I am writing this short article in order to give a complete answer with my opinion about short posts to the question:
What do you think of short-form content like this?
At the blog post of @lukestokes. I won't explain more about who @lukestokes is, because I don't find it fair to put information that may influence him to upvote my article from subjectivity. This is just about short posts and I hope I will be able to keep it short :)
I actually appreciate short posts more than longer posts when they contain the same amount of information. If one succeeds structuring a post so that it express the same quantity of information but with a half of its usual length, then it is even better from my point of view.
Time is important. The author preserves its time by writing a shorter article, but if he has a lot of readers (as Luke does) it is much more important not to abuse of words and create unnecessary long content.
A short example
If somebody spends 3 more minutes to read the article just because it was expanded, then one thousand readers will spend the equivalent of 50 hours or a little over two days in a life of a single person just for reading extra content.
This is a point I have tried to make in one of my posts a while ago, but after writing more articles and compared the upvotes they received, I have seen that most of the people here are living with the mentality that short posts are lack of effort so they should not be rewarded.
I agree that short posts are a sign of lack of effort, as many of you can see pretty often (or much often than we should) in the New section. Just by scrolling there and opening random articles, it will be very easy for you to find some of those short posts and this is why I won't be adding any examples here.
On the other side, I am very sure that we should not confuse the lack of length of a post with the lack of work. I think it is much more important the originality of the post, the ideas it promotes, and of course, the work it contains.
Another short example
I have a friend - @vintageillustr - that is photo editor and illustrator. She does not like to write (or simply hates it, I don't know for sure) but she is working hours or even days for one illustration or photo edit and she just posts them with a row or two in an article. Of course that does not look like an article that involves any work, It is just a photo and a few words many people would think, but I know that is not true. I would have added an illustration of her right here, but she does not checked her phone right now so I don't have her permission to use any of them but if you want to see them, you will just have to open her blog :)
Unfortunately, it is so hard to make the difference between articles created with a lot of hard work and short articles which does not have value.
Thanks for reading, I am waiting for your thoughts!
I agree with you. Time is important and while long posts can contain interesting information I often think is it worth my time? If I want to put my free time into reading, I'll read a book and stay away from the computer.
There is so much information on the internet and there have been so many times where I have read a long article and felt it was a complete waste of time in the end.
I define my posts as medium although for some they are more short-stories. With the right post-styling it is possible to state out the important things about the post. To start a discussion maybe even that can go on in the comments. This is much more interesting for me than a long post where the author already speaks from every aspect and I feel there is no need to share my opinion anymore. ^^
You have a very good point @kassixo! In these days I have read a book after long time (the work and life kept me busy and away of reading anything but technical stuff). I believe that in this world there is so much information that we could spend all of our lifves reading and we would never finish.
I try to post short enough articles most of the time, but as I said, the community got used to associate short articles with the lack of effort so these posts are not well rewarded (or not rewarded at all :)
I don't think it's right. I mean if the post is one paragraph or 3 sentences long it could be considered as too short, but a post with a few paragraphs and beautiful markdown can still mean a lot and be really informative. -.-
I, for example, have upvoted a few long posts for the effort as well, but I have to admit I only managed to read 40% of the post when I was like "okay.. it's gonna be too long and it seems like took much effort so I'm just gonna upvote this because of pity or something". :D
Well, I was not saying about a short post like a paragraph or two, but posts like the one I tried to answer, @lukestokes post, he is considering it short, but it is not that short.
I'm just gonna upvote this because of pity or something - I have done this too with long posts sometimes, but I don't think that I will do it again. If the post does not bring useful information, then it should not get visibility from upvotes, it won't be fair for others who work a lot at their posts and also bring original information.
I like that you admit sincerely that you don't read some long posts entirely, I am ashamed to admit and say this to others, even if I do it sometimes. I still have to work on my courage :)
This is one of my strongest and aslo weakest feature. I alway say my opinion honestly, even if sometimes I shouldn't. :'D
I'm kind of a fan of shorter posts, to be honest. My attention span is pretty short and I often lose interest in longer posts where it can feel as if the author fought to find added content to include. blah-blah-blah
Though I appreciate many posts by @lukestokes I also think the latest short post, in which he posed the question, was delightful. ;-)
I am very glad you also believe short posts could bring value to the platform. With time maybe we will be able to change the community mentality in accepting short posts as possible good articles.
I think the key is to bring real value in a succinct way. No reason to use 3 paragraphs to say what can be stated clearly in 1. But also do not short the content so much it removes the value/emotion/vision.
yeah, agree with you. many people think if they make their article longer, that would make high quality posts. and for them to make it longer, they used a lot of words to expand their paragraphs instead of making it simpler and brief.
You are right, I am sure that the people trying to make their articles longer sometimes make them lose value...
or
Blaise Pascal
I didn't know that Blaise Pascal have said that, but I find it completely true.
My heart stopped for a second... I can't believe that you just upvoted my article for 100%. I am so greatful I don't even know what to say. Thank you so much!
You're welcome! I've really enjoyed your many great comments you've left for me on my blog.
I like good quality shorter posts that are succinct yet knowledgeable. I don't think any less thought goes into those ones. Sometime even more if you can tell the whole story in less words.
You make a good point about the illustrations too as to edit some of those takes an inordinate amount if time and effort. I will check out both @lukestokes & @vintageillustr.
Yep, I really think it was needed to share this opinion again. We are heading right now to a platform full of long articles with just a few information/ideas so I think it is important to try to avoid that. This is just saving our time which is the most important resource that we currently have.
I like pithy thoughts phrased well, like a thought for the day. A meme that isn't snarky, but brings something to the table.
I am impressed that somebody found this post after so much time :)
Less is most definitely (typically) more and says a lot about the skill of the writer. Kudos.