yuletide_coal | Rudolph the red-nosed dentist

Rudolph the red-nosed dentist

Writing post : http://yuletide-coal.dreamwidth.org/6728.html

Other useful links:
2016 Timeline : https://yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/28822.html
Collection: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2016

Letters post: http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1274815.html
Letters DB: http://www.dennis-sellers.com/yuletide/index.html
Treat spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Bv9vJXykH9BUgn6q5DIBliBgMWzlVpXiB9d1lNoub4/edit?usp=sharing

Yuleporn: http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1276881.html
Crueltide: http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1274987.html
Two for One: http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1278973.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

NA

At this point you both kind of sound like assholes. How long is a piece of string?

My two cents worth is that most people instinctively don't measure comment length against what is possible (ie what fits in the box) but rather against what is usual. And I do believe it is a fact that the majority of comments these days (perhaps less so on fics that are specifically gifts) are fairly short. I personally *do* think a comment that fills an entire box is not just long but very long. Why? Because when most of your comments are a line or two then you consider a paragraph long by comparison and when an entire comment box turns up filled you dance a jig and bless that person's name to the heavens.

cool story. cursing and calling names is def what nice people do.

I personally *do* think a comment that fills an entire box is not just long but very long. Why? Because when most of your comments are a line or two then you consider a paragraph long by comparison

that's exactly my point and i'm glad you agree with me.

even if you want to add in more terms (very long) there is a finite for short and a finite point you consider to be the beginning of long even if you want to give it a different name than "long". it's the farthest end. so even if you want to call a "fairly short" or medium comment "long", when the long comment does appear, it registers as long and isn't the same as a medium comment plus an extra paragraph and isn't as subjective as trying to decide between a short and medium fic.

you liking it more than the paragraph is a subjective thing and not anything i want to get involved in. altho i do i hope you get comments on your fic(s) this year that make you feel happy and are your preferred length.

short and medium comment.

Was I rude? Yes. Because this is a fatuous argument that really does seem to be going round in circles. I do agree with you! I also agree with your opponent. You've almost agreed with each other at points. I think the truth is we're all just tired and fractious. I hope you get a comment you enjoy too. I hope we all do.

NA

+1 This so much, tbh. What's been bugging me so much about AYRT, is that like...how are they even defining their definitions of long vs. short? Why is only 1 AO3 comment long then? Why not 2? It feels almost arbitrary (or, more likely, subjective to their tastes). Long and short are relative. Is 500 words long? Depends for what. For a fic - short, for note telling your professor you won't be in class next week - long. So what is their baseline? A03 comment limit? But why choose that as a baseline? As you said, typical comments are only a couple of sentences so something that is many times longer than an average comment would naturally be considered long. The typical comment seems like a much more coherent baseline to measure short/long against than the max AO3 allows you in a comment. What if AO3 allowed you 100,000 characters? I mean...I just don't get why the standard is "a full AO3 comment" specifically.

DA

Comparing a fanfiction comment to an email is shifting the goalposts.

So what is their baseline? A03 comment limit? But why choose that as a baseline?

Because the only place to comment on AO3 is AO3. If the limit was 9000 characters then even multiple comments would end up at a single one most of the time. If the minimum limit was 100 words for a comment then that would be the shortest comment that could be left on AO3. Someone else set the guidelines on this site and we have to work within them + it's the only relevant site to talk about when it comes to Yuletide.

As you said, typical comments are only a couple of sentences so something that is many times longer than an average comment would naturally be considered long. The typical comment seems like a much more coherent baseline to measure short/long against than the max AO3 allows you in a comment.

Even if you do that it still ends up being in the same range though? A short comment is a few sentences as per the typical average comment, a medium comment is a couple paragraphs which is the typical extended comment, a long comment comes close to 4.3k characters or goes over which is more rare.

Switching around the baseline when the underlying principal is pretty much ironclad is a bit redundant to me. It's like Glossier calling their light brown skin tint "Dark". Sure, you can call it dark since it's darker than the palest shade, but it's not dark -- and when you have to expand to actual darker shades, having that one dead in the middle with the label "Dark" looks a little silly.

I don't have a horse in this and it's definitely off-topic question you don't have to answer, but, just out of curiosity - are you a lawyer?

No I am not.

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Rudolph the red-nosed dentist

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