Length of messages LO8169

Dave Birren, MB-5, 608-267-2442 (BIRRED@dnr.state.wi.us)
Thu, 27 Jun 1996 09:34 CST

To the LO list:

I recently came across this item in the FAQ list of the Insight Meditation
listserv. It's a thoughtful item from thoughtful people.

>What's a reasonable length for a posting?

>A few paragraphs, or a screenful (or maybe two), is usually ample. This
>is NOT the place to post long transcriptions of newspaper articles, an
>entire chapter from an inspiring book you read, or your master's thesis.
>Please be as concise and focused as you can.

>Rule of thumb: Each time you double the length of your message beyond a few
>paragraphs, you *halve* the number of people who actually read it, and
>*double* the number of people who will find your message annoying. <grin>

Concisely,

Dave

[Host's Note: Dave, I appreciate the spirit of the above -- that people
think as they write, and express themselves with some care and economy --
But, our "official" policy here on learning org is slightly different
from what you quote above.

I propose that the optimum length for a posting on learing org is the
length that's required to say what is to be said, and no longer. Some of
our material is best expressed in a couple of paragraphs, some requires
more, and I do distribute items that are much longer.

There is a practical limit of around 25k characters; beyond this some
email systems won't handle the msg gracefully. But, longer items are still
OK; if worthy, I'll put them on the LO web site with a short msg as a
pointer.

I do discriminate against length in conference announcements.

Hope you're enjoying. Comments or problems -- write me anytime.

-- Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> ...]

-- 

David E. Birren Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources birred@dnr.state.wi.us Phone 608-267-2442 Fax 608-267-3579

"Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know' and thou shalt progress." - Maimonides

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>