About "one-liners"...

I gather from other people's posts (yes, that's right, I haven't read ALL the rules - sue me : )) that one-line posts are considered by the moderators to be annoying or undesirable.

Personally, I find that ludicrous. For centuries, nay millenia!, writers have been searching for the "ideal" one-liner: the briefest, most succinct possible verbal expression of any given idea or experience. (Haiku, anyone? And remember the origins of the famous "This too will pass" phrase...? )

Indeed, brevity - coupled with expressiveness, of course - is still considered one of the highest literary virtues and achievements.

I can certainly understand why one-liners saying "I agree/disagree" and such would be annoying - but then the rule in question should be reformulated to address the contents , not the form. (For example, by simply saying that opinion-expressing one-liners, without any argumentation, are discouraged.)








[edit on 12-1-2008 by Vanitas]

Remember that the "one line" rule doesn't just mean its' one line of text.
It is also referring to off topic minimal posts that add nothing to the discussion.


FYI... simply adding "this is not a one line post" will surely get you a 20 point "warning"

reply to post by elevatedone



OK - thanks. I didn't know that.
I hope many members read this, because I've seen a lot of anxiety regarding this issue...

One-liners that catch mods' attention are the ones that are off-topic.

For those interested, here's two lines I often insert into offending posts.
Mod Note: One Line and Short Posts – Please Review This Link.
Mod Note: Please Stay on Topic

I hope that helps to clarify the issue.

Most of my posts are one-liners and i've never gotten a warn from them. It's not a mystery that my one-liners have more substance than most peoples paragraphs!

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


OK, thanks!

reply to post by hikix


I know: I've had, I think, a few one-liners myself, and there was no problem.
But there are a lot of people who really REALLY worry about this.