To Any Idiot Who Starts A Post "tl;dr"

[rhythmaning]

"tl;dr" is an abbreviation for "too long; don't read". Bloggers sometimes use it in the title or at the start of a post. I just clicked on a link, and that was what I saw.

It is possibly the most irritating bit of netspeak around, for several reasons.

Firstly, blogger, you wrote the piece. If you think it is too long, edit it. Split it up into two or more pieces. You are in control. If you have written something and decided it can't be edited further or dividing it would lose clarity - well, you can't think it is too.

Secondly, if you can't be bothered to read it, why should I? If you have so little faith in what you have to say that you precede it with a warning advising me not to bother, if you think that your writing is so bad that it won't keep my attention, that I will have so little interest in what you have to.

Well, you're probably right.

So fuck off and don't bother posting anything you have so little faith, ever again.

Comments

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

I thought it meant "too long; didn't read" and was the comment of lazy people or a heading for the handy summary at the end for lazy people?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I've only ever seen it at the start of posts, or in the title.

[andrewducker]

It started out as commentary on long posts. "Wits" would leave a comment saying "tl;dr".

People then started writing summaries up front, using tl;dr as the heading, in order to fight back against this.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Smart move...