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Tips

Reader comments are important to me. If people didn’t want to read my blog, there would be no point to writing it. That said, I do have a lot of other things I need to do, so I really don’t want to spend more time than I have to on any one message. Here are some tips to get me to read your message:

• Be direct and to the point.
• “On the Internet, nobody can hear you being subtle.” –Linus Torvalds
• Use punctuation appropriately. The next point aside, there’s little I hate more than a long run-on sentence.
• Don’t use abbreviations, even if you think they are common/well-known. I don’t use character-limited chat systems such as SMS (“texting”), so I don’t encounter them often enough to really know them.
  • It’s annoying — and often time-consuming — having to translate messages into English one abbreviation at a time with a search engine.
  • Also consider the confusion some abbreviations may cause, especially when they have multiple meanings.
    • I was taught in 2nd Grade that “ATM” meant “Automatic Teller Machine” (those machines near banks that let you access your bank account), so I found myself quite confused someone told me he was at a local business that had an ATM and then used “ATM” to mean “At The Moment” — which, at the time, I was unaware of as a possible meaning for “ATM”. You may argue that I should be able to figure which meaning you’re using “based on context”, but sometimes multiple meanings are equally valid “based on context” (e.g. the business has an ATM, so my friend could have meant “I’m at the business’ Automatic Teller Machine” or “I’m at the business At The Moment”); I’m not always good with context anyway, especially with text communication, so I may not be able to figure it out “based on context” even if I do know the meaning you’re trying to use.
  • Well-known organizations (e.g. FBI, GCHQ, etc.) are fine, though it would still be helpful to spell it out at least once with the abbreviation next to it, just in case.
• Pay attention to the use of homonyms, e.g. “two” “too” “to”, or “there” “their” “they’re”. I read quickly and tend to interpret these words according to their actual meanings. It’s painfully annoying having to stop to figure out which one you actually meant to use.
• If English is not your native language, write slowly and think carefully about what you’re writing. If you are really worried that I won’t understand your message, you can type the same message a second time in your native language, and I can use an online translator (BabelFish, Google Translate, etc.). Remember! If I have to use a translator, the people running the service might be able to see your message — don’t send anything you want to keep private!