Solvent comments on I hate TL;DR - Less Wrong

21 Post author: MarkusRamikin 20 September 2011 09:23AM

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Comment author: Solvent 20 September 2011 10:16:14AM 6 points [-]

I dunno, I don't mind. Tl;dr is really an import from reddit, where people often do say long things which don't need to be read to enjoy the flow of the thread. Here, that isn't quite as important, because of the more intellectual nature of the commenting: you really have to read the whole thing to get the whole point. But occasionally, when you just got linked to a really interesting comment, and all you need to know of the post is a broad outline, they can be effective.

But often, tl;drs are good. It forces you to write a short executive summary, which often prompts you to edit the main body of what you've written. It also allows you to indicate your opinions in a slightly more informal way. They're frequently also humourous, which is always good.

So I don't mind them.

tl;dr: tl;dr is not always a bad thing, imho.

Comment author: dbaupp 20 September 2011 11:47:36AM 3 points [-]

I think the post is about labelling a summary of a post/comment "tl;dr" rather than just using "summary".

Comment author: MarkusRamikin 20 September 2011 10:30:33AM *  1 point [-]

I see. I'm not really familiar with reddit. For me tl;dr is mostly associated with trolling, and with lazy readers/authors bending over backwards to lazy readers. I suppose I'm behind the times.

But I agree that summaries are often useful.