After a period of tolerance, the volunteer editors of Cal Catholic are finally cracking down.
Comments that exceed 250 words (approx. 20 lines) will not be approved, starting 9:00 a.m. PDT, August 1.
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YEAH!!!!!!!
Just curious, what’s the reason for the limit?
Did you not read the comment on the side? VOLUNTEERS read these comments, like a teacher who gives an assignment of an essay on some subject, but asks students to limit the number of words or pages. The limit hopefully will inspire some to be more succinct in their comments. It would also be helpful if the volunteers would limit sarcastic or demeaning comments, but that may be too subjective for some. One would assume charity would win the day, no matter what opinion one is expressing.
Thank you, that is the end of all the hot air!! Some of you wonderful folks will now need to get a life!! Good luck!
Most wonderful folks are deemed to be wonderful because they already have a wonderful life, Thomas. You need to use less sarcasm and become less judgmental, Thomas, as I am confident your use of the word “wonderful” was meant to be sarcastic and judgmental. If your comments were less sarcastic and less judgmental, you yourself might occasionally be called wonderful in these posts. So far there seems to be a bit of a deficit of praise in response to your comments, most of which are short, I’ve noticed. Short is not always the equivalent of sweet.
TEM you are funny…look your comments aren’t very long but they sure are exhausting to read….whew…short but crampy….ugg…..its not the long ones that are issues but its sometimes the real short ones by dissenters that are the issue….so exhausting…lol
Maryanne I agree with you…you are so right on!
TEM, prepare yourself for serial writers.
Skai lol…..that’s funny but true….haha
Cereal writers?
The breakfast word of champions!!!
I ran out of coffee just as I finished your post, TEM (ok, I’m fabricating this a bit, but I am indeed outta coffee at this point, and the caffeine kick is fading fast); now what?!
Green Tea is good
thank you. if you have a rule, enforce it, perhaps with a little room for error. otherwise change or eliminate the rule.
Is about time!!!
Good!
Some people write novels in here!
I know it’s just an expression to say novels but Sam have you actually read a whole novel? It’s actually longer….lol
You are quite right Abeca.
To read an entire novel would be a…well…novel idea for me.
Finally! Some CalCatholic fans ought to cultivate other outlets for their commentaries. Just a friendly suggestion, to those it may concern.
Got it. Thanks!
I have rarely commented (2-3 times?) but I find the comments often more interesting and informative than the pithy three items. Unlike a published letter to the editor, an online comment doesn’t take up costly newsprint. Certainly the time in vetting the comments (I would guess several are around the 250 word limit anyway) can’t be that much more. I would hope you would rethink this and continue the utility of CCD.
I agree with Arness’s comments.
Good comments Arness…
Poetic Brevity a Twitter
Hmmm… While it is no doubt intuitively obvious to the densest of people (*you know who your are, no need to rub it in) that the caliber of posting has been greatly enhanced of late…
Not just in breadth and scope, but with fresh insights in to new ways of approaching the same ole (excrement deleted) that clogs the drains, that it may have just tweaked a few noses – pious and not so.
Perhaps it is something I said, or a lot that I wrote –but ‘Twere from the Heart’ and no less sincere for all that. Besides, I back up with sources – which admittedly takes a certain amount of word space – such that I may now need append in a second follow-up.
Hence- to the extent is soothes the savagely ruffled feathers of the resident harpies roosting here – Mea culpa mea culpa mea culpa maxima… I did not mean to imply any Deus Ex Machina in my intrusion in to various one act plays of tantrum theater amongst the literati camped here.
To put it more crudely – I agree that E-Space is not a factor like printing and other publishing – and think that Twitter Size Posts are more suited to Twitter Size Brains.
That being said – It is still a privilege to post here, and I will thus continue to endeavor to strive to try to make an effort to attempt to be more brieferer, erer…
At least IMNPHO
Alas, poor Yorick…where be your gibes now? Better make them in sound bytes rather than gyga bites, forsooth.
Michael McDermott I like your comments….you are intelligent that is for sure….keep it up!
“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours” – Swedish Proverb
I like the whine less, breathe more especially! Speaking of proverbs, I’m rereading Michael Obrien’s book “The Father’s Tale” and the Canadian father, whose son has disappeared with a cult somewhere in Russia, remembers a quote from an old Russian “It is true that we are people of heart…if you ask a Russian for a piece of bread he will take his last piece and tear it in half…he may even give you the whole piece. Fifteen minutes later, if some official comes along and tells him to shoot you, he will shoot you.” Stay in California, Abeca. :)
Dana the Russians are coming……OK…I’ll try but me no like California anymore…the weather yes but the liberal take over….not at all. What’s worst being shot by a Russian or living the liberal take over? hmmm They are both bad…better I find a better spot..tee hee
Now in Swedish:
“Rädslan mindre, hoppas mer, äta mindre, tugga mer; gråta mindre, andas mer, tala, säga mer, älskar mer, och alla bra saker kommer att finnas yours” – Svenska ordspråk
Exactly what we would expect from our fellow Catholics, most of whom were educated by nuns with rulers! How did you bear letting us prattle on for 251 words or more for so many months?
Great response, Maryanne!
Nuns rule! Especially Nuns with rulers rule!
As a rule, I rarely make puns because they slide right off people’s backs.
I was brought up by public school teachers with rulers or reasonable facimile. I still keep my hands on the home keys of a key board because my public high school typing teacher used to come around and whack our knuckles with a pencil if we took them off. It worked!
Mr. Peck, our devoted seventh grade science teacher had a two inch thick wooden paddle w/holes drilled in it that he hung beside the black board and that he used pretty smartly and to real purpose…no bad behavior here! No parent ever complained. If they heard their child got in trouble at school, the child got it again at home!
Our gym teacher had the same thing only with little rocket engines and spikes.
Haha…bring back the rack, the thumb screws, the man traps of yore. But we digress…
hahahahaha lol
“It is easier to write a book with footnotes than the same book written so that children can understand it.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living
As always…Thank you CCD for your previous generosity! Keep up the good work!
Yes thank you CCD for your generosity. I’m sure it’s not about the length but it’s all about the faithfulness to the faith and it’s truth that is what matters the most….so God bless you always and thank you : )
Catherine, no need to take it so seriously that you cut your usual 12000 lines to 2 !!!
Skai, you should have your own program on radio or television.
You can be quite a hoot! :)
Sam, you get a meritorious ribbon for that one … well, for wading through my phd (the “piled higher and deeper” type … type? “punny seems to be my middle name sometimes) enroute to a knee slapping belly laughing hollerin’ hoot. Yep, I can do that sometimes, but it costs the listener a lot of misery waiting for the punch line.
Sam that would be interesting….
Just wondering, will posters have to monitor the point were they have reached 250 words themselves? Will the comments be automatically cut off at the point of 250 words as they were in your old format or will you just refuse to post something that is 251 words or greater?
I recall that in your old format, comments that were longer than what was allowed were simply continued on in a second, third or fourth posting by the poster. As such, I do not see how this saves any time for the volunteers.
All this being said, I personally won’t read some of the extra long postings, while I will read others. The same goes for the short entries. What is most important to me, is the quality and interest of what is being posted as opposed to the length. No one wants to read boring prater regardless of how short it is!
Tracy, I imagine that, if someone goes on and on, the editors will simply cut them off in the middle of a sentence because otherwise
hahaha. pretty funny sa
It might be faster just to count the 20 lines or less.
Lt’s abrvte, An. I cn wrt 2 wds n cvr evn mre subjt mat. Wutdya say?
Anne your right but I thought it was 25 lines or less?
Good. Never read the long ones anyway.
Thanks to Maryanne for bringing up the child abusive behaviors nuns frequently engaged in, like hitting children with rulers. Small wonder we have a child abuse problem in our society.
Child abuse? I quickly learned that if you behaved yourself, you didn’t smacked on the knuckles with a ruler. Now good cause is blaming those nuns from fifty years ago for current child abuse! No connection at all! Look at all the stuff that kids get away with in the modern school system.
Thanks John you are right, I even saw that in little house in the prairie series, they showed the teacher punishing a child with a stick. Often in old movies they show that teachers, yes public school teachers would hit with the ruler or stick. It was a practice done in the old days….so John you are correct…good cause needs to get knowledgeable and to know the difference.
Personally, if I see a comment that is more than 4 or 5 lines I just skip over it.
If they can’t say what they want to say in as many sentences, it’s probably just a lot of hot air anyway! Smart decision.
Learn to speed read. How else do you think long winded writers remember what they’re writing about?
Skai you are right, speed read or even scanning is fine but it’s all about quality not about quantity…I enjoy good reads, especially wisdom filled.
I would have read the comments except that I was distracted by the advertisement in the right hand margin, you know that one by Filipino Cupid.com.
Good job Cal Catholic.
P.S Including this = 34 words
The adverts to the side respond to the particular computer user, dude. Now we know :)
Indeed, Skai… My ads are all for Catholic schools!
Dana, that’s a relief to hear. Because of my ads, there are always black ops helicopters circling overhead.
Skai, you probably think you are funny, but you are not. Many people on this site take your drivel seriously. :(
Tsk, tsk. Since when is humor drivel? It’s called comic relief. A merry heart doeth as like good medicine. He who laughs last laughs longest…a warning though, from Bertold Brecht… ‘he who laughs has not been told the terrible news’.
we are all having fun today on this thread….lets enjoy it……see not all articles are too negative or too serious…..laugh a little….I heard you can lose more calories that way…..
BUT AL I disagree..I find Skai to be creative and funny at times….gives us a break from all the serious stuff…but wait…you could be right…some just don’t get his humor or conveying…..
AL, I motivate people to laugh and chuckle on a daily basis … in person … sometimes dozens at a time. If you see a problem with this, you should fill out a complaint form and send it to the Vatican.
Skai lol
Why? This blog site is a good one. An arbitrary length limitation does nothing to make debate better. However, it does promise to lead to a growing number of comments by bloggers using ALL CAPS, and using !!!, or $#@!??* to make a point. Shorter is not better; saying what is necessary is (forgive the poor grammar).
Yip …….
Winston Churchill once said (I paraphrase) that if he had to give an extemporanous speech for twenty minutes, he was ready right now. But, if he had to give a speech of no more than ten minutes it would take him a week or two to prepare. I too am guilty of the former and will have to go back to basics to meet the latter. I could just go on about this, but ….
hey pretty neatO
I didn’t mind the long comments from some…they were informative and full of knowledge. Especially one day I was reading a very lovely one about the faith and saints…I enjoyed it so much that I re-read it over again so I can memorize the very important info. I enjoy good comments whether they be long or short, that are full of truth and that are faith filled. It helps me grow…I think that the editors in the past allowed them because they knew the importance of how it enriched us.
But anyhoo…..
Hey editors: I understand where you’re coming from, but what if a very long comment has terrific CONTENT? Does that mean that an arbitrary rule re length will trump CONTENT? Just sking. MARKRITE
I think the longest one I ever entered was a writing of Bishop Robert Vasa on being judgmental. Will this policy forgo this type of entry as well?
With that in mind, I don’t think this policy is a good one, but it is your Website!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Site Monitors,
Please respond to my above comments so I will know whether or not to include such materials in my responses.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
ummm…any answers?
hmmmmm
Mr. Fisher no response I suppose but you can do what ever you want….
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments…
He only gave 10 and very few words…
The Message was very strong!
Try to remember that a picture is supposed to be worth 1,000 words.
Superb…..whallah
Yes but some of the Psalms where long and such beaut!
Skai:
Ya know, I wish I had some Tagalog whip-smart comeback for you, pero, wala!
I came back to see it again, pero, wala na!
Troll or not? That is the question….I don’t recall a Paul Dion here before…but who am I to ask….I don’t always read all responses…..he ha he ha
(From a Mel Brooks Movie):
Moses coming down from the mountain, with three tablets in his hands: “People of Israel! God has given you these fifteen commandments!” (He stumbles, and one of the tablets falls out of his hands, and breaks to pieces)….”er, These Ten Commandments!”
LOL
I was once tall and long(not really petite) ….now with age…as though still young….one shrinks and so do our vocab…or does one shrink and vocab increases…we shall see…. : )
There’s another good reason to bring back the rack, Abeca…guaranteed to make you longer. hahaha Also, hanging from one’s thumbs can give you an extra inch or two.
I never told you this, but I’m really only 2 inches high. I jump from key to key on my lap top, praying no one comes along and closes the lid before I finish my post. pant pant. So glad they’ve limited us to 250 words before I killed myself trying to express my innermost feelings. gasp.
Dana….yes and yes and yes and yes….but it can go both ways…good contents as long as they are good an be both right?
Dana also …depending on who it is..but journaling is not everyone…tee hee
By the way love your comments…you are cute and funny…and about the rack….hmmm I thought going to the Chiropractor would solve the shortish issue? lol
I just posted a comment on another thread that I put a lot of thought into. Perhaps it is more than 250 words (or 1500 characters).
Limiting the length of comments may help moderation, but it will tend to reduce the comment section to cliches and soundbites. It will not foster discussion, in my opinion.
But you can do what you like with your site. It would help, however, if you could add to the comment box an indication of how many characters are left, so that commenters do not waste their time.
Thanks
500 words would be more reasonable; a 250 word limit will only make California Catholic Daily and its viewers the losers of some valuable insights. Some comments require a sequence of statementes (premises) and/or ideas in order to prove the conclusions presented if the comment is to be logically and convincingly presented. Writers for Life