digitalvygr said:
I usually don't think too much about it, I usually just type. However, when I really want to get a point across, I make my sentences short on purpose.
I consider myself to be relatively intelligent. But I understand things better when reading short sentences. So I figure other people will too.
You can still take complex material and put it in the format of short sentences.
I also try to put spaces between the sentences.
Kind of like this. Makes it easier for me to read. So I figure that helps others read it too.
Sometimes when I come across a huge block of text, it is like my mind just gets tired of reading it. So I figure that might happen for other people too, and I try to avoid that.
So I guess my advice is largely about formatting. Sounds unimportant, but copywriters who make millions of dollars online purposely follow these kinds of rules. Even if they are selling to really intelligent people.
Extremely well put, Digitalvygr!
I would go even further and say that people who can't handle paragraphs properly, probably have no business handling powerful entheogens either.
In my opinion, if they want to be read at all, every poster has an implicit obligation to spend a few minutes tidying up their ideas, so that their readers don't have to spend 30 minutes untangling them...assuming they even bother attempting to do so. This is basic courtesy, nothing else: expecting many people to waste much time, because you couldn't be arsed to take a little time presenting things properly, is deeply arrogant. A massive monoblock of text does not say "genius on fire!" but more likely, "this person has deeply unrealistic expectations of others, and their relationship with reality is deteriorating rapidly."
Stream-of-consciousness has its place in artistic expression, but for sharing/exchanging information, not so much...
Reaching
for unnecessary/excessive
styling and punctuation is also
obnoxious, and ANOTHER warning
sign!!!!! It also tells the world that someone is successfully pushing your buttons,
really, REALLY hard!
[Commas excepted. They're free, they're easy, and sometimes, they help a lot.]
Also, I'd suggest that if a post consists solely of a link, a brief description encourages people to follow it. Simply saying "Check this out!!!" with no explanation, or clue in the subject, is a bit lame, unless of course, it's in a thread dedicated to "Trippy Music Videos" or whatever...
Finally, the best proof-reading you can do on your own work, is to simply read it out loud.
/rant_over
:thumb_up: