How do you write longer replies?

[candycanearter07]

Forcing yourself to write long replies is bad posting. Say what you need to say, and don't add arbitrary length. If I seen a TL;DR with no substance I'll start skimming.


sorry, Melon is wrong lol

I do agree in the sense that forcing yourself to write longer is difficult, but I also really really don't want to make Melon mad at me again, so I really really want to hit that character limit to keep people from really hating me and stuff.. ya have to follow the rules and stuff. Feel free to ignore me though, I'm probably wrong about this.

[malice]

sorry, Melon is wrong lol

People can hold different opinions without one or the other being "wrong". Personally, I think that it's good practice to write longer posts so there's more substance to it/people are posting with intention, but kinda like you said gary it doesn't ALWAYS have to be long (ex: welcome messages). It's vibes based I think. I don't hit the word minimum every single time, and that's okay! I think of the post min as more of an exercise to get out of the short post social media habit/keeping people from making posts with only like three words on it

I really really want to hit that character limit to keep people from really hating me and stuff

Hey, I just want you to know that nobody's gonna hate you for this! That's the brain demons talking and they don't know jack!

[halcybutton]

imo what matters more is the substance of what you are saying rather than the length. i am a very to the point person and really don't like writing long posts/replies because it feels utterly pointless. why write a whole essay when i can say what i want to in just a few sentences? it's always been an "issue" of mine i guess, in school i would consistently have to expand my essays to meet the word counts. i guess to others it may make me seem dry or uninteresting, but that's their problem, not mine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Melooon]

Melon mad at me again, so I really really want to hit that character limit to keep people from really hating me and stuff

I remember in school when teachers used to grade people poorly and all the kids would sit around at lunch and say "Uhh I hate teacher X, they really have it in for me, they're always on my back!" ~ I think the mistake they made is that, although it often feels like it; the world doesn't revolve around peoples personal feelings towards you; teachers are just trying to teach ~ within the bounds of their knowledge and their own human flaws.
As for moderators, they don't moderate because they hate people. Its the exact opposite; I put time into moderating because I want people to continue to happily participate in this space ~ you and everyone else included.

Feel free to ignore me though, I'm probably wrong

This is passive aggressive and the opposite of a good way to approach a topic. It doesn't help you and it doesn't help me or anyone else enjoy our time here. We don't enforce rules for no reason; those rules evolved over time based on past issues, and feedback from past forum members. Rules exist to try and make everyone's experience better, however they are still evolving and open to change; its up to you to engage in a positive way to make that change happen.

To tie it back to the topic; in this case we are talking about post length and the quality of writing. We've had guidelines about that since the beginning, but its also been an ongoing debate. On one hand I have people who want to be able to post a single sentence because that's all they need; on the other hand I have people complaining that there's too many spammy posts; both are valid points of view ~ so its up to me and the everyone else here to find a balance.

To me, the point of writing more and expanding your ideas, is to have those discussions and convey what you are trying to say in a way that others will understand (and hopefully enjoy reading!).

Expressing yourself is often about posting a cool doodle, or decorating your profile (and people here are really good at that) ~ however expressing yourself is also about being able to say what you mean and taking the time to fully say it. Many people on this forum are great at doing that (much better than me!) however its also something many of us need to work on too; that was the original point of this thread, and that's why this discussion is worth having. As @malice said, there's no right or wrong answer, there's only the balance that people feel is correct for everyone here.

why write a whole essay when i can say what i want to in just a few sentences?

One of the big issues I see (and suffer from too), is that I often feel I have explained myself in a short bit of text; but to someone else reading that text, its really not clear at all ~ readers need you to slow down and repeat yourself from many different angles in order for them to fully grasp what you're saying. I would say that extending your writing is rarely for the benefit of the writer, its for the benefit of the reader (and yes that's a real pain  )

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

About the "why": Nobody will say anything about a short, pointed, and telling answer. The thing is: Often short postings aren't pointed and telling, but rather empty (Opening Post: "I made this: ", Answer:"This is fine!" -> No real interaction). From what I do remember, many members of the community (not only, but including Melon) perceived this style of communication as increasing, and regarded this as a problem.

[Misanthropic Monster™]

If you have dyslexia or dyspraxia (I have both :grin:smile: or other similar learning difficulties - then I'd say this is actually quite normal. Im the sorta person who will spend 5 minutes on every text message and then the person Im talking to will reply in 30 seconds :omg:k:

Some people write very quickly and coherently, others do not! I need to revise and review my messages quite a few times before they make sense, and just turning thoughts into words takes a lot of extra effort. That said it has gotten better with practice as Iv gotten older, but its been a slow process

Regardless though, these are a few tips I use that could help:

• Something you can try is using a text-speech program to read your first draft back to you; I find that really helps me to know if my writing makes sense or not.
• On the flip side, a dictation app can be really helpful - you can speak your first draft, and then edit it as text.
• Avoid distractions like music when your writing, that just makes everything harder. (says while listening to the Inception soundtrack)
• Don't worry about making you text good on the first draft, write as fast as you can and then go back and make lots of edits and smaller rewrites

It's nice to meet more people with Dyspraxia! It's always been the kind of thing I'd bring up and people would be like 'wth?!' and I'd have to explain it... but it's never made sense to people - despite it being insanely debilitating to my everyday life and has been for the last 4 decades.