Giant Walls of Eye-Melting Text

If you're anything like me then you really, really hate posts that are presented as giant walls of text. There is nothing more frustrating than hopelessly searching through a post to uncover the key points buried within. Most users will not even bother reading such posts as they are displeasing to the eye.

So please, in the future, make sure you either A) space your paragraphs so they are easier to read or B) make a word search puzzle out of them to at least make them entertaining!

I have chosen option B. Can you find all the ATS-themed words and phrases hidden within the post? Hint: The hidden words/phrases are not featured in the horizontal rows.



Coming as soon as I can figure out how to make them--the ATS themed MAD fold-in!

Be sure to drink your ovaltine? Lol someone was watching A Christmas Story

You'll shoot your eye out kid!

S&F for the humor. But there is truth to the wall of text arguement, I feel as though some users on here don't know what a paragraph is, or what the "enter" key does for that matter...

When someone makes a 7 paragraph post when they couldve said the same thing in one paragraph, I wont even bother reading it.

reply to post by Juggernog


This seems to be because of a low attention span, and not a fault of the poster.

reply to post by Juggernog


I apologize. I shortened my previous post so you would be able to read it.

What I meant to say was:

When someone spends time writing a 7 paragraph post, and you don't choose to read it, is it the posters fault? Walls of text are understandably difficult to read, but if it is properly paragraphed and typographically sound, what is your reason for passing it by?

I am assuming it is because you don't wish to spend the effort reading it, and that perhaps your attention span gravitates to those with less content.

Maybe I'm wrong.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha
Buddha you did it!!!! Yay!!!!

Excuse me now while I have fun playing word search in your wall of text- this should be great fun!!!

Edit to say: I'll take the sandwich, please!

Originally posted by NiNjABackflip
reply to post by Juggernog

 

I apologize. I shortened my previous post so you would be able to read it.

What I meant to say was:

When someone spends time writing a 7 paragraph post, and you don't choose to read it, is it the posters fault? Walls of text are understandably difficult to read, but if it is properly paragraphed and typographically sound, what is your reason for passing it by?

I am assuming it is because you don't wish to spend the effort reading it, and that perhaps your attention span gravitates to those with less content.

Maybe I'm wrong.

I think you have it almost right. When you say we don't wish to spend the effort I would have to add, 'because who are you (the long poster) that I would invest my time on you? I've read most of Stephen King's overly bloated books because, well because he's Stephen King. If the poster is Joe Shmoe from Idaho, I'll invest my time on one very short paragraph, and I wouldn't expect anyone to invest any more time on my verbal vomit.

There really are hidden words in there haha. I'm surprised no one has bothered to find them...well, I guess I'm not that surprised. They are obvious and well-known words you'd find on ATS.

Major respect for anybody who finds all 7 hidden words/phrases and enjoyed the backwards sentences.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha
I'll have you know I did look, thank you! The backwards sentences made my head hurt too, but not as much as one of the usual walls of texts do!

When can I expect my sandwich?

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha

 

I'll have you know I did look, thank you! The backwards sentences made my head hurt too, but not as much as one of the usual walls of texts do!

When can I expect my sandwich?

You can get your sandwich after I find an aspirin the size of a hockey puck and a support group to ease my pain. I always thought it would be neat if word search puzzles had actual phrases and stuff in them instead of just hiding words in a jumble of letters. Now I realize why they don't make them that way. IT'S HARD!!!

It took me many hours and several blinding headaches to get it right.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha

I bet it's a bigfoot sized headache- but pics or it didn't happen!

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha

 

I bet it's a bigfoot sized headache- but pics or it didn't happen!

You must flag my niburu rant or you're a reptilian sheeple. Also beware of chinese lanterns--they're a bit of a gray area.

reply to post by jiggerj


I completely agree. If no one takes the effort to write a decent post, no one should take the effort to read it.

But then again, that can also be said of single paragraph posts. If everyone reads only single paragraph posts of no substance, yet justifies that because it's short and less of a waste of time, they're still nonetheless wasting their time, but also doing their attention span a disfavour. At least if one spends the time to read a lengthy post, and finds it a waste of time, he can say to himself "Hey, at least my intention span is intact!" I say this every time I read a bad book.

If one wants to read nothing but single paragraph posts, he might as well waste his time on twitter, where attention spans are non-existent. We're all Joe Schmoes here.

reply to post by NiNjABackflip


For me, it's not about a lack of attention span. One of the first things you learn in school about writing essays is organizing your thoughts. In a book or an essay, we indent our paragraphs to separate and organize a body of complete thoughts.

In posts, we don't typically indent paragraphs. So, not only is a wall of text displeasing to the eyes, it inherently appears to lack organization . A post should have organized, complete thoughts in the form of paragraphs as would be expected in any academic discipline.

A post with no indentations OR spacing of paragraphs, and no internal organization is not fun to read. It is, essentially, a jumble quickly put together on the fly. Putting some effort into the organization of posts will garner much more respect and attention

Originally posted by NiNjABackflip
reply to post by jiggerj

 

I completely agree. If no one takes the effort to write a decent post, no one should take the effort to read it.

But then again, that can also be said of single paragraph posts. If everyone reads only single paragraph posts of no substance, yet justifies that because it's short and less of a waste of time, they're still nonetheless wasting their time, but also doing their attention span a disfavour. At least if one spends the time to read a lengthy post, and finds it a waste of time, he can say to himself "Hey, at least my intention span is intact!" I say this every time I read a bad book.

If one wants to read nothing but single paragraph posts, he might as well waste his time on twitter, where attention spans are non-existent. We're all Joe Schmoes here.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but long posts are usually in the style of a lecture. The poster is either showing off by being a know-it-all or copy&pasting long biblical passages. Personally, I am not here to be lectured to or religiously brainwashed.

I just want to chat, like a bunch of people sitting around a table and drinking coffee while shooting the breeze. If someone rambles on and on (like writing long posts) then that person wouldn't be invited to the table again. Conversation is back and forth, not just one person spewing out every idea in his head while everyone else slips into daydreams.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


Yes, this is annoying.

Thanks for the puzzle. Great imagination, NB!

I was guilty of doing those horrid posts when I first joined ATS. I didn't know any better. My second thread was 3 pages long in my opening post. It's a wonder I had any responses at all, but I managed to get quite a few.

I know better now, and like you, I find the long pages terribly annoying.

reply to post by jiggerj


jiggerj...How did I know you would post on this thread? I just knew you would HA! While I agree with you about keeping the level of conversation on ATS casual, I think there also needs to be some organization and effort put forth too.

This doesn't strictly need to be about doom, gloom, and conspiracy-by-the-books. Heck, I love a good conspiracy or a blurry photo of a Chinese lantern as much as the next member, but I find myself posting more on the Below Top Secret side of things. I think some friendly banter is part of what makes this site accessible to people like you and me.

But the fact that we're NOT at a coffee joint sitting around a table, and the fact that we are typing our posts--means that, yes, there should be plenty of forethought going into these posts. When we speak around the table, sometimes we just say stupid, random things without censoring it. Some people post like that too! But here, we have the opportunity to say what we mean to say without any mistakes the first time 'round. Some could really benefit from taking advantage of those facts.

Originally posted by NarcolepticBuddha
reply to post by jiggerj

 

jiggerj...How did I know you would post on this thread? I just knew you would HA!

LOL I only commented because I was bored.

When we speak around the table, sometimes we just say stupid, random things without censoring it. Some people post like that too! But here, we have the opportunity to say what we mean to say without any mistakes the first time 'round.

I try to be careful what I write here, but no matter how much I focus on the topic, people still take it as a personal attack, and then they attack ME! lol Some day when I have the energy I'm going to take one of my posts and record it in my own voice so people can hear that I'm not attacking anyone, and I'm just chatting.

reply to post by jiggerj


This isn't necessarily a medium for conversation. The best conversations are had at a table, over a beer etc. like you said. There's no conversation without being able conveying demeanor, visual cues, the sound of someone's voice, facial expressions and all that. There's only text. No one reads while having a conversation—or at least they shouldn't. If this is the only method of conversation for someone, I would argue they need to get out more.

Everywhere there's been a discourse through text outside of the internet, entire paragraphs need to be thought about, refined and almost perfected for clarity before it's gone to print. This doesn't happen in everyday conversation. Nor can we go back in time and edit what we once said. But this should be the going rate around here instead of wasting people's time with something without any substance or clarity.

Since everyday people now have a medium through which they express their ideas, we can see the result of this mediocrity in the lack of attention or willingness to engage in subjects that may involve a little more effort. Hence the popularity of such modes of expression such as twitter or facebook. Each of these is almost entirely void of substance.

If anything, writing a thread should almost be like an essay, with cited quotes and a bibliography, and you can tell if it will be good or not usually within the first paragraph. One cannot argue a point in a single paragraph, unless there's no point, and thus no substance within it.

Although I think your analogy might not work, I understand what you mean though. Also, I'm glad you made it to the end of this post.