I Like to Read and Write Long Posts (and I Cannot Lie)
I left the following comment on a post by a writer I admire, @praguepainter, and then realized I wanted to make it a post on its own. Praguepainter posts interesting articles, and he also has written some of the longest, most interesting and appreciated comments on my posts. His post today was about a Medium article titled How To Grow A Ridiculous Following On Any Platform (Including Medium). I will let you find the link to that article on @praguepainter’s post: Blogging is Dead.
In this post he laments the idea that we need to cater to readers who want short articles, short paragraphs, and more or less dumbed down language. The article he linked to is a maddening pseudo listicle that reads like something my 8 year old son passes off as an essay when he’s bored in school. I get that the Medium article is written for people who simply want to make money as bloggers, but one of the very refreshing things about Steemit is that it’s the Wild West of blog sites. It is international and we get to build any type of following we want. People like @praguepainter and I get to follow each other and read each other’s long, complex, intelligent posts!
Here’s my rant:
*Image Source: Public Domain Pictures
I teach for people who want to learn, but many of my students who don’t want to learn want me to just shut up and tell them what’s going to be on the test (never mind I don’t give tests, but they wish I did).
I coach for kids who want to be athletes and push themselves to their highest potential, but many of the kids that come out for the team act annoyed that I take my job seriously, and they wish I’d just let them be lazy and pretend to be athletes so they can put it on their college applications or write a stupid essay about how they learned so much about life by being a total *%#king waste of space.
I write for people who want to read. I could give a crap about someone who thinks that I should care enough about a topic to devote time to writing about it, yet not care enough about it to do it justice.
On the other hand, I do have students who are thriving in their academic pursuits and we challenge each other daily, mutually benefiting from the exchange. I also have kids who commit themselves to showing up to practice everyday, not necessarily because they are talented, but because they appreciate what focus and hard work can accomplish. We inevitably end up celebrating their accomplishments together, celebrating what it means to be human on an existential level. I am here because I want to connect with other people about ideas and words and long, complex sentences, paragraphs and articles. To hell with anyone who isn’t here for that. (I’m kidding really, or at least mean it in the kindest way :).
I have no issue that anyone who writes short articles because they are trying to appeal to a specific audience that wants that. In fact, I have no problem with anyone here that posts anything that adds some sort of quality. That’s the whole point. I am writing this to anyone that might be tempted to leave their own artistic, creative or intellectual desires at the door because someone else is saying, “Keep it short.”
But alas, I can say these things because I’m not here for the money. Or am I. I am a teacher because I know that I don’t need to be rich, and I appreciate the predictability of a steady, modest income. That doesn’t mean I don’t teach For the money. I just want to earn my living on my terms. I’m a coach because I appreciate being active while helping develop young people and the pay is like a nice volunteer stipend that I put towards my retirement or vacation every year. Steemit provides some financial incentive that gives me an added push to write, and who knows, someday my account might be worth 5, 10, 20 times what it is today.
Maybe I’m a dinosaur, the last of an old breed that will surely die off and leave the blogosphere to people that eke out a living by writing for people who don’t really want to read. But on the other hand, maybe Steemit is providing the platform where we can take our good old sweet time to build a following of our own, based on doing whatever the hell makes us happy.
When we do things for money first, and enjoyment second, or money first, and lifestyle second, we compromise what brings us the most joy and satisfaction as humans. Life is too short to sacrifice that which is most enjoyable about being on this planet in the first place.
Yes.
I like reading long posts that follow a line of thought or a story, I like them to be coherent and have some writing style. I don't like long posts that are full of fillers and padding and six pictures of the same cupcake from different angles.
I like writing long posts myself because, through writing, I understand what I think and further my thinking and my ideas. I have adapted my writing here, I'm not doing the deep writing I wanted and expected to do. I have found other benefits and connections, though, and I think I will develop the long-form slow writing I want to do over time.
I am surprised, though. I thought the "curating of quality posts through voting" would improve the quality of writing, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Some dreadful posts are attracting votes and some users have learned how to game the system. The other day I was reading about people setting an automatic upvote on people who generate a lot of interest, because that increases their curation rewards. They never actually read the posts: the writers have just been commodified!
It's good to hear some alternative voices - and using paragraphs that run for more than five lines.
It is a bit dismaying how people game the system, but I try to look at it from the perspective that anything goes here, and the gaming is actually part of the diversity. People can come here and use it how they please. I want to believe there is some genius in that. It just makes it more challenging to curate my own feed and to find people that I connect with for what I think are better reasons. And I’m hoping, honestly, by being true to that it might pay off in ways that will surprise the quick return people. @runningproject has definitely has helped give me a focus and has led to some great connections (like you, obvs :). I also have found some good interaction on various discord channels. #minnowsupport and #pal (peace abundance and liberty) are great. Also #minnowacceleratorproject and #thesteemengine, in case you’re curious. Let me know if you are and have any trouble finding invite codes.
They are good ideas, thank you. I have my hands full at the moment, but things will change in a few months and I'll have more time to investigate.
Many many thanks for the shout out and compliments. My post was mostly in reaction to the type of posts I see on the trending page, but I also know that many or even most readers are seeking unusual and enlightening content that they can engage with. Cyberspace is always a sort of shouting out into the dark, so it's great to get feedback and responses to my post. I think Steemit has many problems to overcome, but generally the idea of earning directly for blogging is very appealing. Bots have invaded the process and completely skew the results. The community is still small enough that after some time, I start to feel like I can map the contours of the place, that I understand its boundaries.
Anyway that's a quite disjointed and spaced out response to your post on this lazy Sunday ... its freezing cold in Prague so I just stayed in. I cant wait for winter to end at this point. Again many thanks for your response to and promotion of my post.
I feel this. I don't write for people without any attention span or appreciation for detail and elaboration, and that's fine with me, even if it cuts into my audience. When I first got my job, my tendency to write long emails was the first habit that my boss sought to break in me, and she was successful in doing so (I eventually conceded that she was right in that context). That being said, I'm not going to apply that philosophy to the writing I do for my own personal edification (e.g. blogging).
I had that same issue with email, and learned to scale them back. I decided I am going to try to remember to tag my longer posts with #longpost just for the fun of it. It might be fun to try to create a community around that one idea.
I actually noticed that people around here tend to have longer attention spans and appreciate longer posts than most social media platforms these days. I used to love livejournal and really hated when it fell out of fashion and "microblogging" took over. Never got into Twitter and I'm not much of a Facebook user either. But that might have to do with the crowd I run in here...
Re: attentions spans. I think you’re right. It takes work to find the people you connect with, but we have the whole world as a possibility! Or at least the million or so people currently using :). I’ve noticed that my interest in Facebook has waned as I do more reading and writing here. I love that. I have always had a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I just checked it your blog and am looking forward to reading your latest post when I get some time later. Congrats on going viral!! :)
Once or twice I've given in to the temptation to write long rambling Facebook posts about something that matters to me, and I generally get positive feedback, but something about that platform makes me so self conscious that I'll inevitably delete it within 48 hours. Perhaps it has something to do with how easily people are triggered and riled up into pugnacious bickering. The permanence of using Steemit scared me at first but maybe not having the option to go back and eradicate my thoughts from public view is a positive change for me.
Re: the virality. Thank you! Yeah, apparently a few fellow academics picked up the post and tweeted it, which doesn't do much for Steemit upvotes, but it's nice to know that it resonated with others. :)
Resteemed your article. This article was resteemed because you are part of the New Steemians project. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch . If your post has more upvotes, your post will appear in the trending page. To get more upvotes, you can bid for @steembidbot vote. please check it out here: https://steembottracker.com/
I started off posting my story at eight to twelve pages per post. Only one picture at the top, which was just the 'cover'. I found it also helped identify the story when it appears on the New Posts page.
I gave up on readers, but then one reader started reading and making comments. Problem: His English is not very good and he struggled to read, so, for him. I reduced my posts to 2 to 3 pages. He has managed to stick it out for over 400 pages, so I guess I will have to continue posting in this manner.
Otherwise? I've actually reached the stage where I do not want to have any readers and when I remember, I click on Decline Payment.
I had never cared about the payment, but two facts prompted me to this decision.
I hope each of you find a way to adapt to steemit. I've lost interest and rarely make an extra post now - and, yes, I still do not want readers, not the kind available here.