Article Structure Criticism

Users criticize the article for being too verbose, narrative-heavy, and slow to reach the main point, advocating for upfront summaries, inverted pyramid structure, or TL;DRs to respect readers' time.

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#3132
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Keywords

SEO DON NSFW YouTube KNOWS ADHD ROI article articles read paragraph reading paragraphs skip writing style skim don read

Sample Comments

TomK32 Dec 2, 2022 View on HN

Nobody wants to read a full article anymore...

magic_beans Jun 16, 2019 View on HN

Agreed. The article takes way too long to get to the point. A blurb at the top would have been helpful.

carbocation Dec 6, 2022 View on HN

This article is written such that you have to read the article twice to understand what it's conveying. It could benefit from a two-sentence introduction that addresses the context.

necessity Oct 13, 2016 View on HN

I just can't read these articles that try to be a little book narrating a cute little story. Just get to the point.

m_mueller Sep 25, 2018 View on HN

Not sure whether it's my attention span or just this article's style of jumping around between subjects - I couldn't get past a third into it.This may just be my taste but even in long form articles I want the central hypothesis stated right at the beginning. Don't waste my time with your personal annecdotes, except if the annecdote is so interesting that your whole article is about it, at least then I'll know what you're talking about right from the start. Other

seanwilson Mar 22, 2018 View on HN

I'm not against longer articles but the first paragraph should do a better job of letting you know where the story is going to help you know if you're going to be interested in it. Some subheadings (there's none) would help you know where you are in the story and let you skip to the part you're interested in.

tux3 Aug 28, 2025 View on HN

Counterpoint: I'd rather find out in the first paragraph. If this whole article is going to be a fluffy slop-slathered delve, save me time.

dtzuzu Jan 8, 2017 View on HN

What's the point in posting an article where you can only read the first paragraph? It seems like click/subscription bait to me.

smrtinsert Jan 7, 2022 View on HN

People want an article in a headline, it's ridiculous frankly. Take the extra 3 seconds to scan the page.

andrei_says_ Aug 6, 2016 View on HN

I am a slow reader and every paragraph which is not about "the thing" makes me question the value of what I'm reading.Clicking on a title with this amount of drama and urgency, I expect to read something related to the title. So I see this as clickbait of sorts.Makes me wonder if writing of this type comes from educational requirements having a word minimum, equating wordiness with value.Similar to YouTube tutorials filling 5 minutes with fluff before the 30 seconds of wh