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I like the Solvang quote.

I think generally it's a good idea to consolidate replies into as few posts as is reasonable. In some cases, if a few different members have each given you a lot to respond to, it intuitively makes more sense to me to break your replies up for each member.

Where a couple of members have given you only a few paragraphs each to respond to, I think it makes more sense to combine everything into one reply.

As for quotes, when there start to become too many quote boxes, I'll remove the older ones and just keep the ones that provide the necessary context to what I'm currently responding to.

My approach is generally to make my posts digestible to the reader, so whether my reply would be very long because I'm responding to a lot of people, or because it would contain a lot of quote boxes, if it feels like it's too long, I'll generally do whatever I feel makes sense to make it more digestible.

Agreed.

Fisking can come across as EXTREMELY aggressive and arrogant: kind of a "Pitiful insect, I have prepared this elaborate document to annihilate your feeble excuse for an argument in surgical detail. That is all. [mic drop]" thing. It's often done by a particular kind of flamer for whom the related Wall Of Text Attack is insufficiently cutting. The next level is to fisk someone else's fisk, if you really want to turn up the heat. (I have witnessed that done in grand style.) So I'm not suprised that some people hate it- if you've been on the recieving end of a hostile fisk, you're probably going to see red EVERY time someone responds like that.

I'd agree that it comes off as very pedantic and condescending at times. That said, sometimes it is warranted and if one is able to ignore that impulse to just see red at least sometimes one will actually benefit from the argument being done in a point-by-point manner, especially if the fisker ends up not realizing they have a hole in their argument or if the person it's being done to finally notices the flaw that people are trying to point out.

I went for "other" as my strategy is in between options 2 and 3. I avoid doing a long string of tiny posts, but also avoid doing an excessively long post that tries to address too many points at once. Both can be confusing to follow. If I've got a lot to say, better to bundle it up into a few medium-sized chunks (and also let someone else get a word in edgeways.)

I can't follow quote trees larger than 2 or 3 comments. I tend to write too much all in one post if I have a lot of things to say, but if I'm responding to different people I break it up into two posts like PD said.

I don't care how other people post or choose to reply. The only thing that gets a little irksome is when people write random posts that have nothing at all to do with the original question. I guess we all do that a bit sometimes because we respond to someone other than the OP, but when it happens all the time it gets frustrating. I try to think of the OP statements / questions like an exam prompt. You have to answer the question or at least be on topic.

Not to me.

I usually avoid long posts because I am dyslexic and have a poor short-term memory.

I usually avoid long posts because I have a short attention span. It's better if it's well written and broken up into paragraphs, but if there are like 20 paragraphs then I tend to skip it, because usually when there's that many paragraphs the OP is usually waffling on before getting to the point.

I get lost when people have complicated lives too. "I grew up in Tennessee with my dad and my step mother who abused me, so I was forced to live with my cousin's uncle's brother's niece in Belgium but she was always away on business so I stayed with her daughter and her boyfriend then I moved back to America and got an apartment with 3 roommates in Kansas but they bullied me, so I found out my mum lives in Russia with my sister so I've been in touch with them but now I'm homeless but I don't want to live with my dad and his abusive girlfriend, I can't get to Russia as I don't think it is autism-friendly..."

It gives me a headache. Growing up in a secure household with a close, loving family around me makes it hard to relate to those with complicated lives where everyone abuses them, unless I know them well. Verbal communication is easier for me than reading.

This post is too long, so I skipped it. <joke>

Another board I am on limits them to three - and I find it a more pleasant board to read.

I don't believe in "quote trees"---but I do believe some "long posts" could serve a useful purpose. They might convey many sides of a particular question.

I don't make long posts, by the way.

Is it the dead board in your sig?

It is not.

Tempting, very tempting...