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Posts: 7715

Emperor

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Q: Do you want to be taken seriously?

AKA 'TL:DR - you can't be bothered being respectful, so your argument is worthless".

 

WTF am I talking about?

 

What I'm doing here with every line.

 

Paragraphing.

 

It makes things MUCH easier to read.

 

Now, I don't know about most of you out there, but when I see a great big wall of text with no breaks in it, my first thought is to not bother even looking at it. The logic behind this is - the writer is just spewing out garbage in such a way that shows they have NO thought for the reader. And, probably no thought at all - it's a rant.

 

My second thought is - if that's how they write, then they probably don't actually have anything logical or intelligent to say, as nothing will really be backed up, there will be no 'good' support for what they're writing, and they have very little logic. Any counter-arguments or points you make will be ignored, because that would take a bit of time and effort (same as hitting 'enter')

 

Also - punctuation.

 

I know, it's a fairly recent invention, and is only a few hundred years old (in its current incarnation). And, being in China, perhaps we shouldn't use any (as Confucius say - "When in Rome...").

 

I'm thinking, if I ever bother to reply to a person who doesn't bother to use paragraphing/line breaks, or other punctuation, perhaps I should stop using my spacebar between words??

 

So, if you're reading this (cleanly written, not a massive text in your face, with understandability) and you are one of those who likes to write (can only write??) in blocks of rant - try taking a few fkn seconds to think about the reader!!!!

8 years 6 weeks ago in  Web & Technology - China

 
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Posts: 5321

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Yes ! I couldn't  agree more.

 

I started reading a post today and was put off by the fact that it seemed to be about a 300 word sentence. It might have been a well thought out and valid point ( well ok I doubt that) but I wouldn't know because it made such terrible reading.

 

You could be writing the most insightful, mind blowing thing ever written but when it's presented like that it just comes across as the ranting of a slightly disturbed mind.

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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
Posts: 426

Governor

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Well, you may be right.

For me the probem is that unless I disable rich-text I cannot really type normally when contributing to this site.

No idea what's the reason  - software and Internet speed combination? No clue...

Will try for a while but may be not worthy ...

Again - I am everyday surprised how quickly many people here jump at conclusion ...

Stiggs:

Your post here seems fine to me...

 

Jumping to conclusions? How so?

8 years 6 weeks ago
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Janosik:

Yes.

Now. Because I went through the 'pain' ...

You may check some of my older posts ...

Punctuation is the different story ... My English skills do not cover this part properly ...

By jumping at conclusion I meant that OP immediately assumes the reasons are as per his two thoughts. 

My reason is technical - will check if something can be done as I understand the problems with reading of unformatted text ...

8 years 6 weeks ago
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Shining_brow:

I don't think it's jumping to a conclusion when it's been mentioned a few times, and only now do you say 'oh, well, I have a technical issue, so paragraphing doesn't work'. If you had've mentioned that ages back, I wouldn't have brought this up (well, ok, I would, but not over your posts!)

 

Your punctuation... isn't that bad (someone else's IS!!!) I mean, you do at least write in acceptable sentences.

 

As Stiggs said - this post of yours is fine. Are you doing something different?

8 years 6 weeks ago
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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1876

Emperor

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I use MS Word for longer posts. The formatting sometimes gets completely screwed when copy-pasting (especially with bullets).

 

Reverting the MS document to rtf then trying to reformat again is just too much a pain in the arse.

Shining_brow:

As I just replied to Janosik - technical issues accepted (excepted)!

 

And, I've noticed than when a usual board member does do the long wall of text, someone will pull them up on it, and then they'll usually apologise and say "yah, sorry, problems with formatting cos of phone..." etc.

 

The one's I have a problem with are the ones who constantly post great walls of text, and when you point out the use of paragraphs, get all 'meh meh meh - who cares'.

8 years 6 weeks ago
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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3269

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for questions and answers, i can paragraph.

editing answers reverts it to a wall, so i check carefully and never edit.

for comments, i can only do massive-wall-of-texts. mobile or laptop, it's the same.

Janosik:

Yes, sounds very similar to my problem.

I am now trying to use the Chinese browser and it's a bit better - at least it let's me insert the comment in rich-text format - but it takes ages till all the components are loaded ...

8 years 6 weeks ago
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coineineagh:

And oh yeah, I automatically disable the rich text before typing. Sometimes there's a ridiculous lag, so plain text is my preferred option.

8 years 6 weeks ago
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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3494

Emperor

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I think I use paragraphs.  Are you talkin to me?  Are you talkin to me?  Repeat.

royceH:

I suppose I'd prefer to be taken seriously when I'm being serious but I expect I'm often not.  I don't care too much.

8 years 6 weeks ago
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royceH:

Some bloke was promoted to Emperor and he hasn't even notched up 2000 posts.  Seriously.

8 years 6 weeks ago
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Shining_brow:

Seriously??? Who was that? I don't look at the numbers (unless it looks like a plant)

8 years 6 weeks ago
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royceH:

Not sure now... Might be Kaiwen, the sneaky rascal...

8 years 6 weeks ago
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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
Posts: 7178

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I went to the pet shop today with my daughter.  I had asked her earlier if she wanted to go and buy a new fish, and she said yes. 

Normally we would get the number 516 bus, but the first bus to arrive was the B28. No problem, we jumped on that because it would take us within half a mile of our destination. We were lucky on the way back. We found a 516 bus that took us home.

A pointless story I know. But readable. My English is not the best. But I do my best to get my point across.

Even when I have no point.

But hey hey. Come on teachers. You get paid to educate these trolls. If their trolling is shit, it rebounds back on your teaching skills Smile

Only joking of course Smile

Shining_brow:

Fail!

 

A) we are not hired to 'educate' - we are hired to give them to point at.

 

B) when we are given classes, it's only 'oral English'. (hey - that'd be funny.... if some of these ppl who don't use paragraphs (funny how it's suddenly changed!) actually spoke without taking the breaks that paragraphs and punctuation indicate:p

8 years 6 weeks ago
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8 years 6 weeks ago
 
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