Writing Archives

Showing posts with label writing articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing articles. Show all posts

Do You Like the Infinite Scroll Feature?

Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Infinite or endless scrolling is a feature that some sites have. When you scroll down to the end of a webpage, if infinite scroll has been enabled, then more and more posts or content will automatically load.

blogging, informational article, poll results, reading articles, reviews, writing, writing articles, infinite scroll, persona paper, infinite scroll feature
This was made using Persona Paper's poll feature

This will keep happening until all the posts have been loaded. If this feature has been disabled, you will see the navigation buttons like 'next' or 'previous' instead. Clicking on those buttons will take you to the next or previous page of your site where new posts will load.

Do you like infinite scroll? I actually don't like this feature for a number of reasons, so I like having the option of disabling it. Some sites let you do that, but some don't.

So, how 'bout you? What are your thoughts on this feature? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

Note: you might notice that a lot of the options in the poll are about reasons to hate or dislike endless scrolling. If you know any more pros or positive things about this feature, then feel free to mention them.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

cheri wrote on March 11, 2015, 8:50 AM
Just do not like it. Thats all.

FreyaYuki replied to cheri on March 12, 2015, 12:51 PM
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I really don't like this feature too :-(.

crowntower wrote on March 11, 2015, 9:15 AM
If we are viewing photos or quotes in a photo I would love to have an infinite scroll... hehehehe, because I am so lazy to click the next button... hahahahah! But in some cases I would love to disable it. Thanks and God bless.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 12, 2015, 1:07 PM
Ah, I see. You're welcome. I was mostly talking about articles and posts though like those that appear on the homepage of a site or blog.

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on March 11, 2015, 10:53 AM
I wouldn't mind to see it on Persona to tell you the truth. I like the feature.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 12, 2015, 1:09 PM
Ah, let's agree to disagree then 😃. LOL. But may I ask why you like the feature? Just trying to see what others think of the infinite scroll feature. I see there are others who don't like it either, but then there are also those who do.

MakeMoneyOnline replied to FreyaYuki on March 12, 2015, 2:25 PM
I've only seen this feature on Pinterest and Fiverr (maybe one or two other sites I can't remember). I like the feature because I don't have to click "next" to get to other posts. I'd love to see it on Persona because I like to see what's happening on the first page and when I hit the end of the page I either can't find the "next page" button or I'm too lazy to even look for it. But if the next posts would appear, I'd scroll much further and find more interesting posts to comment on.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 13, 2015, 12:45 PM
Ah, I see 😃.

For Persona Paper - I'd also like it if we could see more posts, but I'd prefer seeing next-prev buttons rather than infinite scroll. It would be good if we can see more posts so we can read even the older ones. Right now, it's hard to find those old posts so I agree that we should be able to see and easily find more posts here.

About Pinterest - what I don't like about the infinite scroll on this site is how, for example, you search for something and you end up seeing lots of pins. You can keep scrolling down and more pins load and show up. But if there's way too many of them, you can't see them all in 1 day. If you have to leave the site for now, when you come back, how can you find the place where you left off?

You can't because all the pins loaded in one page so you have to start at the top again and then start scrolling down again. On the other hand, if there were next-previous buttons, you can take note of the URL link of the page you're on so you can just go back to this page to continue looking through the older pins when you have the time to do so.

MakeMoneyOnline replied to FreyaYuki on March 13, 2015, 2:08 PM
Makes sense. Probably there should be a hybrid option, where you could scroll but also quickly find the place where you left off.

arthurchappell wrote on March 11, 2015, 11:45 AM
I prefer it on big sites as waiting for fresh pages to load can get very irritating

FreyaYuki replied to arthurchappell on March 12, 2015, 1:18 PM
Ah, I see. For me, pages don't really take much time to load so I don't mind. I'm actually not fond of the infinite scroll feature on, for example- Pinterest because, being new there, there are so many pins that I have yet to see.

There's no way I can seem them all in one sitting. For instance, I can use their search feature to search for pics, but I won't be able to finish looking at all of those pins in 1 day. But if I want to go back to the spot where I left off, I can't do that thanks to the infinite scroll feature. I will have to start searching again and then load all the pins again.

nbaquero wrote on March 11, 2015, 5:37 PM
FreyaYuki I don't really mind the feature, but I wouldn't implemented on my sites/blogs.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on March 12, 2015, 1:25 PM
I turned off this feature on my Tumblr blogs and I'm not implementing it on the Google Blogger blog that I'm working on. The only exception is WordPress, but that's because you don't really get a choice. You either end up with the real automatic infinite scroll or the fake manual infinite scroll.

*Notes:
- This was previously published on Persona Paper on March 11, 2015, 7:54 AM

Reasons Not to Use URL or Link Shorteners

Thursday, October 18, 2018
Also known as, "What is the problem with shortening links?"

Reason to Use Link Shorteners

People use link shorteners to shorten their URLs especially when they want to share sites on Twitter thanks to the limitation on the number of characters per tweet.

blogging, informational article, reading articles, reviews, writing articles, writing, URL shortener, link shortener

Reason to Dislike Link Shorteners

What are your thoughts on this? Would you willingly click on a shortened link? Or would you actually be averse to doing so?

For me, it’s actually the latter. Shortened URLs look like a mix of letters that don’t make sense at all. That’s precisely what makes me reluctant to click on those links.

It’s because you don’t know where those links will take you. How would you know what website you’ll be brought to based only on the shortened URL?

blogging, informational article, reading articles, reviews, writing articles, writing, URL shortener, link shortener

You can see something like bit.covzxwm (example only), and that doesn’t look appealing or safe especially not when you compare it to something from sites like Daily Two Cents such as dailytwocents.com/article-title-here.

The latter URL tells you which site you’re going to be brought to, so you won’t end up being surprised when you click the link. When you click on the link, you know you’re going to this particular site to read this particular article.

Is It Safe to Click on a Link Shortener?

But with a shortened link, if you’re just looking at the URL, it will tell you nothing, so how will you know it’s safe to click on that link? What if you’re brought to a dangerous site with viruses and malware or something?

Or what if you end up getting redirected to some other site? What if you get taken or redirected to an ad?

Of course, that’s not to say that all short URLs would do something like that, but, with the way they look, they just give that sort of impression or vibe, don’t they?



What do you think? So, are you reluctant to click on short URLs that you see on websites like Twitter, or do you not mind them at all?

*Notes:
- This was previously published elsewhere
- The last updated date is listed as Aug 12th, 2015 1:01:25am
- First image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by Cpro (CC:BY-SA) from Wikimedia Commons
- Image is meant to symbolize someone using a link shortener
- YouTube video shows you how to shorten links

3 Reasons To Add Read More Links To Articles And Blog Posts

Friday, August 17, 2018
Also known as "Importance and usefulness of read more links in articles and blog posts."

A blog’s homepage will list or display all articles or blog posts that have been published on said site. The front page will usually show a preview of an article with a read more link right below said snippet.

informational article, reading articles, writing, writing articles, read more link, blog posts

Exactly what is so important and useful about this kind of link? Why would you want all your articles to have this feature?

Pique people’s interests with your article preview

The post preview provides a teaser to your article. It helps to pique people’s interest and curiosity while the read more link located right below the teaser encourages people to view or check out the entire post in question.

Read more link encourages people to view the entire article

If your readers or visitors can see the entirety of your articles on your blog homepage already, then what reason would they have to go to the page where your article is?

They don’t need to do that anymore since they can already see and read your entire post straight from your site’s front page. This is why having a read more link is important. This gives people a reason to check out your article if they want to find out more.

Read more link keeps your homepage organized

Furthermore, this feature is useful in cutting or truncating articles that are too long. Instead of having your really long articles show up on the homepage, you can cut these articles by using a read more link.

This prevents people from having to scroll down endlessly on your homepage. It also stops your front page from looking too cluttered and disorganized.

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Open book in the image is meant to symbolize the read more link
- This was previously published elsewhere

4 Reasons Why You Want To Change The Titles Of Your Articles

Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Writing sites and blogging platforms like Tumblr, Medium, and Google Blogger usually let you change the titles of your articles whenever and anytime you want to. But what reason is there to want to change the titles of your articles?

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Improve your article titles

If you think the titles of your articles need improvement, then, by all means, feel free to change them. Improving the titles of your articles is definitely a good thing so you can get more readers.

If the titles of your old articles are not as good as the newest or most recent article titles that you have, you should go ahead and change them to improve them. This is especially so if, previously, you struggled to come up with great titles for your articles.

Make your article titles interesting

Are your article titles boring, dull, and bland? You should definitely change them to make them more interesting. Who wants to read boring titles, right?

Put yourself in your potential article visitor or reader’s shoes and think about what kind of title would get you to check out an article.

More often than not, the title is the only thing that people can see before they can look at the rest of your article.

If the title doesn’t interest them or grab their attention, then they won’t bother to read said article. They’ll just look for other articles that are more appealing and interesting to them.

Article titles are too vague and mysterious

A mysterious title is pretty good if it can help to pique your readers’ curiosity and get them to want to check out the rest of the article.

But you can’t be too mysterious and vague about it, otherwise people won’t have an idea on what the article is going to be about.

Or they might get an idea on the article’s topic based on its title and they think that sounds interesting, but when they check out the article, they’ll soon find out that they got it wrong and that would no doubt upset them.

So be sure that your titles aren’t misleading and that they’re actually relevant to the article in question.

Don’t explain everything to your readers or visitors in your article title

Some titles seem to have the contents of the entire article summarized in one line. Don’t do that. You should be giving people a reason to want to check out your article.

If your title already answers their question or explains everything to them, then why would they bother clicking and checking out the rest of your article?



*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to represent someone trying to change the titles of their articles
- YouTube video talks about some things that can help you make your titles less boring and more interesting and catchy
- This was previously published elsewhere

Can Article Titles Be Too Long?

Saturday, July 21, 2018
Is it all right to have long titles for your articles? I don’t know, but I hope long article titles aren’t all that bad since a lot of my articles have pretty long titles (this is one of the few that has a pretty short title actually).

online writing, write articles, blog posts, improve titles, interesting, catchy titles, long titles, descriptive titles

Do you have a hard time coming up with article titles?

It’s hard to come up with a short title though without coming across as way too vague or even misleading. Sometimes, maybe there really is no other way to say some things; what do you think?

Descriptive titles

After all, titles have to be descriptive too, right? And they need to give people a reason to want to check out the article itself by piquing their curiosity and getting them interested.

So you can’t be too vague or broad or generic, and you definitely shouldn’t be misleading or you’ll just piss off the people who decided to check out your article only to find out that it wasn’t what they were expecting or what they were looking for.

How to come up with the right or best article title?

For example, I wrote an article (well, I wrote more than 1, and they all have pretty long titles) about the Malaysian Airlines MH17 tragedy and my title was really long.

This is the title: “How Is What Happened To Sirius Black From J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series And To Those Being Blamed (Russia, Ukraine, Etc) For The Malaysia Airlines MH17 Tragedy Similar?”

I couldn’t come up with anything shorter. I mean, I can’t just simply say Malaysian Airlines MH17 tragedy since that would make the title way too plain, and it doesn’t say anything about the contents of the article at all.

Sure, anyone who clicks on it will be expecting to see stuff about the airplane crash, but this topic is broad enough as it is.

There are many aspects of the plane crash that you could be talking about and people need to know that before they decide to read the article. What if they wanted to know about something else and not specifically about whatever your article is about?

What do you think? Can article titles be too long? How can they be shortened then? Or maybe it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter; what say you? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a message in the comments section below.



*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize someone trying to come up with suitable and interesting titles for their articles
- YouTube video talks about some things that can help you make your titles less boring and more interesting and catchy
- This was previously published elsewhere

How To Improve Your Article Titles?

Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Do you hate writing titles for your articles or blog posts? Some people find it easy to improve their article titles. Some will struggle and have a hard time. I’d say I’m more on the latter. Sometimes I hate having to write titles for my online articles or blog posts.

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It’s such a pain and hassle trying to come up with one. I always have so many draft titles. Usually, I write a long list of titles before even choosing one. More often than not, I just write my post first and leave the title for last.

Say no to misleading titles

The main body of the article is definitely easier for me. Article titles have to be interesting, not misleading. They should be able to get people to read them. They should be able to pique their curiosity.


I’ve been working on improving the titles on my articles (like the ones on this blog and my other Tumblr and Google Blogger blogs) a few at a time, but it’s definitely not that easy.

Edit your article titles

Sometimes I’ve to change the article title several times before I’m satisfied. Even then I might end up changing them again later on when or if I come up with something new that seems interesting enough. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easier way to improve our article titles? What do you think about this?



*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize someone trying to improve their article titles
- YouTube video talks about some things that can help you make your titles less boring and more interesting and catchy
- This was previously published elsewhere

How To Come Up With Interesting Titles?

Sunday, July 01, 2018
How come your articles should have interesting titles? Many people say that it’s important for articles to have interesting titles in order to draw readers to check them out and read them.

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The title is usually the first thing that people will see or notice when they come across an article especially if said title is of a different or bigger font than the body of the article.

Creating titles is easier said than done

The problem with saying something like that is that it’s easier said than done. How can you come up with interesting titles that will grab or catch the attention of potential readers?


Some articles about this topic might give some examples, but it might not be all that helpful because the title of a post really depends on what the article is about.

Say no to misleading titles

The contents of your article will dictate its title because you can’t have misleading titles. Your titles should convey what your article is about without revealing the entire contents of your text (if people already know what your post is about based on its title, then why would they have any more reason to read the entirety of said article?).

You need to be a bit descriptive when it comes to your titles and yet, at the same time, you can’t be too descriptive. There has to be a balance. Do you think there’s some sort of secret formula or way in which people can come up with awesome titles? If there is, I definitely want to know.



I find that I have a bit of a hard time in coming up with article titles. Sometimes, it really seems that writing the body of the article itself is so much easier than trying to come up with an appropriate and yet interesting title. Sometimes, the titles might seem to be a little too long or maybe even a bit vague.

What about you? Are you having a hard time coming up with titles for your articles and blog posts, or do you find this to be an easy task?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize someone trying to come up with interesting titles since the figure in said image looks thoughtful
- YouTube video talks about some things that can help you make your titles less boring and more interesting and catchy

- This was previously published elsewhere

Why You Need To Use Paragraphs When Writing Articles?

Thursday, June 21, 2018
This post is also known as "Why huge blocks of text are annoying?" and "Why is it important to use paragraphs when writing articles?".

article writing, make articles easier to read, difficult to read posts that are one huge block or wall of text, add paragraphs to articles

Articles with huge blocks of text

What do you think or feel when you come across articles that have very long paragraphs or, worse, that have the contents of the article written in one huge wall of text? Who wants to read huge blocks of text? Don’t you get turned off or feel miffed, frustrated, and annoyed when you see articles like that?

Reason to add paragraphs to your articles

They hurt the eyes, don’t they? And they can make you feel confused as you try to figure out which part of the huge block of text you’ve already finished reading.


If I see articles like that, I just leave and go look for other articles that are easier to read. I wouldn’t want to read articles with huge blocks of text unless said article is really, really very interesting. Even then, I'd hesitate to read such articles, and might only do so if there's no other article or post about whatever I might be looking for.

How to make your articles easier to read?

What’s wrong with putting spaces and paragraphs in your articles? What’s wrong with making them easier to read?

Since I don’t like articles with huge blocks of text, I make sure my own articles are separated into small paragraphs and that there are plenty of spaces to make them easier on the eyes.

article writing, make articles easier to read, difficult to read posts that are one huge block or wall of text, add paragraphs to articles
This should definitely include the need to add spaces between paragraphs, so your article won’t end up looking like one huge wall of text

The spaces might make the article seem longer, but they are easier to read, which is what’s most important. If people like what they’re reading and find that their eyes aren’t getting strained and that the contents of the article are interesting, then they likely won’t even notice the length.



What about you? Do you also write articles and make sure to separate the text content into small paragraphs?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize someone writing articles
- Second image is from Amazon.com; link shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads card format widget
- YouTube video shows you how to add spaces between paragraphs using a word processor like Microsoft Word
- This was previously published elsewhere

Results Of The Editing Old Articles Poll

Friday, May 18, 2018
I added an Opinion Stage poll on this post about editing old articles. For reasons which I'll talk about in another post on another one of my blogs, I've decided to delete this poll and replace it with one from SurveyHero instead.
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According to my dashboard on Opinion Stage, the aforementioned poll had been created on 31 October 2014. I posted the article in question here on Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 1:22 AM, but it had originally been posted elsewhere (either Daily Two Cents or Writedge, if I remember correctly).
online polling site, opinion stage, edit, editing old articles, writing, blog, posts
The statistics page on Opinion Stage for this poll looks like this:
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opinion stage, poll, editing old articles, statistics, number of votes, online polling service, writing, blog, posts
This is the new poll from SurveyHero:

So, what about you? What do you think about editing old articles?

Update on July 7, 2023 Friday: had to delete all my SurveyHero polls.

*Notes:
- Pics are screenshots from my Opinion Stage account

Results Of The Readers Being Ignored By Article Writers Poll

Friday, March 09, 2018
Way back when this article had been published elsewhere, I added an Opinion Stage poll to it. For reasons I'll be talking about in another post on another one of my blogs, I've decided to replace this poll with one from SurveyHero.

The article in question is about authors or writers not replying to the comments or questions left by readers or visitors of their articles or posts.
comment replies, informational articles, writing, writing articles, poll results, opinion stage, surveyhero, readers, blog, questions, answers, posts
The poll was made on 21 October 2014. So far, it has had 9 votes.
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The original poll looked like this:
opinion stage, poll, comment replies, writing articles, writers or authors ignoring readers, poll layout or appearance
On my dashboard on the Opinion Stage site, the statistics page for this poll looks like this:
opinion stage, pie chart, poll results, statistics page, comment replies, writing articles, writers or authors ignoring readers
opinion stage, poll results, statistics page, comment replies, writing articles, writers or authors ignoring readers
Here's the new poll from SurveyHero: 

So, what about you? What do you think about this? Do you want authors or writers to reply to the comments you leave on their posts or articles? Or do you not mind being ignored?

Update on July 7, 2023 Friday: had to delete all my SurveyHero polls.


*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- The rest of the pics are screenshots from my Opinion Stage account

Readers, Do You Like Being Ignored By Writers Or Authors?

Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Who wants to be ignored? As a reader, do you like it when writers or authors ignore you? Do you like feeling like you don’t matter and they don’t care about you at all? What exactly does that mean? What am I talking about?
informational article, writing articles, writing, comments, reply, authors, writers, readers, blog

Some readers take the time and effort to comment on articles they read

You know when you read an article or post or whatever you want to call it, and there’s a comments section at the end? You take the time to read the article and then decide that you liked it enough to leave a comment. Or maybe you have a question and you think the author of the piece sounds like an expert or that they know what they’re talking about, so you decide to ask and see if they can help you.

The least writers and authors can do is reply to their readers and visitors

As a reader, don’t you hate it when writers or authors don’t bother to reply to the questions and comments that you took the time and effort to leave on their articles?

What should happen after you comment? What do you expect or what do you think will happen? Do you want to get a response to your comment? Or will it not matter to you in the least if the writer doesn’t reply to your comment? This is where the being ignored part comes in.
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There are many writers or authors who don’t bother to respond to the comments left by their readers. All the comments just accumulate or pile up in their articles and they don’t seem to care; they won’t respond. If they won’t bother to reply, then why would they leave the comments section open in their articles?

Don’t ignore those who bother to comment on your posts

For me, as a reader, I hate feeling or being ignored. If you take the time and effort to comment on someone else’s article, don’t you want that person to at least take the time to acknowledge your words? If you asked a question, don’t you want an answer? This is why I always respond to all the comments that I get on my articles.

Of course, I understand that the replies can’t always happen right away. I also take the time to reply to comments depending on the circumstances. For example, I might have missed the email that I have new comments on my articles or I might be busy with other tasks, etc.

Also, I can’t always check, but when I see that I have a comment on any one of my articles, I respond; I’ll always reply even if it might take some time. If someone doesn’t bother to respond to comments, it makes me want to avoid their articles or at least not bother to comment anymore. I mean, why should I bother to say anything if no one is going to respond anyway? What do you think?

To add: check out this post to see the results for this poll back when it used to be made using Opinion Stage.

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize the authors who ignore their readers or those who bother to comment on their articles because the figure is facing the other way
- The second image was made using the free site called Quozio
- This was previously published elsewhere