If everyone spent all day at their computers, and read each email individually as they came in, that would be fine - each one is okay by itself.
But people work, and people eat, sleep, and do many other things that prevent them from waiting for a mailing list. I may care about the issue, but reading emails on just one topic (a topic that, in spite of all of its merit, really can't compare to whether or not I put mozzarella or cheddar on my burger) becomes a lot less likely when it requires a lot of work to read them. ~A On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:48, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <[email protected]> wrote: > At 11:28 AM 6/3/2010, Steve Summit wrote: >>It doesn't matter how you justify a too-long screed; if its >>length prevents people from reading it (and it will), your >>message is lost. It's as simple as that. > > Problems with this concept: > > Length will not prevent all from reading it. Rather, those will read > it who are interested. Others won't. The message is not lost, it's in > the archive, and, in any case, I know for a fact that some read the > long posts, and appreciate them. Some comment on list, a few. Others > take the trouble of thanking me by email. So, you can blame them! > > "Screed" implies an emotional state on the part of the writer. It's a > snap judgment, if you don't read the piece. And this is one of the > "assumptions" I wrote about that can interfere with understanding. > > Basically, length will indeed prevent some from reading, but these > are not my target audience, except for a few. (I.e., there are some > who don't read simply because they don't have time.) > > Underneath all this is a presumption that I have time to write more > condensed material. I don't, generally. When I do have the time, and > have a point to make, i.e., some message I consider necessary to > communicate effectively to a broad audience, I do it. > > So, practically speaking, the choice is between writing what I write, > or not writing at all, not between writing longer or shorter pieces. > > > _______________________________________________ > WikiEN-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
