I've written this and deleted it a few times. Which is probably good because each one has become less of an angry rant with less profanity 😂 There's really no need to read it and I'll warn you up front of that fact. I'm just venting for my own sanity about 3 separate people in the last 24 hours telling me various versions of "Your posts are too long for me."
Look, simply put, I don't care if you are offended by the length of my posts. I don't care about your precious timeline. I don't care that you don't have the time to "read it all." Is this some sort of weird entitlement that because you can curate your feed here, I'm supposed to post how you want? I'm not ChatGPT. I'm not summarizing science for you, on command. I honestly don't know why every time something I write gets over a certain number of boosts people come out of the woodwork to tell me this.
I'm not offended when someone clearly doesn't read and replies anyway. Chances are good that I blocked the person complaining already, which is why they're off sub tooting about me. Yes, I do understand that there's at least two of those this morning. I *love* the block and mute buttons. Seriously.
I'm not for everyone and I'm not trying to be. I don't need a course on scientific communication, although I enjoy the subject and am pretty much always willing to discuss it. I love talking about science. That's my happy place. If yours is reading two sentence summaries, don't read my posts and we'll both be happier for it.
I'm sorry some of y'all were(probably literally) raised on twitter and you really believe that if you can't make a point in 200 characters then you've failed. In my opinion, that's a large part of why we are where we are in today's society.
I'm sorry you feel the need to tell me about the first 100 characters of my post without reading the rest.
I'm sorry that you feel the need to tell me that my post lengths are offensive to you.
Whether or not you Mr. I-feel-the-need-to-fire-off-a-half-dozen-DMs-to-you-while-you're-sleeping-about-how-I-need-you-to-change-how-you-post read and understand what I write is not on my list of things to worry about when I wake up in the morning.
My Mastodon origin story is that I saw a need in the world for some information curation and discussion that was largely missing. The people that I was doing that for in the real world had stopped listening to COVID information, so I had some free time already carved out of my schedule. As we get further into the COVID pandemic, honestly, there's less of a need for that. COVID is bad. Anyone bothering to read anything I write gets that. I don't need to break down yet another paper about it.
Sometimes interesting, novel things still come up, but, at this point it's largely rehashed info honestly. So now I talk about PFAs, or other pollution more often rather than preach to the choir about not getting COVID three times a year(anyone noticed a LOT of people are using that number now about themselves?). These are things I am eminently qualified to talk about and could write books on if I thought anyone would actually read them.
Why? Because it is, actually a need. You know how many people here on Mastodon have told me that they've made positive changes based on something I've written about? Dozens. And that works for me. That's why I went into science. I don't need anything more than that. Some people are going to be more healthy in the future than they otherwise would have been because I exist on this site. So, no, I don't care that you need me to "summarize my thoughts better." I'm just a guy who writes a lot of words and maybe 100 people read them regularly. I don't care if you make it 101 or not.
I could just as easily write you a 1,500 word article on the Denver Nuggets, something I've also been paid(very, very little) to do in life, but, I don't think there's a *need* for that the way that there is science.
Yes. I very purposefully sat here while drinking my tea and extended this over and over just to make sure it was extra wordy. Just the way I like it. R.I.P. to your timeline voluminous science haters!
@BE LOL. I’m just sad that my instance limits me to 500 characters per post.
Character limit was my most researched feature when choosing an instance if I'm being honest 😬
Over 65,000 here, but I don't think I'll ever test that 😂
@BE *me rummaging around in my bookmarks*
“Ah-hah! Found it!”
“People who are Good At Explaining How Others Are Using Mastodon Wrong tend to overestimate the demand for that service.” - Matt Blaze
😂 So true
@BE For what it’s worth, I appreciate your posts and find them very helpful, and you very generous with your time. I don’t always understand all the details, but you often give enough information for a layman to get the gist.
I appreciate that. You are welcome to either publicly or privately ask questions any time, too. I get regular DMs asking about something I wrote and I'm always happy to explain more as best I can.
@BE you're doing great. Keep going ☺️👍 I've also really appreciated your posts so far.
@BE My instance only shows the first 500 chars by default unless you click "read more" so the fact that you post fewer longer posts actually means you clog up my timeline _much_ less than most other people ;)
Ours does the same thing! I assume some don't, and I used to tell people to talk to their own instance's administration about their problem. Now I just block them so they don't have to see it anymore :)
@BE
This applies for me too. I get a nice intro with a 'read more' link to unfold the rest of your post. 🙂
"Sometimes interesting, novel things still come up, but, at this point it's largely rehashed info"
Personally I'm having such a hard time with this transition in the infoscape.
*I know* the rough, macro parameters of SARS2 and sequelae now.
Arguing over effect size, or what mechanism is driving what effect, is prurient curiousity.
No longer is information moving fast enough to alter day to day actions, except for wastewater analysis from https://zeroes.ca/@anarchodelphis and others, and rare findings like the impact of Relative Humidity on virus survival time in air.
So, for me, I'm left in this awful place where science keeps marching forward, reinforcing the known-awful state of the world, and no matter how many times I cite Statistics Canada, BMJ, Lancet, etc., I can't get loved ones or HCWs or politicians to understand.
Why won't decision makers and people I care about READ THE DAMN PAPERS AND ACT IN ACCORDANCE?!
Results have been being replicated for years now - NOTHING zeroes are concerned about is fringe or unsupported!
And so - yet again, for me personally - my urge to know and to understand is something I actively need to *repress*. If I can't convince decision-makers, and my own risk assessment and actions are relatively unchanging at this moment, it is a waste of energy and time.
Which is frustrating.
Especially because *acting contrary to well-established evidence* is the root cause of our polycrisis.
On a happier note:
"things I am eminently qualified to talk about and could write books on if I thought anyone would actually read them."
*Please do* - look at the success and impact of The Three Ages of Water.
If you can't be a whistleblower, at least you can leverage your knowledge and writing skills to help crack the public consciousness.
Even if it's a small fraction of people who believe the well-documented ground truths.
@BE I'm someone else who appreciates your posts and am glad to see them in my timeline. Do these complainers not know how to scroll past what they don't want to read? Or unfollow? Neither option is that difficult.
My only issue is that I'm jealous that you can write such long posts. :)
@BE Be you.