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"TLDR" is unnecessary

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Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#51

Post by derleth »

city41 wrote: post #47

TLDR mostly shows up in places like Reddit. The communication that happens on Reddit is unlike anything we've ever had, millions of people all gathering to casually talk with each other. There is no expectation of depth (anymore, anyway), nor do people put much stock in Reddit comments. Thus TLDR helps people's ideas get across and also probably improves readership of comments (people read the TLDR, and then realize…

> There is no expectation of depth

There is in some subreddits. Not the big ones, but that's the point of having subreddits, isn't it?

Any time you want to generalize about all of Reddit, think of New York City: "There's no expectation of depth in New York City" just sounds wrong, doesn't it?

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#52

Post by pavel_lishin »

geuis wrote: post #44

A TLDR already has a name, a "summary". Not only a mere extra 4 characters, it's not an acronym for a phrase but a word that says what it is. Amazing, really. The biggest problem I find with TLDR is that people that use it do so incorrectly. You don't put your summary at the end of the article. You put it at the beginning. I also find many writers who use TLDR explicitly are rather poor writers. Lots of spelling and…

> You don't put your summary at the end of the article. You put it at the beginning.

On the other hand, if it's a personal story, I would rather have it at the bottom, so as to avoid tiny spoilers.

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#53

Post by city41 »

derleth wrote: post #51
city41 wrote: post #47

TLDR mostly shows up in places like Reddit. The communication that happens on Reddit is unlike anything we've ever had, millions of people all gathering to casually talk with each other. There is no expectation of depth (anymore, anyway), nor do people put much stock in Reddit comments. Thus TLDR helps people's ideas get across and also probably improves readership of comments (people read the TLDR, and then realize…

> There is no expectation of depth There is in some subreddits. Not the big ones, but that's the point of having subreddits, isn't it? Any time you want to generalize about all of Reddit, think of New York City: "There's no expectation of depth in New York City" just sounds wrong, doesn't it?

True, but TLDR also tends to not show up in smaller subreddits (at least, the smaller ones I am subscribed to).

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#55

Post by js2 »

"I'm sorry I wrote you such a long letter. I didn't have time to write you a short one." - Blaise Pascal

Editing takes time, much quicker to slap a TLDR on top I suppose.

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#56

Post by egypturnash »

gliese1337 wrote: post #15

TLDR is a pragmatic device; it's a written discourse marker. Calling it "unnecessary" is just like saying that "well...", "y'know", "so...", "like" and all those other little "filler words" that your high school English teacher doesn't like are "unnecessary". In formal prose, where all that's supposed to matter is textual semantics, sure, they're not necessary, and I wouldn't use them there. But in informal discourse…

Yes, exactly.

The "TLDR" is all-caps, so it grabs your eye out of the wall-o-text that you may be skimming over, and says "hey here is my basic point". And maybe then you'll go "hey that's an interesting point" and scroll back up and read their lengthy argument, story, or whatever, in all its labrynthine discoursiveness.

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TL;DR: One sentence with a block of all-caps beginning it sure catches your eye at the end of a long post.

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#57

Post by Swizec »

edw519 wrote: post #32

TLDR: Write like Hemingway, not like Faulkner.

You mean the guy who wrote a 490 page book about one bloke blowing up a single bridge?

Oh yeah, totally write like Hemingway if you want the internet to pay attention.

Re: "TLDR" is unnecessary

#59

Post by gliese1337 »

geuis wrote: post #44

A TLDR already has a name, a "summary". Not only a mere extra 4 characters, it's not an acronym for a phrase but a word that says what it is. Amazing, really. The biggest problem I find with TLDR is that people that use it do so incorrectly. You don't put your summary at the end of the article. You put it at the beginning. I also find many writers who use TLDR explicitly are rather poor writers. Lots of spelling and…

That biggest problem you find is your own creation- it is a result of assuming that "TLDR" is the same as "summary". While it may have the same literal meaning, clearly it is not the same as "summary", because you find it to be used differently. This is because it has a different purpose in discourse. Most synonym pairs are like this; you think they have the same meaning, until you do a corpus analysis and discover that they're used totally differently in practice. Truly perfect synonyms are extremely rare.
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