How To Increase Your Post Count Without Being Banned: Tip #2

[Victor Leigh]

How To Increase Your Post Count Without Being Banned

:yahoo:

 

Tip #2: Don't post a wall of text

 

Yes, I know. Sometimes you have a mountain of knowledge to share. There's so much that you want to tell everybody. Which is fine. Just don't post it all at once.

 

Why?

 

First, the average attention span of a net surfer is about 3 seconds. Not that net surfers are mentally-challenged. It's just that net surfers are often in a hurry. And they skim surf more than deep dive, if you get what I mean. Most of them, when met with a wall of text, will just go away. And if they don't read what you have written, what's the point of writing it at all?

 

So?

 

Post in bite-sized pieces. As a rule of thumb, I, myself, try not to go over half-a-page on my screen. That's so whoever reads my post can still see the response to my post, if any. Anything that covers the whole screen is definitely a wall of text.

 

 

Post a bit. Wait for a response. Reply to the response. Post another bit. Wait for a response. Tit-for-tat and your post count goes up. And up. No sweat. No ban, I am very sure of that.

[dexterlablab1]

I can't stand when people do that anywhere. Whether it be a blog, website, forum, or other.

 

I don't understand how the poster can honestly expect people to read that. Anytime I've seen posters do that I immediately move along and neglect wasting my time any further.

[Victor Leigh]

You are right. It's bad enough if the wall of text is original content. It's even worse when the wall of text is just plain copy and paste drivel. Even worse than that is when the wall of text is made up of quotes of quotes of quotes of quotes.

[Jessi]

I couldn't agree more. It does frustrate me when people post really short responses...and make people ask a million questions about what they're saying. A happy medium is always preferred, though. Not a huge wall of text...but not a teeny tiny snippet either.

[Victor Leigh]

Yes, not too much and not too little. Kind of like Mother Bear of the Three Bears family. So, in your opinion, how little is too little? And how much is too much?

[Jessi]

Yes, not too much and not too little. Kind of like Mother Bear of the Three Bears family. So, in your opinion, how little is too little? And how much is too much?

 

This is too little.

 

-------------

 

A wall of text that spans several paragraphs of complete gibberish is too much. I will repeat this at least 12 times in the next 9 paragraphs to demonstrate how annoying it can be when they talk in circles for no apparent reason. There is no reason to repeat things with slightly different words, just to fill an allotted space requirement that they think makes them appear smarter. It ends up just being gibberish like I said in the very first sentence, but now feel the need to repeat (as noted in the last few sentences as well) just to make sure people truly understand that I know what I'm talking about (which is gibberish, if you hadn't noticed).

 

What makes it worse is when the wall ends up being 12 miles long because they can't let it go. Now they have an aunt who knows gibberish as well and they absolutely must tell the story of said aunt, too. Have you ever had an aunt that speaks gibberish? Because I bet my aunt speaks even worse gibberish because I have an aunt with that same story but better. Word.

 

And then the wall keeps growing, like a bad accident. There are so many stories that sort of trail off and lead directly into the next, but really, nobody cares any more. If there is someone still reading by the fourth paragraph....

 

Which is this paragraph, of course. Then by here, it's gotta be one of those people that every forum has. You know the one. The guy who absolutely insists on quoting a wall of text, line by line. As if the wall of gibberish hadn't grown to excessive amounts already, that guy is going to come along, and rip it apart. He'll take it one line at a time (note how this is also a repeat of what I just said a few seconds ago with "line by line"), and respond to every single little detail. Occasionally he will agree to something out of context, but more often than not, he's just trying to stir up more.

 

Why? Because he knows that most people aren't even going to read what that guy said. But this guy? Oh yeah, he thrives on gibberish. And he'll call them out for saying the same things over and over again, too, with short responses like "This still doesn't make sense" or "see above" or, depending on how many walls back and forth they've gone, it may even end up as "You're still an idiot."

 

But oh noes, now I've derailed to talking about some other guy, so I better say something like "That being said..." or "Anywho...." or "My point is..."

 

And suddenly, that's supposed to bring everything back on track. No matter that it's just going to be a repeat of the first paragraph that pretty much said it all anyway. Sure, there have been some great examples along the way, but nobody freakin' cares. They don't add to the conversation. They could've been said in a fraction of the space.

 

I can't help but wonder how long some of these writers take to spew all their gibberish into huge walls of text, too. Do they really think everybody wants to read that? Or do they simply get so caught up in repeating themselves that they don't even know when half an hour has passed? Do they even care? Do they have no lives? Do they really think everybody wants to read this wall of text (did you catch that? bonus points for you for actually going this far then)? What the heck is wrong with some people that they really have nothing better to do than type and type and type the same repeated lines of mumbo jumbo to try to prove a point that isn't even a good point in the first place!?

 

Anywho, with that being said, my point is... this is an example of what is far too much.

[Victor Leigh]

No, I am not going to quote that.

 

If I do, then I will be guilty of creating a wall of text made up of a very long quote and just one line or two at the end of the quote. I think you have seen some of those posts. Personally I think there should be a limit to the maximum length of each post. Strangely, although I have been on some forums where there is a minimum length to make a post, I haven't met any forum that has put a maximum limit.

 

Do you think walls of text can be reduced by having a maximum litmit on the the length of each post?

[CHiLL]

Usually if someone does post a massive wall of text and I want to reply to that person, I'll quote them, but edit out most of the quote, only leaving the relevant text I want to reply to.

[Victor Leigh]

Usually if someone does post a massive wall of text and I want to reply to that person, I'll quote them, but edit out most of the quote, only leaving the relevant text I want to reply to.

 

That's a good idea. I do that, too. Sometimes. Like when I really take the trouble to read through the wall of text. Which is not very often. More like once in a blue moon. So the bottom line still is that if you want your post to be read, don't post a wall of text.

[Jessi]

Do you think walls of text can be reduced by having a maximum litmit on the the length of each post?

 

Actually, some forums do have maximum limits. They're usually set so high, though, that the only way you hit them is when someone is copying/pasting a story or excerpt from a book. There's nothing to stop those people from simply putting the rest in the next post either.

 

And realistically, forum owners WANT more content, so they wouldn't always want to limit it anyway.

[Geonarlie]

I've never understood why someone would write a huge wall of text like that. I've never read anything that had more than a few sentences on a forum. Actually I have read some wall of texts but that was usually when I was arguing back and forth with someone on the internet. I figured out you'll read a lot of wall of texts if you argue with people on the internet so I don't do that anymore.

[Hardison]

Great tip. I never read a wall of text. That person may have something important to say, but I will miss it. My eyes just glaze over when I see it.

 

@Jessi: At least your wall of text had spacing. I have seen some post where the sentences all run together. Much like Victor's example.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Hardison

[Jessi]

@Jessi: At least your wall of text had spacing. I have seen some post where the sentences all run together. Much like Victor's example.

 

Sorry, I obviously failed at that one. I gave it a good effort, but I couldn't bring myself to leave it as one large mass even, oops.

[Victor Leigh]

Sorry, I obviously failed at that one. I gave it a good effort, but I couldn't bring myself to leave it as one large mass even, oops.

 

To paraphrase, once a good poster, always a good poster. You can't even be a bad poster when you are trying to.

 

Slightly off-topic.

 

I like using paragraphs. It's like talking with pauses. Makes it much easier for people to understand what I am trying to say. A post of, say, 200 words without any paragraphing, is like talking for five whole minutes without stopping for breath.

[Jessi]

I find it a lot easier to skim when there are paragraph breaks, too. A person can write the same exact sentences in 5 really short "paragraphs" vs the same lines in a wall and I will almost always glance over the first.....and completely ignore the latter.

 

Even when I'm typing, I find that my thoughts present themselves better in short chunks like that. It just works better.

[Rayru18]

I find it a lot easier to skim when there are paragraph breaks, too. A person can write the same exact sentences in 5 really short "paragraphs" vs the same lines in a wall and I will almost always glance over the first.....and completely ignore the latter.

 

Even when I'm typing, I find that my thoughts present themselves better in short chunks like that. It just works better.

 

I agree with this. I actually kind of need the paragraph breaks, if I read something long without them, after a while I actually start to get dizzy and mix up letters/words as I read, also getting lines mixed, lol; also it really helps to start a migraine. :/

 

Aside from me getting all messed up with the whole walls of texts, the paragraphs break just make everything look cleaner and better; and this is not only for posts or articles...programming just gets easier with this in my opinion, way better and easier when trying to review them.

 

On forum posts, I agree with what you have said here. Too little is painfully annoying, and too much is simply just painful. Happy medium is the way to go!

[Marc]

OH the classic text wall. One thing absolutly 100% guarenteed to ensure I dont bother taking in everything that is written LOL

[Victor Leigh]

OH the classic text wall. One thing absolutly 100% guarenteed to ensure I dont bother taking in everything that is written LOL

 

Just curious. As a moderator, what would you do, if anything, about walls of text? Do you tell the poster to refrain from doing so? Or do you delete the entire wall of text?

[Jessi]

Oh I would never delete a full wall of text. I may not want to read it, but unless there is something bad, inappropriate, or rule-breaking in there, that's nothing wrong with it either.

 

If for some reason it became excessive (like it started killing conversations or people started complaining), then I would say something to them. I'd likely suggest that they could get more responses if they tried to break it up or focus on smaller points instead of overwhelming people.

[Victor Leigh]

I remember meeting one poster on a forum long ago who used walls of text as her standard mode of posting. It wasn't copy and paste content either. Quite well-written actually. Would have made good content for a blog but on a forum, it was tiresome. So, in such a case of a chronic wall-texter, what's the best way to stop the practice? Obviously, she was oblivious to negative comments.

[Jessi]

Was it ever suggested to her that she should start a blog? That's how I would've approached it. I would've made it sound like a good thing and encouraged her to explore that a bit more outside the forum. Then I would welcome her to post her links in the forum so that people could read if they wanted, but without it flooding the forum.