Are brief, one-paragraph posts best on WP?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been told that brief one-paragraph posts are more likely to be read, understood, and inviting responses than long, wordy text.

The adage, brevity is the soul of wit applies.

I noticed longer replies on here right away. I assumed it was because autistic people have a tendency to monologue.

...Yes?

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

...NO!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

No. I'm trying not to cast aspersions on NTs that use social media that it's true for them.

It would make reading threads more like reading a conversation rather than trying to read a bunch of lengthy speeches.

It is supposed to be a post, like a tweet, not an easy.

I will say it is one thing of the OP longer. But I think those who respond to it should refrain from giving their "life story" in a reply.

I never read those really long posts.

I think it depends on how well a thought is communicated or how good a writer someone is. A long post can be engaging if written well.

I think with long posts that don’t get responses a couple of very different scenarios play out:

1. Long, rambling post of annoying-to-decipher word soup that gets ignored because it doesn’t feel worth the time and effort, or...

2. Well-written response that is so thorough and all-encompassing that there isn’t anything else to be added so a thread dies.

I'm guilty of making long winded posts about my own experiences, and yes I do notice they tend to get less engagement than shorter ones.

It can honestly be hard to resist the impulse. Somehow my mind says to itself "all this is necessary." Sometimes what I'm reading gives me an itch to describe an experience and it amounts to a public speaking of inner thoughts.


I think a lot of people here are ventilating experiences they feel no one else has been able to relate to.

I think brief posts are simply more likely to be read and understood.

Most of the time, “short and sweet” is appreciated by people with relatively little time on their hands.

Yes, short posts that make a clear point are definitely preferable.

And above all, if a post needs to be longer, it should be broken up into short paragraphs. The most daunting thing of all, I think, is a long post that takes the form of a single, uninterrupted paragraph.

I’m a little ADHD. I can lose focus very quickly.

Expressing the same idea in different words, and ad nauseum reiteration of ideas, can lull me to sleep.

I know about this. Because I do that sometimes.

Paragraphs are better than a wall of text. But a bunch of long paragraphs is still usually too much.

The more someone puts into their post, the less it is going to be read.

Probably one reason why krafti and I are "popular" is because we are both easy to read.

There are times when substantial text is needed to convey a specific idea; a generalized accounting of the idea would not work in these instances. Let's face it: some ideas are complex, and need to be explained in a thorough manner.

Still, the key is to divide specific ideas into sentences and paragraphs. "One wall of text" does not work.

Imagine trying to read "War in Peace" when there are no paragraphs, only "wall of text?"