This might be a bit mean

[GhostInTheMachine]

Hmm.. I guess so, I see your point.. But I suppose my biggest problem with this is that you are bringing up paragraphs / grammar to the forefront While there could Literally be a Life in jeopardy on the other side.

And yeah, of course you aren't holding a gun to anybody's head, But Maybe the person on the other side of the screen Is holding one to Their Own head. We never really know on this site, who knows. ♥

Yeah, you're entirely right. That's a really good analogy too.

 

[monetpompo]

i love paragraphs because i'm physically in capable of reading things without line breaks. i will actually die if things don't have line breaks because my eyes will just glaze over the wall off text completely. i do run on sentences a lot in my own posts but i try to remember varying sentence lengths and hitting enter to space out a post. even if i don't think my writing's good i still want people to be able to read or skim it

 

[SchizoGymnast]

I'm not asking for a perfect score on a Writing SAT, I'm asking people hit the enter key every few sentences. It's really not that deep.

Exactly. Someone in a vegetative state can do that.

 

[justaperfectday]

Yeah, you're entirely right. That's a really good analogy too.

Long sentences are not the same as run-on sentences. It would behoove you to understand the differance before trying to make such claims. The entire reason paragraphs even exist is because it's not just a "me" problem with reading text blocks. Otherwise such blocks of text would be perfectly acceptable in pretty much any scenario and the vast majority of people would have no issue reading them. We don't live in that world, and if people want to be heard, they need to do the bare minimum to be comprehensible. If you feel shamed because somebody points out they can't understand you, that's more of a personal issue than anything. I don't see how people can't hit the enter key every few sentences.

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important." -Gary

Long sentences are not the same as run-on sentences. It would behoove you to understand the differance before trying to make such claims. The entire reason paragraphs even exist is because it's not just a "me" problem with reading text blocks. Otherwise such blocks of text would be perfectly acceptable in pretty much any scenario and the vast majority of people would have no issue reading them. We don't live in that world, and if people want to be heard, they need to do the bare minimum to be comprehensible. If you feel shamed because somebody points out they can't understand you, that's more of a personal issue than anything. I don't see how people can't hit the enter key every few sentences.

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important." -Gary Provost

No way you could have posted this without knowing you'd get blowback. I, however, agree with you for all intents and purposes (sorry, couldn't help myself). And the right to express yourself applies to you as well. You weren't attacking a specific user, just offering an opinion about how people might make connections. Then members jumped on you. Seems free self expression has limits, even when it doesn't target anyone specifically.

 

[Carrot]

I'm sorry, but this is uncalled for. Everyone is here to express themselves, we should not be policing how people talk on this platform.

It's not abour policing, this is advice. People can write however they want, but if they expect a reply, they can help others by making it easier to read and reply to.

 

[SchizoGymnast]

It's not abour policing, this is advice. People can write however they want, but if they expect a reply, they can help others by making it easier to read and reply to.

Exactly. It's no different than asking someone not to use neon yellow text on a white background. We care. We want to read. We want to help, but we are literally visually prevented from doing so. Here is a super simple solution so we can help. Done.

 

[GhostInTheMachine]

No way you could have posted this without knowing you'd get blowback. I, however, agree with you for all intents and purposes (sorry, couldn't help myself). And the right to express yourself applies to you as well. You weren't attacking a specific user, just offering an opinion about how people might make connections. Then members jumped on you. Seems free self expression has limits, even when it doesn't target anyone specifically.

It was in the back of my mind for sure, but perhaps I'm a glutton for controversy. I do think that some of the counterpoints made thus far have been good in their own right, and I appreciate those who can disagree with me without turning it personal.

 

[quietwoods]

It's not abour policing, this is advice. People can write however they want, but if they expect a reply, they can help others by making it easier to read and reply to.

Literally this and just this. That's all that was trying to be expressed.

This thread has gotten so stupidly derailed by people berating OP to be more empathetic and put the time into reading and understanding other people's posts when they clearly themselves have not put in the time or effort to fully read and understand OP's original post.

Sigh.

 

[Dejected 55]

I'm going to backtrack slightly... Firstly, my apologies for the wrong pronoun use in an earlier post. Can't always tell from writing styles or content or even avatars. I'm bound to get some wrong now and then, but I do apologize for that.

Moving on... I've seen the OP make helpful posts in other threads, so this is not a case of someone just here to be a contrarian and stir the pot. I've seen a few users like that and they tend to not be here long because they don't add anything meaningful to discussion. The OP is not one of those sorts of people on the forum.

Now, this particular topic is a hot button issue for me... and I'll tell you why. I have been (when I was employed) a Technical Writer for most of my adult life. So it was literally my job not only to write professional content but to often edit other people's content as well. So I'm quite attuned to what is and what is not correct grammar and punctuation use... but I strongly curb myself against critiquing non-professional forum posts like we find here. I limit myself to honest miscommunications due to improper grammar or punctuation. As long as I can understand the post, I see no reason to bash the writing style of anyone.

In my professional life there were always critics, though. As in... people would try and correct grammar in early drafts of documents rather than supply me with accurate technical content. The subject matter experts would often dig in their hills on a grammatical typo when I needed to know accurate technical details. It was frustrating. They were literally the only people who knew the technical details and would outright refuse sometimes to give me correct data. I explained that on the first draft I didn't care at all about typos because I knew the information itself was inaccurate. Why worry about polishing the turd when I knew I needed fresher shit? I'd polish that later.

Also, I would put purposely incorrect information like "this is the step that does the thing I don't know what happens" and an "expert" would mark that is "incorrect" as if that wasn't the point of the phrase! And, of course, they would neglect to tell me the right answer as well! I was constantly frustrated by would-be grammar police who would waste my time on that and sometimes never give me accurate technical data. I often was correcting technical data myself based on my own education and understanding of the physics behind what I was writing. I chided lots of Engineers for giving me wrong information and asked why did *I* know more about their job than they did?

Once, I shit you not, we were months down the road on a project and I had mostly written a manual for a product... only to have an Engineer pop up out of the blue and say the product could not possibly do what it was intended to do because physics... and we were all frustrated because marketing had customers lined up for a product they had asked Engineering to design, everyone had done their bits, but the Designer of the schematics made errors that should have been obvious to him that only showed up once the prototypes were built and could not do what they were expected. The project got scrapped because it turns out it would double the cost or something to do what it was supposed to do and nobody wanted it at twice the cost.

So, my point in all this... is to apologize for perhaps digging in too hard on the OP and definitely for getting her pronoun wrong and for ignoring the OP as a valuable contributor elsewhere on the forum. But also, what I saw in this thread specifically was a hot button for me where it seemed to me the OP was focusing on the least important aspect of posts on this forum in favor of being critical of posts structure without appearing to be sensitive to their content or the state of mind of the poster.

Oh, and this is a long post that often is not liked... I used to get in trouble at work for writing "too long posts" but then I would experiment and just give short answers directly to the point of questions I was asked... and then the complainers would always ask more questions that I knew they would ask and could have answered all at once... more frustrating. But I digress.

 

[Fall_Apart]

I don't understand what the fu*k is wrong with you? We're on a fu*king website for suicidal people trying to communicate their pain, some with serious learning disabilities or dyslexia, and you come here to piss us off with your paranoia about paragraphs? Dude, no one's forcing you to read walls of text, but with your bullshit, you're only making things worse for those who have trouble expressing themselves, and that pisses me off. Please go be a professor somewhere else, since your ego needs the approval of others.

 

[Ijustcantanymore]

Like, why not make this post actually explaining to people how to structure their paragraphs. Actually teach people what you want them to do. Instead you just came here and belittled suicidal people over how they type. Thinking your frustration entitled you to other people doing what you want.

Missed opportunity to have a positive effect on the community.

No way you could have posted this without knowing you'd get blowback. I, however, agree with you for all intents and purposes (sorry, couldn't help myself). And the right to express yourself applies to you as well. You weren't attacking a specific user, just offering an opinion about how people might make connections. Then members jumped on you. Seems free self expression has limits, even when it doesn't target anyone specifically.

It targeted everyone here who isnt typing the way this user wants them to. It's not smart or respectable to defend shitty behavior. But here you are.

Imagine confronting suicidal people and all you can say is "your typing sucks". Sorry. But that is what sucks. People like this are people why kill themselves in the first place. I know you're definitely giving me another reason to ctb. To get away from people like this. People who make the world a shit place to be

Congratulations, you're both dicks.

Lets see how much you like that free expression. And since we're on the subject. Imo. People who come to a suicide forum to criticize others over stupid petty shit, are pretty low in value.

Oops sorry, was that a bit...mean???

 

[GhostInTheMachine]

I'm going to backtrack slightly... Firstly, my apologies for the wrong pronoun use in an earlier post. Can't always tell from writing styles or content or even avatars. I'm bound to get some wrong now and then, but I do apologize for that.

Moving on... I've seen the OP make helpful posts in other threads, so this is not a case of someone just here to be a contrarian and stir the pot. I've seen a few users like that and they tend to not be here long because they don't add anything meaningful to discussion. The OP is not one of those sorts of people on the forum.

Now, this particular topic is a hot button issue for me... and I'll tell you why. I have been (when I was employed) a Technical Writer for most of my adult life. So it was literally my job not only to write professional content but to often edit other people's content as well. So I'm quite attuned to what is and what is not correct grammar and punctuation use... but I strongly curb myself against critiquing non-professional forum posts like we find here. I limit myself to honest miscommunications due to improper grammar or punctuation. As long as I can understand the post, I see no reason to bash the writing style of anyone.

In my professional life there were always critics, though. As in... people would try and correct grammar in early drafts of documents rather than supply me with accurate technical content. The subject matter experts would often dig in their hills on a grammatical typo when I needed to know accurate technical details. It was frustrating. They were literally the only people who knew the technical details and would outright refuse sometimes to give me correct data. I explained that on the first draft I didn't care at all about typos because I knew the information itself was inaccurate. Why worry about polishing the turd when I knew I needed fresher shit? I'd polish that later.

Also, I would put purposely incorrect information like "this is the step that does the thing I don't know what happens" and an "expert" would mark that is "incorrect" as if that wasn't the point of the phrase! And, of course, they would neglect to tell me the right answer as well! I was constantly frustrated by would-be grammar police who would waste my time on that and sometimes never give me accurate technical data. I often was correcting technical data myself based on my own education and understanding of the physics behind what I was writing. I chided lots of Engineers for giving me wrong information and asked why did *I* know more about their job than they did?

Once, I shit you not, we were months down the road on a project and I had mostly written a manual for a product... only to have an Engineer pop up out of the blue and say the product could not possibly do what it was intended to do because physics... and we were all frustrated because marketing had customers lined up for a product they had asked Engineering to design, everyone had done their bits, but the Designer of the schematics made errors that should have been obvious to him that only showed up once the prototypes were built and could not do what they were expected. The project got scrapped because it turns out it would double the cost or something to do what it was supposed to do and nobody wanted it at twice the cost.

So, my point in all this... is to apologize for perhaps digging in too hard on the OP and definitely for getting her pronoun wrong and for ignoring the OP as a valuable contributor elsewhere on the forum. But also, what I saw in this thread specifically was a hot button for me where it seemed to me the OP was focusing on the least important aspect of posts on this forum in favor of being critical of posts structure without appearing to be sensitive to their content or the state of mind of the poster.

Oh, and this is a long post that often is not liked... I used to get in trouble at work for writing "too long posts" but then I would experiment and just give short answers directly to the point of questions I was asked... and then the complainers would always ask more questions that I knew they would ask and could have answered all at once... more frustrating. But I digress.

Thank you for your apology, it actually means alot. I also appreciate you taking your time to not only give the backstory for your position, but for also taking the time to understand where I'm actually coming from. I fully understand your initial frustration, and never thought you were purposely assuming I was writing in bad faith. Misunderstandings happen, and I'm glad we're now on the same page.

I don't understand what the fu*k is wrong with you? We're on a fu*king website for suicidal people trying to communicate their pain, some with serious learning disabilities or dyslexia, and you come here to piss us off with your paranoia about paragraphs? Dude, no one's forcing you to read walls of text, but with your bullshit, you're only making things worse for those who have trouble expressing themselves, and that pisses me off. Please go be a professor somewhere else, since your ego needs the approval of others.

If you're pissed off over being told "Hey, try to hit the enter key every few sentences so people can understand you better", then that's entirely your fragile ego being hurt.

Like, why not make this post actually explaining to people how to structure their paragraphs. Actually teach people what you want them to do. Instead you just came here and belittled suicidal people over how they type. Thinking your frustration entitled you to other people doing what you want.

Missed opportunity to have a positive effect on the community.

I did explain. Did you just not read the post, or is there something you couldn't understand?

It targeted everyone here who isnt typing the way this user wants them to. It's not smart or respectable to defend shitty behavior. But here you are.

Imagine confronting suicidal people and all you can say is "your typing sucks". Sorry. But that is what sucks. People like this are people why kill themselves in the first place. I know you're definitely giving me another reason to ctb. To get away from people like this. People who make the world a shit place to be

No, I was offering sound advice to people who might not know how to use paragraphs. Again, actually read the post before you have a conniption.

Lets see how much you like that free expression. And since we're on the subject. Imo. People who come to a suicide forum to criticize others over stupid petty shit, are pretty low in value.

Oops sorry, was that a bit...mean???

It's funny how nobody here said "You matter less for not typing like a English major", but here you are saying the same for people who want to help those who might struggle to be understood because others can't parse their communication.