Poll: Shouldn't TL;DR be at the top of a post?

[jamail77]

Not at the bottom. If someone isn't wiling to read a long post why make them scroll down for it when they can just read it at the top? I'm sure I'm not the first person to question this, whether on these forums or elsewhere.

What do all of you think? Top or bottom?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

No it shouldn't IMO. If someone sees a topic that interests them, it's better that they see the full post before a summary. They can first see if they have the inclination to read the post or not, and if they give up after, say, the first two paragraphs, they'll still have a fuller picture than from merely reading the TL;DR. Having the summary at the beginning of a post IMO just discourages the reader to read the full post, and therefore might miss some points or nuances that can influence how they interepret it. You don't have summaries at the beginning of school book chapters do you? And shouldn't the thread title give a general impression of the topic at hand anyway?

 

[Nekromancer]

Bottom. TL;DR is about facilitating the conveyance of information in case the person is unwilling to read a lot. Putting it at the top is tantamount to devaluing the act of reading altogether.

 

[jamail77]

Technically wouldn't it then be TL;WR or too long;won't read.

Didn't read implies they got to the bottom without reading.

That's a fair point. Maybe we should get TL;WR trending. #UseTL;WR ....oh god, I'm using hashtags. What a horrible state of affairs.

Of course, who's to say some people don't interpret it as too long; don't read (the if is implied).

Having the summary at the beginning of a post IMO just discourages the reader to read the full post, and therefore might miss some points or nuances that can influence how they interepret it. You don't have summaries at the beginning of school book chapters do you? And shouldn't the thread title give a general impression of the topic at hand anyway?

I don't know, if someone is that easily discouraged from a note like that, an assumptive helpful one no less, I think they might be too easily influenced and/or too lazy. At least try reading the full post first after to be sure; don't just quit the minute you see a TL;DR. It's there to help those who don't, can't, or won't read the full post, not those of us who want someone to decide for us.

Well, you might not have summaries at the beginning of school book chapters, but you do have things like "What You Should Know By The End Of This Chapter" or "What You Should Learn" or something along those lines. They're like summaries in a way, just bulleted and condensed even moreso Of course, now I'm just playing devil's advocate a little too strongly and illogically so feel free not to take that too seriously, haha.

Putting it at the top is tantamount to devaluing the act of reading altogether.

I think that's overthinking it just a tad bit and I already felt like I was overthinking this to begin with.

 

[Muspelheim]

Honestly, I'd say it'd be best to do away with the dumb TLR thing altogether.

Summarize your arguement as briefly and clearly as possible at the start, and then write what you need to reinforce the claim. If it doesn't have to take up ten pages, then it shouldn't. If it can't be squeezed in to a snappy meme or catchphrase, then it shouldn't. The core of what you want across should be the boss.

If you've done that and made it all nice and readable, it's a case of Too Lazy, Didn't Read more than anything else if people can't be bothered to at least skim it.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

I think that writing TL;DR is redundant. If your idea can be simplified and more concise, why make long post and make them more complicated?

Do... or do not TL;DR.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I guess the thread title itself already counts as a TL;DR. So I would add the TL;DR as a refresher at the bottom.

I think that writing TL;DR is redundant. If your idea can be simplified and more concise, why make long post and make them more complicated?

There was a farmer who had a dog and BINGO was his name.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Middle. Hide it right in there. Force people to sift through your post to find it, and who knows, they might actually read some of it along the way

 

[Lufia Erim]

Middle. But bold it out. Put in the summary at the top. Then a TLDR then the long winded explanation of your opinion.

 

[Aerosteam]

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TL;DR: No, it should definitely be at the bottom for tradition's sake.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I think that writing TL;DR is redundant. If your idea can be simplified and more concise, why make long post and make them more complicated?

Do... or do not TL;DR.

Er...

TL;DR: Some little bloke with furry feet ends up looking after a ring with the power to control the world. Then goes with a group of people off to try to destroy it in a volcano. After a while and a bunch of fighting the party breaks up and he goes off with his best mate and the rest of the group goes off and tries to help fight off all the evil armies attacking. Him and his mate manage to sneak in with the help of a deranged former owner of the ring who turns on them, get to the volcano and get attacked by the crazy guy. But as crazy guy gets hold of it he falls into the volcano and its destroyed. And everyone lives happily ever after.


TL;DR: Bloke creates dinosaurs by using DNA from their blood and puts them in a theme park. Things go wrong because the guy in charge of the computers is a greedy asshole and arranges for the computers to crash so he can steal a bunch of the dinosaur embryos to sell. Dinosaurs get loose, tons of people die including the bad guy. A handful of people escape the island alive.


TL;DR: A young boy and a young girl fall in love but their families hate each other. There are fights and people die. The two secretly get married but the boy gets exiled. The girl arranges for a plan where she will pretend to be dead so he can come and save her and they can run away together, but he thinks she's really dead and kills himself. Then she kills herself in grief.


Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park and Romeo and Juliet respectively. Whilst brevity can sometimes be a useful thing there's something to be said for longer texts with more detail and information.


Also somehow I feel this captcha is strangely relevant: "no time to explain".

 

[FPLOON]

Why? That's "spoiler talk", glob dammit! Worse, it can make people think the post isn't worth their time and shit!

Spoiler: TL;DR

No...
http://i.lvme.me/v8ccqht.jpg

 

[Risingblade]

TL;DR

Why didn't you put one on top of yours?

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

But TL;DR was originally just a response from smarmy people in lesser forums to notify that they couldn't be bothered to read the text.

I agree with Pirate, use plain English and be more concise. If you are not writing a story then why write so much? And if you need a lot of background, then be creative in a way that attracts readership. I am not going to sit and sift my way through a massive wall of text if I don't even know what the point is going to be.

If you are going to write a large first post with a lot of gumpf then use typical essay format; start with an intro and then your body, then a summary. It will keep the logic to what you are writing.

 

[chadachada123]

It's for people that skimmed the post and might not have caught the jist of what the author is talking about, or a couple of summary sentences. Then, if the user becomes more interested after the tl;dr, he can go and read the full thing.

Tl;dr means summary. No different at all from saying, "Point is..."

Captcha: "talk the talk"

 

[FalloutJack]

Bottom seems to make sense to me. Don't change what works.

 

[Akytalusia]

it must go on the bottom. since the implied phrase is past tense. if it was posted on the top, then it wouldn't make sense as it is. it would have be changed to TL;WR, or too long;won't read, referring to the proposed text, rather than the previous text.
ie

too long, won't read the text that comes after.
text
too long, didn't read the text that came before.

 

[sky14kemea]

I say it should stay at the bottom. Putting it before the longer text would just give away spoilers.

If they're not going to read what you've put effort in, they should at least work for their summary with their scroll wheels.

 

[jamail77]

Bottom seems to make sense to me. Don't change what works.

Except when we do that all the the time to improve something that already works into something that works just that much better

it must go on the bottom. since the implied phrase is past tense. if it was posted on the top, then it wouldn't make sense as it is. it would have be changed to TL;WR, or too long;won't read, referring to the proposed text, rather than the previous text.
ie

too long, won't read the text that comes after.
text
too long, didn't read the text that came before.

And to that I say this:

Technically wouldn't it then be TL;WR or too long;won't read.

Didn't read implies they got to the bottom without reading.

That's a fair point. Maybe we should get TL;WR trending. #UseTL;WR ....oh god, I'm using hashtags. What a horrible state of affairs.

Of course, who's to say some people don't interpret it as too long; don't read (the if is implied).

Why? That's "spoiler talk", glob dammit! Worse, it can make people think the post isn't worth their time and shit!

Spoiler: TL;DR

No...
http://i.lvme.me/v8ccqht.jpg

I say it should stay at the bottom. Putting it before the longer text would just give away spoilers.

If they're not going to read what you've put effort in, they should at least work for their summary with their scroll wheels.

Spoilers? I didn't realize we were talking about some great novel here. I thought we were just talking about the average forum post.