I think we have all come across such passages, and IMHO the blame for reader confusion in that situation falls squarely on the author and editor, not on the style. Although I admit that the multi-paragraph convention, combined with sloppy editing, could very easily worsen confusion.
Maybe it’s just the books I read, but I don’t recall seeing this convention used in fiction very often. Indeed, I was only thinking of it in non-fiction / journalism / social media contexts when I posted, and was mildly taken aback to find the example I posted, and others, set in fiction.
Thanks for this correction. I was sure of the other two, but should have checked that one myself.
Whereas i came upon it in fiction, and it only just occurred to me that one might use it in journalism. And i may even have figured out the intention. But there were a few books i read as a kid with pages and pages of dialogue, and those quotes were the only indication of who was speaking, and it was really easy to get confused and lost.
A non-grammar pet peeve of mine here at SDMB is posters who mention something related to their location without identifying where they are. As if we somehow know where they live.
“That’s not the law here.”
Where?!?
The only possible excuse for this was the poster formerly known as Paul_In_Saudi. In his current incarnation as Paul_was_in_Saudi, not so much.
Huh. I feel like, “that’s not the law here” is evidence for, “no, that’s not universal” without needing to know where “here” is.
Also, i apologize if i drive you nuts that way, but i like to pretend I’m at least a little anonymous, and so I prefer to be very vague about where i currently live.
Well, that particular phrase may not have been the best choice, but I have seen posters refer to “here” in a context where the actual location was relevant.
Or specify a wider region, eg, Western Massachusetts, if you don’t want to admit living in Springfield.
ETA, I wasn’t thinking of you specifically, @puzzlegal.
Eh, you could have been. I usually say that I live in suburbia in the northeast, which covers a lot of jurisdictions. And I had one really weird interaction fairly early on on this board where I asserted that (iirc) attitudes about guns where I live are not the same as they are where the other person lived, which was something like Texas. And, honestly, I thought that was both relevant and ought to be easy to believe, without needing to name exactly where I live.
I could do without the posters who add cutesy things like “and additional words for Discourse” at the end of their brief post.
Yes, we get it. Discourse has a minimum post length and you’re annoyed by it. Maybe it was clever in the first few weeks when we were getting used to Discourse, but the joke has run its course. Add something useful, add a few dots if you can’t think of anything else. Seeth silently in your annoyance rather than annoying everyone else.
If you’re going to respond to a post, add something to push the conversation forward. Posts that only have “lol” or “ISWYDT” or “I came in here to post that” with nothing else are a waste of time.
Exceptions include thanking someone or otherwise being polite.
I have mixed feelings about this. We don’t have a “Like” button here, but every once in awhile someone posts something so clever that I think it’s sad if it goes by with nobody acknowledging it.
Yeah, I think short answers are sometimes fine. Someday I’m going to post something really funny (really, I am) and it’s nice when someone laughs or agrees. And I appreciate the occasional “ISWYD” to clue me in that I missed some bit of cleverness.
While it’s something to consider, I actually don’t mind it a bit when people do this. Discourse has no business dictating the length of our posts. We’re under no obligation to make Discourse (or anyone else) happy by adding anything more than what we intended to say or to waste any time on it.
Well, it’s the SDMB (Ed) doing this. Discourse just provides a parameter to define the minimum length for a forum. The admins here could change it to zero if they wanted.
Even so, bother them about it. Don’t annoy all the users who are trying to follow a thread.