LJ cuts

[sobrique]

Every now and then the discussion of whether to LJ-cut on livejournal arises.

Currently, I'm really only doing so when I have pictures, or 'non worksafeness' to hide.

However, in general:

Pros:
You're shortening the 'summary' of your journal, and resultant 'friends' pages.
It's one 'waggle' of the scroll wheel to skip, rather than several.

Cons:
You're declaring to the world that what you have to say is irrelevant.
If the reader _does_ want to read your post, they have to click a link, open it in a new window, or whatever.

Have I missed any?

And what's your opinion? What should, or shouldn't be cut?
Should one default to cutting _every_ post, since that's minimising wear and tear on the scrollwheel, and it's all irrelevant bollocks anyway? Or do you find it just as easy to skip by pressing 'pgdn' twice, instead of once?

Hmm, maybe I'll turn it into a poll, once I've got an idea of 'answers'.

Comments

[zaitan.livejournal.com]

IMHO, if the post is much more than a screenful then the poster should consider tags. I read the posts of everyone on my friends list, whether they are behind cut-tags or not.

Cutting every post would be pointless, just the huge ones. I have been tempted to post a curt comment when people post a small essay without cutting.

The meme that ran a while ago that collected the icons of all the users friends annoyed the hell out of me. It made my friends list about 5 pages wide for a while.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

If you read every post, then surely the 'cut' tags are just slowing you down though?

I agree on stuff that screws up formatting though, that's really very annoying.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

No. Because I look through your friends list for new comments as well as new posts. I only need to click if it's new (when it is an extra click) or there's new comments (when I'd need to click anyway).

[zaitan.livejournal.com]

Slightly slower, yes. A lot less annoying, definitely.

Long irrelevant posts tend to get skim read anyway.

Given that my browser of choice is Opera, going back and forth through links is a helluva lot faster than using IE or Firefox.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

IMO, anything that will take up more than about two thirds of a 'screen', anything with images or anything that is wider than a standard entry should be cut. Along with spoilers and non-work safeness.

You're not declaring it is irrelevant. Anyone who has put you on their friends page has already decided that they think what you have to say is relevant.

I don't have a mouse wheel; I use a graphics tablet (due to RSI in my right hand). Not that it makes much difference. Most often I'm scrolling through the friends page to see whether there have been more comments to any of the posts on there. If there are big post or posts in there then it's that much harder to locate the lines on the screen that tell me whether there's been any new comments. Compared to this, the extra hassle in clicking a cut is practically non-existant; and since anything behind a cut is likely to be fairly long anyway the hassle of that click is going to be trivial next to the time involved in reading it anyway.

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

I sometimes cut stuff that I'm writing for my own use, and is not intended to be interesting to my friends. If they want to read mundane aspects of my life, they can. I write stuff down for me as much as others.

[girl-working.livejournal.com]

I cut in a few situations:

1) I'm ranting/angsting. I don't like rereading my own angst.

2) People have asked if I can cut specific topics. So lots of waffle 'bout how wonderful Ian is will get cut in general, but I'm not cutting it all as it'll have to be gotten used to eventually... :P

3) It's long/contains pictures.

In general, I prefer long posts cut as if I want to read 'em (and you're on my friend's list, so I probably do, especially as you write fun & interesting posts) I will make the effort to do 1 ickle click. :)

What should, or shouldn't be cut?

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

i have people ask me to cut stuff, but the only content on my page is my posts, i don't have a pretty layout,..and with the diversity of my posts i tell people that they should by default consider my blog NSFW,..o.o

i think cut's as a formating tool, if it enhances what i'm trying to present then i'll use it,. but to my benifit,. no one elses,..:)

Re: What should, or shouldn't be cut?

[revdj.livejournal.com]

"i think cut's as a formating tool, if it enhances what i'm trying to present then i'll use it,. but to my benifit,. no one elses,..:)"

That's a good statement of what I do. But I question whether or not I am being rude.

am being rude

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

well it's really a point of view there too,.. are you being rude in denying a mugger to allow them to get away with it,. i'm sure they would think so,. i think the measure is, if you're doing it with the forethought that "this will piss them off" then you're probably being rude,.. otherwise you're just serving your own ends,..

[jorune.livejournal.com]

I'll use a cut if:
It's a particularly long post. I have no generic understanding of a given size, this is based on how I perceive the post.
It's a meandering continuation of a previous lj subject, i.e. work
It's expected to be of limited interest

I do not normally consider a need for cut as I feel it interrupts the experience of reading the page. The meme of lj is all your information presented together on the same page rather than clicking lots of links.

Another reason for not considering cuts is that my friends list does not tend to refresh that quickly, therefore I do not feel that I missing peoples comments. If I had a big friends list whose data output spans multiple pages in any given day I would more inclined to use cuts or ask for others to use cuts. I believe that a days worth of lj friends data should be contained within the first screen of most recent list of comments.

[eithnepdb.livejournal.com]

I once had a person on my Flist say they would unfriend me if I didn't start using cuts.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Really? How melodramatic.

[eithnepdb.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I didn't start using them and they didn't cut me.

But I never thought I was reallythat verbose anyway.

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

if I'm skimming for new posts and see a long one, I'll skip it. If I see an LJ-cut, I'll right-click and open it in a new window to read in a minute once I've finished skimming.

To be honest, I find that long posts that *aren't* cut are mostly irrelevant or ranty, whereas if someone has taken the time to add lj-cut tags, they actually care about what they're saying and have taken at least a little time/effort on the post.

I dislike the idea that what you have to say is more important because your post is bigger on the page than someone who has cut. That's just childish.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying it's a question of page occupancy, but more a question of "well, if you don't think it's worth reading, why should anyone else?"

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

That's a truly bizarre attitude, Ed, and I'm really not sure how you come by it.

[mavnn.livejournal.com]

I believe it meme'd it's way over from the Ferrett, although Ed would have to confirm.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Possibly a few other places too.
Essentially, you have a journal, which is an 'opt in' thing. And then you're posting something even more optional, than the optional thing.

Doesn't that sort of trivialise it? (I mean, leaving aside the cutting of images and that kind of thing)

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

I don't cut because I think it isn't worth reading. I expect everyone who friends me to skip my posts anyway.

I cut because I understand that not all of my friends care about the same things, and it's easier to cut for, say 'this bit is about life' 'this bit is about work' 'this bit is about maelstrom' in a long, ranty post than forcing people to skim the whole thing in case there's anything they're interested in.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Doesn't keeping to 1 post per subject, especially when tagged achieve the same effect though?

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

No, because you're forcing other people's entries off your friend's friend lists. I have less problem with 1 or 2 large posts per day than 10 individual ones.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Personally I rather see several posts, and stick to one subject in each. After all, it's not all _that_ hard to click on the 'Previous' link.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I'm with Ed. I've noticed several times I've skipped an entry on someone's LJ after reading the first bit and discovered later that the bit at the end was interesting.

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

Actually, I find that kind of annoying. It's useful to know what's in the post before I read it, but I find it difficult when I click on the second link and jump in half way through. I always end up reading the uninteresting bits of this kind of post as well. Whereas if it was two seperate ones, I'd skim bits that started "Maelstrom".

[nuala.livejournal.com]

I have been known to lj-cut a day or 2 AFTER I posted a long post - just because *I* get tired of scrolling through it whilst looking for something else. :D

That said, I will cut photos and wide images. That's just the polite thing to do because they affect not only your open window, but the load time as well.

But I've gotten to where I DON'T cut writing. If you (the reading audience, not you specifically) don't want to read it, then you can scroll. My journal, my choice. :D

[revdj.livejournal.com]

I have had this question as well, since I tend to post long.

I get annoyed when people cut too much, because I have to click on the message to read it. If someone posts something long, and I don't want to read it, then I just scroll by and am not unhappy.

If someone has a story that has a tangent, then I like the cut. So I can read the story and choose whether I want to read the explanation about why his '76 Ford was so important to him.

[mcnazgul.livejournal.com]

I only cut when there are spoilers or other stuff I think may not quite be appropriate for everyone to see so they have the choice.

I figure if you want to know what's going on you'll read. Otherwise you'll skim or even skip anyway.

Never underestimate the reader's ability to edit out what doesn't interest them... :)

[jambon-gris.livejournal.com]

I am strongly against cut tags, but then ive no idea how to do one.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

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