blog, they should give just a synopsis of what they intend to say.
I think a shorter comment leaves the reader with the desire to read more of it. A short thought provoking comment is better than a long one that pretends to explain everything. For some just the look of a long comment discourages them from reading it at all.
I hope my response has taken you less than 30 seconds to scroll down reading it for it to be published!
I think that Mark Sandell’s idea is ideal.
Personally, I rarely have time to go through those essay-like writings on the blog. What I do is just scroll down and pick on those posted items with at most 10 lines and skip the rest.
When a writing is too much, the facts tends to be mixed up and most times, the reader ends up being more CONFUSED than he was before he read the article. God forgive bloggers who go who only COPY from somewhere and PASTE. This is my humble submission.
If you apply the same rule to your presenters, you may soon run out of them.
It will be helpful if WHYS team sets the maximum of words / characters a posting should have as it is the case with Have Your Say.
i for one would rather have my post edited than canned
[censured]
long posts are easilly skipped as umoh ,amos said ,im not for a word limit[as abdulla said] but realise you guys must get swamped at times
further on the point of censure [bbc is the bastion of free speach ,thus i am morally against censure
[especially if we cant get emotional] some go to far clearly [but equally clearly i see people soon set them straight or put up a balance
[china isnt running the bbc yet [i hope]fox claims fair and balanced [but at bbc i expect it to be a rule]
and if my post got canned for mention of [say ;saying the word ‘fox'[***] might be a fair edit]
it would be unreasonable to can the whole post for simply mentioning a fact most would reasonable agree with
😛 Hi, Mark! I completely agree with you. I usually skip long posts, though sadly I know I may be skiping valuable information… It’s good to express your point of view and, if necessary or possible, show evidence, but long posts don’t allow the discussion to be fluent.
Hugs from Colombia! 🙂
Morgan – this isn’t about censuring it is about readability.
If the post is way too long it can distract from the discussion and mostly won’t be read by many.
I am the odd one out – I read the posts, no matter how long, but I am the minority so I will go with the majority.
Abdelilah, that’s a good call- put them on your own blog and leave a link (with a comment of course). And i won’t edit- that’s up to you, but let’s keep it as a conversation, which i think benefits all of us, not a series of speeches.
thanks to all of you
I’m one of those who reads the whole thing if I know the poster usually has something insightful to say, which I can only determine if I have read a few of his posts. After that, I know their views and can quickly skim for anything new.
Your house, your rules. No problem.
Are you a speed reader?
Dear Viola,
i am a bit of a speed reader- it goes with the job. But i do think that if the rest of you can get your passionately and sincerely held views across in a few pars, then everyone else should be able to do so too !
all best
So, this depends on how fast can you read 🙂
I don’t think this is a good idea. One should allow for a relevant and interesting posting even if they are a bit on the long side. Otherwise you’ll dumb down the level of the discussion.
Of course, if you post a long message that does not address the topic then that message is disruptive while a shorter off topic message may not be disruptive, so in that case the former should be removed, the latter maybe not.
Thanks Count Iblis, but where would YOU draw the line ?
We get postings that regurgitate screeds from other publications, quotes from religous texts, and even other people’s postings- in full. Aren’t these postings the weeds that clog up the river ?
I would draw the line at comments that are redundant, but I would stress the importance of including comments, regardless of the quality of their compostion, which speak from yet unrecognized perspectives.
I agree with the need to demand brevity, but to suggest that if some can convey passionate views effectively, then others “should” be able to do so is flawed reasoning. Writing succinctly is a skill which takes practice to develop. To suggest otherwise is just a bit condescending, especially if it presumes that only the perspectives of practiced writers will be recognized and considered.
John D. Augustine
Milwaukee, WI USA
Hello,
I know that you’re not into word limits. However, perhaps a word limit guide could be established so that people have a ballpark figure. It really would help. Really.
At the same time, I think that there is more to this issue than just how many words are being placed on the screen. WHYS seems to be an interactive site. People who post up long, argumentative monologues could also fit the bill of “we won’t mark your essays.” I know that I had to modify a post of mine so that it wasn’t so monologuish (and so long).
Mark,
I agree that such messages should be removed or perhaps shortened by the moderator. But this should be based on the content, not necessarily on the length.
I think one should also think about removing a message if it makes a point that has already been raised. What you want to have on the blog are different relevant views/arguments. One should also not allow a discussion to go round in cicles for too long.
One poster could raise twenty well reasoned interesting arguments or you can have twenty different posters each raising a point that hasn’t been mentioned earlier. That is then of the same value (assuming that the twenty posters raise different points).
John, please don’t misinterpret me. There are people all over the world who can convey their views without writing screeds.
Here is a trick for those who feel it necessary to publish all they want to say but find the length of their comment an impediment to its publication:
Divide your comment in different sections. Publish each one in an interval of, say, 30 minutes.
This can be advantageous to the moderator to pass quickly to other comments, to the readers who don’t feel “scared” at having to read a very long comments and to the writer of the comment who secures a good number of readers.
P.S : better to leave a space between (short) paragraphs for easy reading.
It is annoying and tedious to read excessively long posts, but perhaps people require a lot of space to make a point? Maybe people focus all there thoughts on one post and don’t submit multiple posts? Are multiple posts just as irritating?
This is World Have Your Say, maybe some are not great writers so it is hard to be concise. Isn’t this discrimination against bad writing? You should devote a show to modes of discourse. Perhaps posters simply don’t understand the impracticality of the long post.
Alma Cristina often writes longer posts, but they are simply amazing and well-written. While I disagree with her often, her posts are the best you have in terms of quality. I read them just for the joy of the language.
-Portland, Oregon
Hi all.
We are all different, thank god. so some need more, others less. i agree that long complicated thesis although packed with information can tend to be distracting, and could lead to skipping, and then nothing is achieved.
If Mark scrolls for 30 secs, that is a lot of lines, or could be very few according to his rate of scroll=length of finger on the wheel, x distance travelled by finger top per second. Or a lot less if he uses the v double finger action whilst holding the mouse with his left or right hand according.
So 30secs is fair, keep it up, as a newbie i am enjoying my time with you all, more and more.
John in Germany
Personally, I think there should be, not discrimination against, but criticism of bad writing but only bad writing by persons who should know better. Bad writing is like bad speech. You can’t expect anyone to pay any attention to your argument if you cannot articulate it.
Nevertheless, I am perfectly willing to read a post from someone whose first language isn’t English and if I don’t understand the point, ask for clarification. If I were asked to comment in, say, the Spanish language, I would be in deep trouble.
I’m very grateful that persons whose first language is not English are kind enough to go to the trouble of trying to communicate something in a language not their own. It’s a difficult thing to do and I appreciate it and applaud it.
Hi Viola Anderson,
I am one of those whose first language isn’t English. If sometimes I am not articulate enough, please bear with me. But I will be glad if you can correct my linguistic mistakes.
As you know, comments on this blog are published as they are as long as they are to the point, regardless of how many linguistic errors they contain.
If people, like me , respect Mark Sandell’s call for brevity, this must be seen as a great effort as they have to struggle with both the form and the content of a comment in a language that isn’t their first.
What if all your points are valid, and in order to explain the full situation eg. one blogger questioned my understanding of interest rates, inflation and currency…after a moderator pulled part of my blog.
Hi Mark,
Your statement above loosk ominous and appears to have a veiled threat inherent. It’s a little to harsh for my liking Sir.
Excellen Mark, Spot on.
Mark Sandell:
Great Point!
I prefer to write my essays for my courses!!! By the way, i have to type one RIGHT NOW for Thursday…[i know it may be off point. but it does have a point relevant to this debate!
Dennis