40 Comments
Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Don’t write shorter to accommodate an email client feature.

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Re. Length, please please do not write to the amount that a machine thinks is good. Write to the length of the story you have, and encourage gmail folks to complain to gmail that messages are being cut off. It’s a gmail design flaw.

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

FWIW I prefer the longer emails/essays. Readers who are a few thousands words into a piece won’t mind clicking a button. Those who don’t click the button probably haven’t read (maybe they skipped or skimmed the piece).

One suggestion, if you’re game for it, is to turn the opening essay into an audio podcast like Ben Thompson has at stratechery and others have too.

Thanks for writing,

Jesse

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

One of the big reasons I like the email length as is—and hope you stick with it!—is that I read the newsletter in the mail app on my iPhone or iPad most of the time. In that client it’s not truncated, and I never even really thought about length. HOWEVER I also find it *ridiculous* that email clients truncate long emails like this. Email is FOR long form communication. I have never understood why gmail and other mail clients truncate emails.

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Oct 10, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

I don't use Gmail but even if I did I wouldn't mind at all clicking to read on. Keep writing your newsletters as long as you think they should be. Thanks so much.

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Hi Casey — I don’t mind clicking to extend the email if it’s long, but I’m not sure whether others may not understand it or be annoyed by it. For me, it’s ok! Maybe you can put some sort of heads up/notif on issues where it requires an extra click to avoid confusion?

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Casey -- I'm definitely in favor of emails at the current length and don't see clicking through as a burden. I'm using gmail on my laptop, and today's email cropped right below the 'Talk to me' module with your email.

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

FWIW I see no truncation at all in Hey, the email app that I read this newsletter in.

My $0.02 is don’t compromise content for a minor UX nit.

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Oct 19, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

I prefer your longer posts, and won’t listen to a podcast.

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Oct 12, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Love the content of the newsletter and am a longtime reader. One suggestion I would make is to split the newsletter into two, one email for your daily article and one for the rest of the news feed.

This is because (I believe) these sections serve different purposes to the reader - one is a detailed examination of a particular topic, whereas the other is a collection of several different news articles to be browsed through; in-depth reading and browsing require different mindsets, and are hence best consumed on disjunct moments during the day.

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Oct 12, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

I'd much rather you decide how long your essays should be than an email client. I subscribe because I like reading your writing!

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ha, I was about to come here and say I find the shorter emails less daunting to read in the middle of my day but all the other commenters have convinced me — don’t let the machine keep you down

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Oct 11, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Comprehensive emails are better! I don’t mind clicking a button to get more summaries and analysis.

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Oct 10, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

I will definitely click through the read entire post button on my gmail client to read the rest. No problem with me! Be as long as is necessary. Although I like the typical length you have been keeping it around. Thanks for asking!

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Oct 10, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Write it as long as it needs to be and no longer

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Oct 9, 2020Liked by Casey Newton

Leave it long!

There’s more than enough short journalism in the world. Your viewpoint is articulate and takes time to craft, to tell the story, to see the different sides.

For the kinds of things you discuss/advocate, I would have thought the readers were more than aware that the platforms we engage with don’t control us. To Gmail: don’t tell me when I’m done reading.

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