Member Discussions

There seems to be an increasing amount of posters using a sort of stubby-paragraph writing form or otherwise self-imposed short word wrap, and I have to say my curiosity on the matter of this oddity has reached the point where I must inquire about it: Why? What's the point of it? Why are people doing it, and why in seemingly increasing numbers?

The only logical conclusions I can draw on the matter as to why people would choose to write in that way is:

A) It is easier for those people to read it and/or they think it makes it easier for other people to read it.
B) It is a ploy to make paragraphs appear larger than they actually are. I.e, less words per line = more lines per paragraph.
C) Simple mimicry and/or a meme. I.e, person A sees person B doing action C and starts doing it as well.

Of course, there may be any number of additional reasons. The above is simply the foremost of what appears to me to be likely reasons for it. If there are other reasons, I would very much like to hear them.

Personally, I feel that aforementioned style is just making the process of reading a post's text considerably more annoying by having to continually read a little bit, stop, move down a line, read a little bit, stop, move down, etc ad nauseum; but that's just me.

So, by all means, I would like for anyone at all to please explain the matter to me so that I might understand it.

"So, by all means, I would like for anyone at all to please explain the matter to me so that I might understand it. "

Habit.

-Crat

Yes it is entirely by habit. I actually get annoyed with
myself when I do it, but I can't seem to help it. I'm not
even exactly sure what I am doing to make it happen but
alas, it does. Sorry! :P

(Comment added by matiel420 on Sat Sep 13 1:11:54 2008)

Maybe you can explain to me how to make it not happen? When
I wrote the original message I made a conscious effort not
to let it happen but it still did. I just type until the
form causes my text to be wrapped...

Ok, so i am not the only one then. It drives me nuts also. Like who really needs to hard return on every line.

But you see that's the thing fury. I am not hitting return
at all! Maybe it has something to do with my web browser.
It also seems to change based on whether I am starting a
new thread, editing an existing post or replying to another
post. I hate the way it looks but I don't know how to fix
it. Any help would be appreciated.

What Browser?

I am currently using Google Chrome to try it out, but
prior to that I used Firefox 3 for Xubuntu and had the same
problem.

I got nothing, I use FF3 and do not have any problem with it adding returns on everything.

I will try to experiment with other browsers later on to
see if anything helps. Until then I apologize if my posts
are annoying but they are rare anyhow. See ya.

Chrome and Safari both add returns every 80 characters or
so. Opera, FF, and IE don't in my experience.

This is a sample block of text being posted in Google
Chrome. It seems to wrap roughly at 80 characters or so, I
have not hit return a single time while typing this post.
Next comes Firefox 3.

This is a sample block of text, similar to the above except this time it is being posted via Firefox 3 instead of Google Chrome. It wraps as expected. Next up: Opera 9.52

This is yet another sample block of text, similar to the above except this time it is being posted via Opera 9.52 instead of Google Chrome or Firefox 3. It wraps as expected. Next up: Safari

Chrome and Safari both add returns every 80 characters or
so. Opera, FF, and IE don't in my experience.

Comparing where Chrome wrapped the above with where it got wrapped this
time in Safari to see if the two wrap the text at identical lengths. Though to sum
up Lobotomy's question the reason for the increased occurrences of text
looking like this is very likely almost entirely due to the recent release of Google
Chrome.

Yep, thanks for testing it out for me. I didn't really feel
like doing it. I'll put in a request to Google to fix that
because I don't see it as being useful. :P

This is a sample block of text being posted in Google
Chrome. It seems to wrap roughly at 80 characters or so, I
have not hit return a single time while typing this post.
Next comes Firefox 3.

Interesting. I certainly didn't expect that it would be largely a browser issue. Although, it appears to me that Chrome is wrapping at an even shorter length than Safari. Both that post and matiel420's text seem to be cut around 47-50 characters.

How very odd.

It's a medical
condition
known as keratawraptoteria.
Keratawraptoteria is a nervous system disorder
caused by years of
self-abuse through textual
autoerotic
stimulation.

*cough*, anyway...

Chrome is built on Safari, so that behaviour isn't surprising. The word wrap doesn't bother me. I prefer it to blockquotes when quoting someone else's post as well.

Habit from typing in editors that will run off screen.

Aha, we found the culprit it's because people
are afraid their posts will look like:


This is a really long string of text serving n$