On cut-tags

[figmo]

I've been admittedly using them less lately.

I like them for memes and went back and added them to one meme.

I dislike them for posts about what's happening with folks because it's an extra click I have to make to see what's going on with them.

Just my $0.02.

Comments

[nelladarren.livejournal.com]

I feel just the same about them! They're o.k. for quizzes and memes because if I don't have so much time I don't want to read through them - but I dislike them with actual stories or reports, just as you write, because I don't want to use an extra click - and also I have to look at the general lj design then... :O)
Even if it's a longish lj post - so what. But I use them myself as soon as I really write something longer than 3 lines because some people prefer their friends pages to show neat little paragraphs...

[bardling.livejournal.com]

I don't always have time to read my whole friendslist right away, so will skin and read those posts that seem more important to me, then go back if I find another ten minutes later in the day, to read a post here or there that I've mentally marked as "want to go back to if there's time". Long posts, memes or otherwise, mean much scrolling each time I pass them up or down hence I prefer cut-tags, since I will rarely re-read, unless there's a specific reason for it.

But I much prefer cut-tags on memes, if nothing else, to no cut-tags at all, thank you.

[mneme]

I agree, except that it is good manners to cut-tag long posts, of whatever sort.

I really wish that the friends list had an option to ignore cut tags and just display it all inline, since if you' have a connection with a slow response time, it makes more sense to just download the lot and look at it at your leisure.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

If a post takes up more than a screen (and a screen for me is between 55 and 75 lines, depending whether it's at work or at home) then I get annoyed. Especially when I'm trying to see what has changed since the last time I read it, or when I'm trying to get back to an entry to see if there are any more comments.

So yes, I like cut-tags. Even when I misread "cut-tagged" as "cat-tugged"...

The thing which annoys me about them is that when you expand one the whole thing appears, so there is almost no point in having more than one cut-tag in an entry because opening the first will reveal all of the rest anyway. Also, they can't be nested (for instance having a "you might want to skip all of this" with inside it "(especially this part)").

[callibr8]

Agreed re the limited functionality of cut-tags. I've wondered myself why they can't truly be nested or otherwise sub-apportioned... I know that the answer to that question is because of the way they're currently implemented... but a more versatile implementation *would* be nice!

Cut-tags depend on the situation

[poltr1]

For memes, I say "yes" to cut tags. For long and winding posts, I tend to say "no" since I cliick them anyway. Although I can appreciate bardling's point -- if a person skims their friends page, doesn't have a lot of time to read, or has a slow connection, there is value to posting a one-paragraph executive summary and/or leading paragraph, and cut-tagging the rest.

I hate using them on my posts, because I want my readers to get the whole detail without having to come back and ask me questions afterward.

To echo "lj user="cflute">, I too wish the implentation of cut-tags would be a little better. If I have multiple cut-tags, if someone clicks on one, they get all of the cut-taggged material, not the paragraph they wanted to see. That's only a minor nitpick, and if it can't be fixed, I'll live with it. Mostly because I would have clicked on the other cut-tags anyway.

Re: Cut-tags depend on the situation

[keristor.livejournal.com]

For me the limited functionality of cut-tags is not so minor. There are many times where I don't want to see the rest (or at least not at that time), and I have wanted to do a post (OK, a rant) which needed multiple levels of cutting (rant summary, and "only go here if you are really prepared to deal with nastyness"). The same with squickness, someone could post with several cut-tags allowing those who wanted to skip to do so, those who wanted an overview to look at that without the details etc.

If I find a post which is too long when I'm skimming, I'll likely skip it altogether and then not go back. Whereas if it is sensibly cut-tagged (not all of it but enough so I can see what it's about) I can mentally mark it (or even open it if I think it's important).

This would be made easier if another feature someone mentioned were implemented, "expand all cut-tags by default", as a switch. Then you could see everything always expanded and I could click on them as I wanted to do so.