* (restored)
Too long didn’t read
A generic, and sometimes humorous, reply to someone who took way too much time describing something, while the description would’ve been sufficiently clear and complete with less words. The term is both used by impatient kids when they can’t concentrate long enough to read more then two sentences, and the more intelligent generation-X poster when the “long post” in question could’ve been described just as well, but much shorter, this comment can be taken either way.
Also a reply to long, attention-whorey spam topics.
Politically Involved Chap: (long rant about the state of affairs in the presidential houses of middle-west Europe)
Nooblet455: OMG TOO LOGN DIDNT READ!1
SpamClown69: (Long rant about rubber duckies and why he loves to rub his genitals with them)
MatureFolk: Too long, didn’t read. Idiot.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Too+long+didn%27t+read
tl;dr (abbreviation for too long; didn’t read) is an internet slang expression commonly used in discussion forums as a shorthand response to previous posts that are deemed unnecessarily long and extensive. Due to its indiscriminate usage by many, tl;dr is frequently considered as spam or meaningless replies by both those unaware of the term and those who are familiar with the meaning.
It’s not entirely clear where and when tl;dr first began, but the first Urban Dictionary entry was submitted on January 15th, 2003:
“Too long; didn’t read.”
“OMG LOOK AT ME I AM THE MASTAR OF TEH INTARNET!!! ONE TIME I WAS AT THIS PLACE ON THIS WEBSITE AND IT WAS PORNOS WITH GIRLS NAKED1!1! SO IN CONCLUSION I RULE!”
“TLDR.”
tl;dr has been adopted into common usage on discussion forums like General Mayhem, 4chan, SomethingAwful and FARK since at least 2003, with the earliest known instance dating back to a discussion thread posted by GenMay user “waptang” on June 19th, 2003.
Another Urban Dictionary entry submitted on November 20th, 2003 was later chosen as UD’s Word of the Day on May 16th, 2005. The Google Insights graph for the term indicates a noticeable spike in search interest circa 2006.
Most of the time, tl;dr is used to call out another user on the length of their post. However, in cases of more courteous exchanges and serious discussions, tl;dr can be self-invoked by the original poster as a disclaimer to the readers. It is then paired with a brief summary of the longer original text.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tldr
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Imagine living in a fast-moving kaleidoscope, where sounds, images, and thoughts are constantly shifting. Feeling easily bored, yet helpless to keep your mind on tasks you need to complete. Distracted by unimportant sights and sounds, your mind drives you from one thought or activity to the next. Perhaps you are so wrapped up in a collage of thoughts and images that you don’t notice when someone speaks to you.
For many people, this is what it’s like to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. They may be unable to sit still, plan ahead, finish tasks, or be fully aware of what’s going on around them. To their family, classmates or coworkers, they seem to exist in a whirlwind of disorganized or frenzied activity. Unexpectedly–on some days and in some situations–they seem fine, often leading others to think the person with ADHD can actually control these behaviors. As a result, the disorder can mar the person’s relationships with others in addition to disrupting their daily life, consuming energy, and diminishing self-esteem.
ADHD, once called hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction, is one of the most common mental disorders among children. It affects 3 to 5 percent of all children, perhaps as many as 2 million American children. Two to three times more boys than girls are affected. On the average, at least one child in every classroom in the United States needs help for the disorder. ADHD often continues into adolescence and adulthood, and can cause a lifetime of frustrated dreams and emotional pain.
But there is help…and hope. In the last decade, scientists have learned much about the course of the disorder and are now able to identify and treat children, adolescents, and adults who have it. A variety of medications, behavior-changing therapies, and educational options are already available to help people with ADHD focus their attention, build self-esteem, and function in new ways.
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/l/bladd.htm
“Didn’t Read, LOL” is an expression commonly used in response to someone else’s post that is deemed too long or uninteresting, quite similar to the usage of the term TL;DR (too long; didn’t read). The phrase is usually iterated either in the form of reply comments or animated GIFs of people dancing in a carefree manner.
The earliest known mention of the phrase “didn’t read, LOL” can be found in a ColoradoFans forum thread posted on September 14th, 2006.[1] In the thread, the original poster (OP) shared photographs of his 2006 Silverado pickup truck with a verbose description of upgraded features, to which forum user Dillusion replied:
I didn’t read lol. I just looked at the pictures.
The first known GIF instance featuring the phrase surfaced some years later in July 2008, when IGN forum member Jaslar_Tha_Kidd_2 posted an animated GIF of dancing Sam Norman from the 2007 viral music video What What in response to the original poster’s lengthy post about his relationship issue.
Prior to the emergence of captioned GIFs in 2008, the phrase had been often used in an apologetic tone by forum commentators who hastily replied to a discussion thread without actually reading the original post. Throughout 2009 and 2010, the GIF collection continued to grow as they spread across other highly-trafficked discussion forums, most prominently in male and athlete-oriented communities such as BodyBuilding forum, Sherdog and InsideHoops forum. In most circumstances, “Didn’t Read LOL” GIFs are used deliberately to heckle others for posting something unworthy of one’s time.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/didnt-read-lol
Four years after Britney Spears’ breakdown, she’s again promoting a new album, Femme Fatale, out Tuesday, though it’s far from clear she’s fully recovered. But industry sources tell Jacob Bernstein that won’t hurt her career.
How do you market a pop star with a fragile connection to reality and a work ethic that appears to be somewhat diminished?
It’s a question record labels have faced over and over again, from the worst days of Stevie Nicks and Chaka Khan’s careers in the late 1970s and early ’80s, to Whitney Houston’s comeback attempt last year, and finally to Britney Spears.
On Tuesday her new album, Femme Fatale, is released, and Jive/Zomba is doing everything it can to keep her in the public eye, while at the same time avoiding the glare that comes with that.
But what else is Spears’ team to do? Four years ago, their golden goose had a meltdown of Charlie Sheen-like proportions, shaving her head and then attacking a car with an umbrella, as a slew of paparazzi went snap, snap, snap. From there, she spent the next few months checking in and out of rehab centers, failing to show up at custody hearings for her children, and being hospitalized, presumably for having a psychological break. Her money was placed in a conservatorship that her father, a notorious stage parent, controls to this day.
Since then, things have gotten quieter, but there have been conflicting indications that Spears has fully come out the other end, or that she even wants to be famous anymore. Touring in 2009 for another album, the appropriately titled Circus, the singer of mega-hits like “…Baby, One More Time” and “I’m a Slave 4 U” barely addressed her fans on the microphone in between songs. During an appearance on Ellen around that time, Spears did a skit where she went caroling with the chat host, but she hid the entire time beneath a pair of sunglasses, again saying little.
One source whose company makes money from Spears says, “The idea of a star having a breakdown and putting them back into place is near impossible,” before going on to liken her promotion process to putting “an alcoholic back in a bar and expecting them to be OK… So you end up putting in safety cushions and still, it seems weird.”
That it does. One after the other the interviews come, and one after the other, the elephant in the room just gets bigger.
“If you’re limited in what you can do [on the publicity trail], eventually the public figures it out,” says the last source. “She’s in a busy market with Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Ke$ha. There’s a lot of artists in that lane. It’s hard to keep putting Band-Aids on and hoping the problem goes away. Eventually, the public figures it out.”
Adz
This doesn’t even read like an article. It would be better if the points were constructed better. But for the most part the article doesn’t offer anything new. So it’s both boring, poorly structured, and blatantly repetitive, using the same quotes from the interviewer twice in two different sections. Mess.
Monroe
So people are refusing to read it because they can’t handle reading a few paragraphs? Or is it because they refuse to acknowledge any negative criticism in regards to their fave?
Tysen
http://atrl.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118519
Traditionally, the phrase too long; didn’t read (abbreviated tl;dr or simply tldr) has been used on the Internet as a reply to an excessively long statement. It indicates that the reader did not actually read the statement due to its undue length.
As a label, it is sometimes used as a tactic to thwart the kinds of discussion which are essential in collaborative editing. On the other hand, tl;dr may represent a shorthand acknowledgement of time saved by skimming over or skipping repetitive or poorly written material. Thus, the implication of the symbol can range from a brilliant and informative disquisition being given up due to a reader’s lack of endurance, interest, or intelligence, to a clustered composition of such utter failure to communicate that it has left the capable reader with a headache; judging this range is very subjective.
Writers often begin a project by writing long-winded drafts. As they go through the iterative process of revising their work, they (should) come to a better understanding of what they’re trying to communicate and be able to reduce the length of the work. If this process is stopped prematurely, the result is needlessly long. Writers may err towards wordiness out of concern that short prose which is not carefully edited (at high time cost) would oversimplify, to the point of distorting or omitting, or carry a higher risk of being misunderstood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Too_long;_didn%27t_read
I wonder what percentage of people who share articles or videos on social media sites are actually reading the whole thing. How often do we share something because we want others to think we are intelligent or cool? How often are we sharing, merely to garner attention or stir the pot. I never share things that I don’t read at least some of it, but it’s rare that I get to the end of the piece.
I was inspired to write about the subject of our lack of attention spans and increased “sharing” of things we didn’t read because I actually read an article in its entirety yesterday. It’s so rare that I can finish an article that didn’t have naked pictures, some Charedi scandal, or other pot stirring instances that I felt the need to give it such a lavish introduction.
Heshy Fried
http://www.frumsatire.net/2013/08/30/lack-of-attention-span/
Just like it killed pagers, travel agents, the Free-Ads and innocence, the internet has basically killed the Oxford Dictionary. In its Oxford English Dictionary form, it was the 20-volume, goatskin leather-bound king of bookshelf dictionaries, but now that Oxford Dictionaries Online exists, it’s just like any of the other boring databases of words you can find on the internet. Except that you have to pay to use it so no one does. The Oxford Dictionary won’t become obsolete, but it’s no longer the go-to for definitions. In fact, urbandictionary.com – a site that kinda lacks the gravitas of the OD brand – completely smashes it for hits. Hey, things change.
Except change can be a hard thing to embrace. I suppose it’s like when my relationship fell apart so I cut myself bangs, or when I moved into a ground floor flat and forgot to stop walking around nude with all the windows open. For the last few years, the Oxford Dictionary has been stumbling around naked, covered in tufts of its own split ends, desperately grasping at youth culture by incorporating an increasing number of irrelevant words. It’s not “LOL” and I don’t “heart” it. (Which, by the way, has been a grammatically correct sentence since 2011, according to the people who run the Oxford Dictionary.)
This week they added a bunch of kerazy new words, including: “vom”, “phablet” and “twerk”. First it was the faddish and “minging” Ali G-isms, now the OD is taking it upon itself to define the behaviour of Miley Cyrus’ butt. Is all this attention-seeking necessary, guys? I get that you’re trying to record the English language as it develops, but look me in the eye and tell me you’re not also revelling in the headlines, the endless mock-outrage, the publicity, the scandal. Check the back of your skirt because I’m pretty sure it’s tucked into your knickers and your PR department is showing.
Also, by your own definition, a dictionary is “a book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language”. Note that it doesn’t say “some words that were in the paper this week because of the VMAs the other night”. You’ll add “twerk” but not “yanking”? “Street food” but not “munch”? By selectively adding slang terms and refusing to acknowledge others, you’re betraying the very definition of what you are. Talk about an identity crisis.
Bertie Brandes
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/oxford-dictionary-new-words
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p.s. Hey. ** Zak Ferguson, Hi, Zak. Thanks a lot for your list! I noted the ones I don’t know, and I’ll get a search going. Hope you’re great. ** h (now j), Hi. This year has definitely been full of wonderful things, in the book realm especially. Great lists, thank you. Again, I’ll look into everything I don’t know. Big envy on you getting to see that Ray Johnson show. xo. ** Chris Kelso, Hi, Chris. Good to see you here, man. Well, of course, about ‘ItA’, and thanks for slipping it to me early. Dude, congrats on the impending dadhood. That’s intense. Well, based on the experiences of dudes-to-dads I know. Good intense, mind you. There’s a t-shirt with me on it? Wow, that’s trippy. I’ve never read Harlan Ellison, I don’t think, but I had a conversation with him once at a book festival we were both doing panels at. Lively guy. I’ll look for ‘A Lit Fuse’. I am curious. Thanks, sir, and happy week! ** Mike, Hi, Mike. Welcome! I think I would say that James Coleman show is the best thing I’ve seen all year. Totally blown away. So, yeah. Thanks for the input, and take care. ** _Black_Acrylic, Naturally, sir. And, hey, look (up above) what I found in my old blog’s ruins, eh? Ditto about the Poly Styrene doc.** Tosh Berman, Thank you, Tosh. Great stuff on your lists, a lot of which needs investigation by me. The Nitzsche singles collection and the Gene Clark especially jump out this morning. Excited to see/hear your upcoming Skelley+Berman double header. ** Ian, Hi Ian. Thanks, man. And thanks for ordering my stuff. I miss libraries. Or I mean libraries where the books are in a language I can read. If you don’t mind pdfs, that zLibrary link I had in the internet section is a great boon. ** Sypha, Hi. I read James Nulick’s book last year. 30 of my faves! You’re a pip. ** Bill, Right, hairdresser. I don’t know where perfumer came from. Hm, Isabel Yap, I’m on it. And ‘Young Diego’. There’s a shitload on your music list that I am thus far deprived of. I wrote them down. Lucky you to have seen the Jerome Caya show. I’ve still only seen a few of his pieces in person her and there. ** adam r., Hi, adam. Welcome to here, and thank you for the tips. Wonderful 2021 list, and thank for putting me and/or my stuff on it. ‘Celine and Julie Go Boating’: so, so good, right? Thanks a lot for the links to your friends’ stuff. I’ll cue them up today. Wait, you’re Marble Faun? That’s crazy. A friend hooked me up the track ‘the longest hallway’ recently, and I was/am so taken I’ve listened to your album a bunch and love it. Wow. Big respect and thanks to you! ** Dominik, Hi!!! Aw, thanks about ‘GONE’. That means a ton, pal. Is there anything more beautiful than a half sucked lollipop? Well, maybe, but not many things! I guess I should offer you (and me) love in the form of osmosis so we can sneak into Harry Styles’s brain and get him on that OF account and thereby save the world and of course make him share the proceeds with us, G. ** maggie siebert, Hi, Maggie! Ha ha, well, time to find a new life’s goal, I guess. Honored to have book there, of very course. And I got a new mom fan to boot! I’ll get that Elizabeth Aldritch book, and I just got the Dean Blunt, and, yeah, it’s terrific. Thank you. Major Monday to you! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. James Whale, no disagreement there. ** Ferdinand, You still here or are you there or are you in between? Have a safe wherever, man. ** Dalton, Hey, Dalton. Just scribbled down the things on your lists that I haven’t seen or heard or read, and what you picked that I do know gets high fives from me. ‘About Endlessness’ should probably be streaming before too long. His films tend to get around. I saw ‘Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus’ and ‘Fat Chance’ at the Rotterdam Film Festival, which was a streaming on-line thing this year. I’m not sure where else they are. Thanks again, really appreciate it. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Again, highly recommend zLibrary if you don’t mind reading pdfs. It’s an amazing resource. Thanks for your lists. I need to hear the Arab Strap and Japanese Breakfast. And I haven’t seen a single one of your fave films. I’ll see what I can hunt down. I think someone here did say that, yes. Can’t remember who/when. Police brutality is a big problem here. But people are making a lot of noise about it, and, when the French makes noise, it usually makes a difference. ** Montse, Hi, Montse! I’m fine now, yeah. No big whoop ultimately. Because of the travel stuff, Protest Sonique is mostly French artists this year, and I haven’t heard of the vast majority of them. Neither has Stephen O even, he knows everything. The Cecilia Pavón book is really lovely. I haven’t read that Kate Zambreno book. I need to. The name Mariana Enriquez doesn’t ring a bell, but I had shitty sleep last night, so my memory might be napping. I’ll investigate. And ‘‘Destello bravío’ too. I need a mind blowing film, that’s for sure. Thank you, my dear friend. Happiest week to you! ** Louis Corax, Hi, Louis Corax. Welcome! I will absolutely for sure get ‘Palais d’Argile’ asap. Thank you so much for tipping us/me about it. And for coming in here. Obviously, feel more than free anytime. ** T, Hi, T. It was kind of a glut, I guess, yeah. A bunch of stuff you mentioned is not yet familiar to me. I’m writing down the unknowns, with a pen on a piece of paper and everything. Thank you. I have never been to a water park. Isn’t that weird, I mean for an amusement park obsessive like me? Don’t know why. Pure coincidence or bad coincidence or whatever. That makes sense about the oyster. Ugh, disgusting, Jesus. Sorry. That’s just so, so not vegetarian. Thanks for the wishy week. My favorite animal is the giraffe, but it doesn’t seem like I could get one of them to do very much. Well, eat with that scary tongue. Okay, that’ll do. I hope your week makes everything you want but can’t afford both affordable and edible. xo. ** polite kid, Hey, buddy! Great to see you! I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering how opening London was treating you, and you it. Your lists contain tons of things I don’t yet know. Which is very good. Thank you, I’m … scribbling … names. Oops, the TLS should have picked you. Obviously. No contest. I don’t know what ‘ It’s a Sin’ is. Something to do with the Pet Shop Boys song? I’ll avoid it. I’m so sorry about your grandma. I hate the length of lifespans, and the falling apart part. I’m sorry. You don’t get your second jab until September? That’s insane? Wtf?! Surely you can get jabbed hugely sooner. That’s ridiculous. Your Placecloud podcasts! Yay! I’m there. sir. Everyone, polite kid aka Oscar Nearly is a brilliant fella in general and one thing he’s done that you can partake of is his ‘weird history podcasts’, which are yours for the clicking on Placecloud. Here. Join the Oscar Nearly cult. I’m okay, didn’t sleep great last night, so a little ‘eh’ this morning, but good otherwise. Weekend was lowkey. Great pleasure had in that Marine LePen’s far right party got completely trounced in the regional elections yesterday. That was very good. I’m gonna split from France for the first time since 2019 and take a visit to the US next week, so I’m stressing and getting ready for that, and working on stuff. Fond wave to you across the shining sea in betwixt us. ** Jeff J, I was very surprised to realise it was mid-year faves time again too. Time is at its weirdest these days. M’s non-fiction is much more interested in communicating clearly with the reader and is much more directly analytical and opinionated than his fiction. No, ‘Melancholy Lens’ is not too academic, no. I don’t think I’ve done a post on N.H. Pritchard. Maybe his stuff was in a group post? It’s an excellent book. Yes, I would start with that Fini book. I haven’t seen the Sparks doc yet. I’m looking and looking for it. Hm, I don’t remember how I found Leyden Jars. I’ve known their stuff for quite a while. Thanks a lot for your lists. Consider me all over everything. ** Misanthrope, I’m a list fetishist who totally gets why some people aren’t. I always knew Rigby was a toughie. And very happy to know I was right. ** Brian, Hi, Brian. Yeah, there’s so much old stuff to catch up on. I’m just old enough to have had a long time to get at least a decent portion of old stuff under my belt and to get freed up for the newbies. I would have figured about Hardy’s prose. Cool you got to Pride. We had ours this weekend too, but I didn’t go. I saw it on TV. It looked healthy. I’m glad you also liked ‘Equation to an Unknown’. Special, right? My weekend wasn’t wildly exciting. As I told polite kid, the Far Rightgot trounced in the elections here yesterday, which was very heartening. I watched a not very interesting documentary, ‘Fathom’, about decoding humpback whale songs. This week should be better. Lots to do. I hope yours starts with a bang or even The Big Bang! ** Right. I found this excellent and informative old post made by Mr. _Black_Acrylic amidst the mess of my murdered blog and thought I would resuscitate it for y’all. Dig? See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 