Tech: How long should a post be?

Subject: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 08:58 PM

I thought I had read somewhere on a Thread a while ago about how long a post should be but I cannot find the information anymore. Was I mistaken or is there a suggested length due to Tech issues?
Just curious as there are a few posts around at the moment that are very long. Or maybe I read that the length issue only applied to cut and paste?
Anyone able to help?
Thank You.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:05 PM

when there was a LOT of problems with copy 'n paste articles, Joe Offer warned that anything longer than a screenfull of print was in danger of being edited.....naturally he has discretion about enforcement.

If you just type, you may get by with more, but who knows how much will get read by bored skimmers.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:06 PM

(it's not as much tech, as consideration for others that is involved..)

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:08 PM

Depends how high you want the fence...

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:18 PM

A post should be roughly a third longer than the height of the fence it is supporting. For example, a six-foot fence usually uses an eight foot post: six feet above-ground and two feet buried.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: pdq
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:56 PM

Check with the post office.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:58 PM

The one-screen restriction applies only to non-music, copy-paste posts - if that situation applies, please provide an excerpt or a summary, plus a link. For music information, please copy-paste the entire text, plus give a link to the location where you found it.
And just because we're nice, the one-screen limit is measured on my 30-inch widescreen monitor - and we don't bother enforcing the limit when copy-paste posting is not epidemic.
But of course, if you are boring and redundant, you should perhaps expect people to treat you like you're boring and redundant.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:04 PM

Akshuly BWL - in my area because of the cruddy soil, the "code" says at least 1/3 of the post has to be in the ground. You can make a 5' fence, which is the maximum allowed by my city without a variance, with an 8' post, but even then the post is only up to the top crossbar, with the facing boards extending above.

Those who want a 6' fence can usually get the variance for a back fence close to a street with "noisy" traffic, but they need 9' (usable but hard to find) or 10' (obtainable for a price) posts.

As to a mudcat post, long paste jobs are deprecated, and may be subject to editing. Lyrics should be posted for collection if they're of an applicable sort. "External sources" that can be expected to be available for a while should be linked, with a description of the content and and personal observation/comment as to why it's significant.

For original thoughts, there seems to be no formal limit, although it should be understood that many people make it a practice to ignore long posts. Some of us probably wish a few people would coordinate "end of typing" a bit better with their "end of thinking," and quit when they've run out of ideas, but ... .

mea culpa

John

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:07 PM

Thank you for the Information Joe Offer and Bill D regarding the question I asked.
The advice on Fence Posts I consider to be a bonus! Thanks:)

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:14 PM

I wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot Pole, or Ukranian if a Pole were not available.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:18 PM

I only included the bit of fenceposts to demonstrate that even GUEST wouldn't read a too long post, and so he'd miss that I actually mentioned the thread topic.

Additional lies on request.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 11:08 PM

In some of the counties in dry country such as in Eastern Oregon (the east side of the Cascade Range), corner fence posts are not buried at all but are inserted into cairns that are piled high with rocks. The fences themselves are usually electric.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 12:57 AM

A monitor is just not as comfortable to read as a book, so if a post is more than three paragraphs of the usual length, I just don't bother with it.
---------------------
What was that famous quote from Lord Chesterton, something to the effect that "this letter would have been shorter, but I ran out of time" ?

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:09 AM

Hey, I'm married to a Pole, but she's only five-foot-six.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: open mike
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:10 AM

i seem to recall that the limit of most

people's attention span is 70 words

anything more than that is just defecation

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:37 AM

I have made this letter longer because I lack the time to make it shorter.
- Blaise Pascal, 1656

I borrowed it for the Piano Accordion Permathread... :-)

which is over 160 Kb of about a half a dozen of my posts....

and I'm pretty sure not too many people have read THAT all the way thru!

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Shambles
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:44 AM

As long as the poster thinks it needs to be........

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:53 AM

I bet I've made longer posts than you Shambles!

:-)

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 02:03 AM

As long as the poster thinks it needs to be........

As long as it is the poster's thinking we are presented with...

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 02:09 AM

... so your accent, GUEST, is on 'poster' or 'thinking' ???

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Al
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 02:11 AM

How long should a post be?
TSTB

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 02:14 AM

No longer than will fit in the Post Box...

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 07:54 AM

doesn't it fall into the Rod, pole or perch category? if so, 16 feet, six inches

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:07 AM

Attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words

attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words attention span is seventy words


---------------
Above we have seventy words. It's a reasonable length for a post, though I would read more if I were interested in the topic.

I'm sure that on a web page dealing with something I cared about, such as health, gardening, geology or travel, I would read far more than seventy words.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:09 AM

Cicely Fox Smith ran acrost a post in her rambles and this link will provide you some of her poetic observations: Click at Your Own Risk!

Here in the States we commonly describe mayhem or murder at the mail distribution centers as "going postal." The term has some correlation with the high percentage of alienated veterans who work at such facilities.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:56 AM

The frequently cited "70 word attention span" is, at least as told to me, a number derived from research on the effectiveness of advertising. As advertising is needed only when you're trying to sell your product in preference to another when there is no difference between the products it may be taken to be the limit for the average ¹idiot (which unfortunately has far too many synonyms among general populations.)

The above 70 words likely will be incomprehensible to anyone to whom the 70 word recommendation is really applicable, which quite fortunately includes only a few regular 'catters (?).

¹ COFs may use "anyone under 30 (or 40) or... " as a synonym in many situations.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 08:33 PM

Que?

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: The Shambles
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 01:45 AM

My advice as a ex-crofter with some experience with fence posts - you should always ensure that when the top of the post is at the required height, that the bottom is not floating above the ground.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 11:43 AM

Home Depot near me stopped selling the 7' metal posts so I had to buy longer ones last summer for a fence repair and they show over the top of the wooden fence because I didn't feel like hack-sawing off the extra. So my posts are too long but they still do the job.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 01:19 PM

SRS -

In the soil we have around here, a too long metal post isn't a problem, if it's just one or two posts. You just drive them a little deeper. Of course you really should have a suitable "post hammer" and opinions vary on whether you really need the customary concrete anchoring with a steel post - especially one driven "extra deep."

If you have rocky soil, of course, once the post hits the first significant rock the post won't go any deeper, so hammering just makes the post shorter by crumpling up the top end. A couple of inches "improvement" is about all that's practical though, with "normal" driving tools - and it may look really messy when you get done if you appy this "method."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 03:54 PM

As long as it takes to clearly convey the message.

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: John O'L
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 06:29 PM

As long as it takes to clearly convey the message

Could you elaborate?

Subject: RE: Tech: How long should a post be?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 06:33 PM

No! (LOL)