Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacksonkmarley | Hacker News Reader

> The whole description is wordy

I for one really enjoyed reading this story, it was quite exciting and I never noticed anything 'wordy' about it. I thought it was very well written.

View on HN

I meant it as a relatively neutral descriptor.

In modern day and age, this would frequently be shared as a 20word phrase on tranquil image background on Facebook.

Compared to that, this is "wordy" - which some of us will enjoy (I did too:), others will not.

If your definition of "wordy" is "anything longer than a 20 word phrase", I mean, I don't know what to say really. Your response to OP was definitely wordy then. And so is this response.

You've basically redefined the word so that it no longer has any meaning.

I think your response was sarcastic but I actually fully agree - yes language changes, cultural & social norms change. Today in 2022, based on average of media creation & consumption, this article is wordy (or "long form", if we feel "wordy" is loaded with negative connotation:). It would not have been wordy in different times & places.

I like long form. I like essays and articles and geeking out and getting in depth of things. But I'm not oblivious that majority of media consumption is swiping on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook.

"I like twitter"

I want to believe that there is still an audience for long form. Besides, great debates can't be carried out with 20-word pieces. Long form blogs of the web 1.0 were instrumental for the tech environment we have today. I would say that "you want to make articles as short as possible, but not shorter" [0]

[0]https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/374887/meaning-o...

I feel there's perception that by labeling this article as "wordy", I have also made far more reaching implicit claims such as

* Wordy is bad

* There's no room in this world for wordy/long-form

* I am a proponent of 20-word Facebook posts, they are awesome and a pinnacle of human achievement and we should all use them going forward

I have not made such a claim in the initial post and have made substantial effort to explicitly indicate thusly since. Lord knows nobody ever labeled me as "succinct" :-D

My old co-worker had a term "We are in violent agreement", and I feel that's what's happening here :->

Indeed I felt that way too when reading passages such as:

"As I was looking around, I was struck for an instant by the eeriness of the scene: here I was, attached, like an unwanted child, by an umbilicus to a gargantuan mother who was fleeing across the sky at 200 knots as though from some unnamed danger. Far below us was a broken layer of clouds that filtered the sun glare over the Pacific."

Wonderfully poetic and I enjoyed it, but yes, wordy.

I'm glad you also enjoyed the story! In that case perhaps we just have a difference in our definitions, since I would interpret 'wordy' as implying some disapproval at an excess of words.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com