I read 800 words per minute. I at one time in my life clocked myself at about 3-8 books a week. I started reading at age 4, and was reading approximately a book a day by age 9. I lived in Denver, CO, so I had plenty of libraries to raid. By the time I was 20 I estimated that I had probably read 5,000 books. That was -- 20 years ago.
I have been writing since I was about 7 years old. I've got a couple of finished novels, one of them self-published. I don't think I'll ever make a living at it but I do get the fundamentals of how to write and how to capture someone's attention. I am probably naturally somewhat critical of what I read by other people. I have learned to ignore a lot of little things with the overarching theory that the purpose of communication is to render understanding. If I can understand someone's argument or writing, I am OK with it.
But when people are deliberately sloppy or lazy I get irritated. Follow me over the fold to understand why:
I read 800 words per minute. I at one time in my life clocked myself at about 3-8 books a week. I started reading at age 4, and was reading approximately a book a day by age 9. I lived in Denver, CO, so I had plenty of libraries to raid. By the time I was 20 I estimated that I had probably read 5,000 books. That was -- 20 years ago.
Isn't that annoying? I know it is to me. I just read those words. I clicked on the "fold" of the diary and went over it to see more on the same subject. Instead it was like one of those irritating commercials you see at 2:00 a.m. where you get played the same clip twice in a row, or sometimes the clip, a different ad, and then the clip again except shortened somewhat.
Apparently several Kossacks write their diaries in one big file somewhere. Maybe a notepad. Maybe word. And then when it comes time to publish, they have this requirement of a header (3 paragraphs or so) and a body. And instead of spending literally three seconds choosing a breaking point, they simply paste in as much of the diary as will fit in the header, then re-paste the entire diary in the body.
So I go over the fold expecting more and instead I get Deja Vu.
Come on, people. How hard is it? You already had to choose a point to cut it at to get it in that first box. How difficult is it to complete the job?
Some of these are no doubt extensively researched diaries. But I don't read them. I stop cold when I start reading repeated text. There are literally thousands of diaries on Kos. I'm not going to waste my time reading ones that are sloppy and lazy. Call me whatever you will, a pedantic asshole, but I just don't have time for it.
We lambaste our news media daily for being lazy, sloppy, and useless. As citizen journalists trying to break the mold it is incumbent upon us to be better than what we decry.
So, next time I see lazy and sloppy in a diary, I'm just going to stop. No recs. No tips. No comments. Just bye-bye.