I think it should be avoided because it has a lot of negative psychology in it. Don't worry, I wasn't referring to you guys' text, but rather the now upcoming practice of doing so. It sort of humbly devaluates oneself, but it makes me sick because people already seem rather passive and adapting their opinions to the reaction of others. That is a dangerous practice and a danger to a free mind.

It seems to be a testament of time in this day and age. Social insecurity and on the search for "likes", attempting to appeal to everyone in the anonymous piranha-community called "internet". And yea, many people writing that are rather clueless, attempting to state their own opinion but lacking the finesse to do so.

But you don't have to make a science of writing to write something interesting, you just have to reread your text 1-2 times and cut the bullshit. I write texts up and down. Adding, deleting, changing, it's like sculpting and there is very much trial and error involved - because I am not an academic writer, I don't have a plan or scheme for good texting. I'm sure anyone can do it.

It's like... if we'd put up numbers in our reviews to evaluate a game. No one would ever read the reviews anymore and everybody would be like "What? You think this game is a 6.5?? It's the best game in the world! You are an imbecile!", I think problems would arise from that and so I usually have already an aggressive stance if someone TLDRs himself. I tend to think "He's writing crap, and he knows it. Why is he writing at all?? What a self-proclaimed loser.". I know this is probably quite a radical way to react, but I see many emails at work that are half a page in length - full of excuses and useless things - where you play "Where is waldo??" on the message of the whole text to figure out what needs to be done.

I know I am being overtly negative - and numbers in reviews have their place, just as TLDRs, but you know... keep your eyes open and don't make it a habit to appear humble and devaluate your text (because there is no such thing as humbleness derived from habits – imho. Hah.).

I think it's a totally useless "trend". Why? Certainly, it is a major (and hard to achieve) quality to compress information while keeping it understandable and interesting. However, what needs to be said should be said.

In classic essay formats, the first and final paragraphs will hold pretty much the same information as the "tl;dr" anyway.

So in my view, this trend originates from the fact that on the Internet, there are way too many people "blogging" (etc.) which don't have the first clue about writing, structuring their thoughts etc. So they reinvent the wheel, but in a somewhat crooked, imperfect way.

That said, what Vagabond says is obviously true. If you don't want to read, don't read. If a text can't hold your attention, it's not for you.

(You can skip to the very last sentence!) Some people like to savor the details and show others that they are quite well of aware of all the tidbits. There is no crime in it, as well as there is none in the fact that you like to cut to the bone often. I do it too or just skim through the text for at least one good reason: I'm quite a slow reader in general. However, I do tend to be a little too generous with my own "essays" (dimensions, not the quantity). So, just to keep your conscience clean: I personally won't hate you for not reading any of my stuff including this

What do you think of the concept "too long didn't read"?

If you TLDR yourself - why don't you just write the short message that you are trying to convey? Why don't you try to actually write something that people want to read?

I think it brings a whole negative incense to the article - or whatever you are writing. If you bring about a conclusion towards the end of your text - the rest is meant to carry it. If the conclusion can stand alone - save yourself and others the time.

Haven't encountered it here (not that I remember), just saying. I always treat it as a testament of insecurity and skip to the TLDR part, because it's usually quite boring to read!