AIBU to skip threads with really long first posts?

[Sexisthairdressers]

Just get to the point, OPs!

Unless you are on mumsnet as a form of community service, you can skip any thread for any reason.

Yanbu.

TLDR is a valid reply to some ops.

A lot of the really long, paragraph-laden posts are being brought to us via AI / Chat GPT. There is a style to them - reasonable tone, repetition of points, and usually a build-up to a question at the end along the lines of 'how shall I deal with this?' or 'has anyone else experienced this?'

And then the OP responds after a while - again, repetitively. Seems able to engage with basic questions but unable to answer others. And it goes on and on and on.

Tedious. This current vogue has changed the character of parts of the site for me <tiny violin> but luckily is focused in the AIBU and Chat topics that can be easily avoided on grumpy days.

This!

I automatically assume AI when I see long opening posts. I also look at the vocabulary used too on other posts often verbose descriptions giving too much detail.

In fact recently I've started being sceptical of a lot of threads as the scenarios are getting more and more exaggerated. I was reading one the other day and thought no way did that happen.

I'm also sceptical too when certain posters have enough time to post every other post on a topic. See Royal Family threads and any politics/Brexit threads.

As much as I understand that some people aren't that hot on literacy skills, I cannot get my head round the 'no paragraphs wall of text' long OPs. Too much concentration required for a tired working mum to decipher.

Yes and WHY the everliving fuck do people repeatedly quote the OP in their reply? STOP THAT.

I don’t mind long, but when there isn’t a single full stop or paragraph I give up, it’s too hard to read.

Especially those without paragraphs

I don't read long posts either throughout threads.

Sorry OP, but I'm the opposite! I quite like long posts, feels like I'm reading a short story!

BUT I can't stand the Person A, B, C etc.. hurts my head trying to keep up!

No I read through them. I do feel these days people have shorter attention spans and won't read through anything longer.

I blame all the idiots who whinge about drip feeding when it's just a case of saying something, being asked questions and then elaborating (you know like a normal conversation, try it sometime) and people who can only be arsed to read the first post and yet see their own opinions as worth reading.

I'll glance at them and only read in detail if it looks interesting or I think I might have something useful to say.

The back button was invented for rambling, punctuation-less, mono-paragraphs.

The Show OP's Posts button was invented for checking updates and drips. Very handy when joining a thread at p12.

Yes, I agree in principle.

But the situation isn't helped by PPs who nitpick and snipe about the Original Post so that OPs feel they need to insert every possible disclaimer.

For example, I suspect OPs often feel they have to assure us they're not racist, ageist, fat-ist etc all the time. We shouldn't assume they are - but that's the world we live in these days, unfortunately - it seems the default assumption is always to think the worst of people and their motives. Then they need to assure us they're making allowances for anyone who might be ND or have MH problems. You know - some PP will snap 'Why did you need to mention that they're foreign? or similar.

I think it's the nitpicking mentality on MN, with many PPs looking for reasons to take offence or accuse OPs of some kind of prejudice, which makes people's posts rather like legal documents.

No, you're right.

Just get to the point.

Also, I skip all posts with Person A, Person B, Person W malarkey. Tedious.

YANBU.

Am I being unreasonable to silently seethe when someone quotes the entire OP especially on the first page.

This. I just scroll past without engaging.

I assume they are AI posts and probably a load of old rubbish

I agree OP, but I also vote YABU if there’s a vote.

Oh yes - that person A bollocks arghh

Oh, it's so boring,i speed through it to the end question.
It always makes me laugh when the second or third Poster then copies & pastes the whole thing again 😂
I always think they do this deliberately.

Oh god yes. This wanging on about 'drip feeding' goes hand in hand with the OP having to express endless, repetitive gratitude for anything from the in-laws or relatives that rises slightly above the threshold of not being dragged along a gravel pathway and force-fed cow pats.

The thing about the drip feed is that length does not prevent it anyway. You'll get a scroll-worthy amount of tedium and angst, and then after a couple of pages of responses, OP will drop in 'maybe I should have been concerned when I found out he'd been to prison for murder' (or similar).

Drip feeds mostly happen when it isn't going the way the OP wants it too, rather than out of genuinely forgetting something.

I blame the people who encourage long-winded OPs with things like 'beautifully written' (it never is) or 'have you thought of being a writer' (yes, and here they are testing out their novel idea).

I've never really understood the TLDR thing.

If it's at the end, surely by the time you've got it you've already ready the whole thing?

Also, what's the point? If you're wanting opinions from people, why would you want an opinion from someone who's only read a one sentence snippet from the full story?

I understand it originated from Reddit, which I also don't really understand. I'm obviously getting old! But to me the layout of Reddit and all the sub threads etc reminds me of the early days of the internet, when everything was quite clumsily laid out. As I say, obviously just old and out of touch!