Most people's ideas are ok in three or four paragraphs, which are about as wide as they are long. Vernon must average about 10-15 paragraphs (not factoring in his annotations to other people's ideas). Thus his posts are long but they are visually over-long because they are so narrow. A newspaper article has thin columns but generally goes across the page too. I propose that 'bakers like Vernon automatically get their ideas presented in either one single wide column or (browser window size permitting) two normal columns. Then all the annotations start below the idea. (and below the links, if there are any.)

Perhaps after a certain length of time, when you go to read the idea it opens at the point on the page where the annotations start. I'd also like to be able to make a little mark on pages I've visisted so that when I next go read what's there, I can easily find where I left off. (This was particularly necessary in 'gun control', where there was far too much quoting and cross-referencing going on.) I have a feeling I'm about to be told that's not possible.
-- lewisgirl, Jul 19 2001

I vote yea because it's a great tongue-in-cheeky idea, not because I want [jutta] to implement it.
It's a good job [Vernon]'s got a sense of humour. (I'm guessing he has.)
-- angel, Jul 19 2001


The double entendre in the subtitle wasn't intended. Can I just clarify that I don't really have an opinion on Vernon's ideas, since I have never yet understood one. And to note that at work I'm using a 15inch monitor and my paragraphs in this idea are twice as wide as they are long. However, on my laptop at home, I can't change the screen resolution so I get unnecessarily big fonts and the idea takes up more than half the screen, leaving annotations about three words per line. Particularly difficult to read.
-- lewisgirl, Jul 19 2001


Wider columns are actually more difficult to read than narrower columns... too easy to lose your place when going from the end of one line to the begining of the next.
-- PotatoStew, Jul 20 2001


I'll vote aye, though if I ever wanted to follow all of "Duelling's" twists and turns I'd have to print out the whole thing. Not to knock Vernon, who was Halfbaking when I was but a witless surfer. Still, concision is the heart of brevity, just as precision is the art of levity and circumcision is the fart of depravity. Verbiage, verbiage everywhere and not a thought to think.

[Later--The above makes no sense whatsoever. It was very late at night.]
-- Dog Ed, Jul 20 2001, last modified Jul 21 2001


Yes, Vernon was so amused by this that he never came back.
-- bristolz, Dec 15 2001


he recently posted an idea about chess that I half understood; No 1 son is a chess piece!
-- po, Dec 15 2001


Today (11/24/2003) is the first I've encountered this idea. Do note that one thing people can control, but somehow don't seem to think of, is a Font Size setting in the Browser. Currently I'm using the Mozilla browser, and at the top menu bar, under VIEW, is a TEXT ZOOM option, to make the font larger or smaller. Other browsers usually have some equivalent (it is TEXT SIZE under VIEW in Internet Explorer). Since I have a good-resolution monitor, and good close-up vision, I usually select a high screen-resolution setting in the Operating System (currently 1152x864), and a fairly small font in the Browser. It lets me see a lot of text of anyone's Ideas here, and a lot of annotation-text, too.
-- Vernon, Nov 24 2003


Err... maybe the best way would be to think carefully about explaining the gist of an idea as briefly as possible? Surely fifteen paragraphs aren't always necessary...
-- david_scothern, May 11 2004



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