There is value in short write-ups!
It's days like today when it seems that every write-up I click on is too long!
E2 used to be a great place to pop into to read some really interesting information about something completely new - or, better still, to write something and share my own interests with others. Yes, of course there's crap on here too, but at the very least it's good to see a cross-section of material to remind us of the vastness of the community that we inhabit when online. I believe that everyone has a right to a voice - not everyone can be clever, or witty, but so long as a person 'tries' then that attempt should not be maligned.
It's pretty easy to spot when someone isn't trying to do a good job with their writing, and they are rightly chastised by the powers that be. If someone posts a GTKY wu in the wrong place then it is only fair that they should be asked to move it. However I see nothing intrinsically wrong with getting to know someone. If we, personally, don't find it interesting then we can stop reading it, but who's to say whether it's going to be interesting in the future?
Anyway, that was an aside. My reason for asking if the bar has been raised too high is that I can no longer spend a short time reading and digesting, upvoting or commenting. Just recently it seems that write-ups have become really long. I just don't have the time to read them, and I certainly don't have time to write them. I like to read good factual nodes, but many of them are now so complex it has become almost impossible. What I like to see is a taster, a comprehensive overview, written for the layman, so that if I'm interested I can go and find out more.
I also enjoy reading creative wus, but here again, they seem to be getting longer and longer. When I choose what I'm going to read, I first go by author, or interesting title, but then I have to check the length of the wu and think, 'Do I really have the time to read and enjoy this writing?' Sadly, the answer is often 'No'.
Writing reams and reams on a subject can sometimes be laudable, yes, and I appreciate the time, effort and research that goes into such a piece. But on the other hand, writing concisely is equally difficult, and requires a certain amount of skill and expertise in order to sort the wheat from the chaff. This should be encouraged.
Infinite Burn says: Brevity is the God of writers, if something can be said in a thousand words, it can be said better in 100. I'm not saying short w/u's are better... but small things that are still contentful are.
Thanks to
dutchess for pointing me to
when Chopin finished a piece he stopped writing it, and to many others for their positive comments.