Require a TLDR summary if comment is too long
Alanna Irving
Public
Seen by 99
TL;DR: If you type a long comment, Loomio should ask you to write a short summary, which is then posted at the top with the rest of the comment under a "show more" link. This will leave space for those who want to engage in long-form discussion, while also keeping the conversation accessible to those who don't want to, don't have time, or can't.
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I'm a big fan of long-form communication (books! woo!) and I also think there's an important role for very in-depth discussion in writing on the internet. There are a lot of ideas you just cannot communicate properly in a tweet or soundbite.
However, when a conversation on Loomio involves a lot of very long comments and walls of text, it can be excluding to new people coming into the discussion, people with limited time, people who have trouble reading, etc. Our main goal is about facilitating participation from all voices, so this is a concern.
Long comments can also hijack the discussion, being dominated by a small number of people interested in that communication style or some specific aspect of a wider discussion. This can leave everyone else out, and make it hard to bring the conversation back to a point or move toward decision/action.
I was thinking about how to create space for the best of both worlds, and I started thinking about TL;DR. I often put them at the top of long-form emails or Loomios so that if someone only has time to read one sentence, at least they get that important summary.
Here's my feature idea: if you type a comment over a certain length, a box pops up asking you to write a short summary of your point. That is posted at the top, and then there's a link to "show more" to see the rest of your comment. Kind of like a statement of position (which Loomio asks for on votes) but for comments.
This would mean that someone could scan just these "headlines" and still participate, while also leaving space for those who want to engage in long-form discussion.
Danyl Strype Sat 10 Oct 2015 1:49PM
I think 300 characters (about 3 sentences) is about right, although perhaps setting this length could be an option for coordinators? Once your comment hits that length, another text entry box could appear below (or beside?) the comment entry box. Above the new box could be a picture of the Loomio HelperBot, and a piece of text saying something like: "Golly-gee-whizz! Your comment is getting quite long. Would you like to enter a brief summary of your comment, less than X characters" (where X is the software-defined or coordinator-defined length threshold).
Greg Cassel Sat 10 Oct 2015 7:21PM
I really love the idea of letting group coordinators set the maximum length for a "non-truncated" comment.
fauno Mon 12 Oct 2015 1:07PM
This would be good in case of long discussions, late coming people can read summaries and be more-or-less ready to participate, rather than being turn off by its length :)
Besides comment character length, TL;DR's should be oneliners, no? (I'm thinking something like an email subject)
Greg Cassel Mon 12 Oct 2015 7:38PM
I don't personally think that TL;DR should be generally limited to one line of text. For complex 'arguments' (coherent rational constructs) I can see TL;DR often running to 3-4 lines, and perhaps pushing some groups' preferred boundaries for the truncation of comments.
That echoes my one comment in this related truncation thread . As I also noted there, I definitely don't think that complex arguments (or monologues) are normally desirable. It depends on how a lot of things, including how frequently and reliably people are interacting with each other.
I would definitely agree that it's good to aim for one line TL;DR when the key concepts will comfortably fit.
Jacob Gadikian Sun 8 Nov 2015 10:09AM
Suggest tldr sure but require nope.
Ben Vidulich · Mon 24 Nov 2014 8:09AM
A TL:DR of sorts would be very useful - although I don't think users should be made to provide one in addition to their comment. This may penalise users that don't intend to write a wall of text. The "show more" would be more accommodating of users that write short-and-sweet comments as well as those that want to write a bit more.
Another thought: in the case of the "show more" option, if the user intentionally uses the (200) characters to write a TL:DR but doesn't want to fill all of the (200) characters then could they use a line break to force the "show more" rather than having half of the first sentence of their lengthy discussion included in the TL:DR?