Mortaine’s Blog

I’m not going to get all huffy about people who don’t use the lj-cut tag here. If you don’t use it, fine, as long as you’re not posting 500 quiz results uncut, or 50 really big images, or any really “adult” images that I can’t look at at work.

However, if you tend to be somewhat rambly in your posts and you wonder why people don’t comment, it’s because they’re skimming. OK, I’m skimming. I’m skimming because my Friends Page is 4 or 5 screens long, thanks to a particular community that I’m in in which cries for the lj-cut tag go unheard (I’m thinking of dropping the comm for just this reason). Since I’m skimming, your post is a small fraction of the text that’s scrolling past my eyes.

Now, put that text behind an lj-cut and I will most likely click through to it, and will read it. It will have all of my attention. You will be the only one I’m paying attention to. I will be more likely to leave a comment and say something in response to the words you’ve so carefully chosen.

Now, you don’t need to cut an individual word unless it’s a word that’s so filthy, you just can’t have it going through someone’s filter. You don’t even need to cut for a single paragraph, unless it’s a really long paragraph. Basically, after you post, go look at your post (or use the Preview feature). If it takes more than 3 inches of your screen’s vertical space, cut it. Maybe it’s best to leave a single sentence or a paragraph to lead in to your post, or maybe you should cut it down to almost nothing. Or maybe even cut it multiple times when you skip around to different topics (so the reader knows that you’ll be covering different topics). Whatever– just cut it. If you want me to read it attentively, cut it.

If you don’t care if I read it, or don’t mind a lack of comments, fine. I’m just offering this suggestion to encourage people to cut their longer postings and to let you all know why I don’t always comment.

This FAQ has information on how to use the lj-cut tag.

Update: Many people have commented below that they use friends group filters to shuffle out the “noise” (I have such filters, but have found them not really useful for me), and that they also find they don’t click on lj-cuts, especially when there’s not enough information in the beginning of the post to know what the cut is for. My response is simple: I am more likely to actually give a careful reading to a long post that’s behind an lj-cut than I am to give to a long post that isn’t. If you don’t care, or the majority of your friends are already commenting, then fine. Like I said, I’m not going to berate anyone for not using them to cut text. I’m just saying, this is how to get me to give a more careful reading to your words.

So, here’s something I’ve learned from volunteering in Support, and from volunteering elsewhere.

No matter how noble your cause, no matter how likeable you are, there’s going to be at least one person in the organization who hates your guts.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t get along with them, or that they’re going to be so unprofessional as to plot against you or try to hold you back (though in some organizations, that happens).

But if you’re about to criticize someone, and you’re not sure if you should (because, really, it’s someone else’s responsibility or task), or you’re about to do something that is guaranteed not to win you any friends and it’s not your job to do so, then consider the fact that doing so will make whoever can’t stand you feel utterly justified in their hatred. You can’t keep them from hating you, but you can do your best to keep them from having a reason for doing so.

It’s hard for me to imagine that someone in Support would find me irritating and obnoxious, and yet I know that I have traits that can, should, and do rub people the wrong way (I know, I know– it seems impossible So I TRY to be diplomatic when I can, and to shut the hell up whenever I can’t.