(no subject)

[pez]

Along the theme of reddwarfer's rant on dear mods you have my permission to delete my post if this isn't allowed... I know I've ranted about this before and, goddammit, I now see my own flist doing the same thing. So those of you who do this, please, enlighten me:

( fake cut to my journal hahaha I'm so smart 8D )

What exactly IS the appeal of making a fake cut and then telling everyone that it's fake. In fact, WHY MAKE A BLOODY FAKE CUT? WHY? What has a normal hypertext link ever done to you to make you hate it so??? The point of a cut is to shorten the post, so that people can read in more detail if they choose to. A fake one defeats the purpose. And those who don't know it's fake may be taken from a community to god knows where. It creates confusion.

Please tell me, PLEASE, why do you do this? Thank you.

Comments

[evaporate.livejournal.com]

... Aesthetics. I am borderline neurotic and prefer if (a) all comments are on the same page if I need to quickly look up what someone said [and so that Gmail can properly stack the comments and I don't have a heart attack when it says I have 16 unread emails], and (b) links that function vaguely as lj-cuts look like lj-cuts.

To provide for (a), I have to tell them that not only is it not a real cut, so please stop scattering comments everywhere rargh, but that it goes somewhere else, so please stop scattering comments everywhere rargh. To provide for (b), it has to look like a cut. If it's an unformatted hyperlink, I tend to think that it leads off-site, and those I refrain from clicking on before checking the URL. If it's formatted, at least I know (or trust) that I'm still going to be somewhere in the bowels of LJ if I click.

"Fake cut!" doesn't really bother me unless it's a normal hyperlink, because that's stupid, or if it's strangely colored/font-faced, because that's stupider.

... I'm compulsive over the oddest of things. Sorry.

[ele5.livejournal.com]

Actually, incredibly good question.

I use the text "Fake cut" but I don't even make it look like a cut... I haven't thought anything at all, just made the link.

I'm sure people can't get more stupid than this.

Thanks for waking me up.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean by wanting to keep comments on the same page, but I have to disagree on b). A well-labelled link such as "linked to my LJ here" or "linked to ff.net" would tell you where it's going - and links should always be well-labelled. Those who don't make the effort to do so aren't worth the time to read anyway. And a fake LJ-cut doesn't actually guarantee that it leads to somewhere that is livejournal.com. I tend to have to hoover the cursor over it and see the URL in the status bar anyway, just to be on the safe side. (really, just look at most of the communities out there - how much can you trust the members to not link out of LJ with a fake cut? -_-")

For example, if I see Leila posts something that leads to her own LJ, I tend not to follow the link until I'm at home, because I know her LJ layout is pink and the pics there, while not NC-17, are not pics I want on my work computer screen. But that's because I know what her LJ layout looks like. I basically tend to not visit anyone's LJ, at work, if I don't know what her layout looks like. If it's a fake cut and I accidentally click on it, thinking it'll bring me to the rest of the post, on default LJ background... it could in actual fact bring me to a journal that has NWS things.

[elyndys.livejournal.com]

*gnashes teeth* I totally agree! Fake cuts are totally pointless, and take far more work than an *actual* cut or a plain link. >:E What's also inexplicable is when people just post a link and say it's a fake cut. Er? -_-

[evaporate.livejournal.com]

Disregarding that I usually will say where I'm fake-cutting to (with the exception of LL crossposting), I totally see where you're coming from. And it really fits in with the rest of my weird tendencies and assumptions -- Example! If it looks like this:

( Text here. )

I tend to trust that it's an lj-cut or something that functions like one, because people who link offsite (DA, FF.net) are usually people who aren't familiar with LJ, and therefore don't realy know how what a formatted LJ cut looks like. And if they are familiar and can figure out the html, they probably wouldn't be dumb enough to link offsite that way-- does that make sense?

Firefox has been loading really, really slowly as of late, so I can usually tell whose journal I'm being flung at before I actually get there anyway. So, as for the NWS journal styles, if it's a journal name I'm not familiar with, or if it's a journal name I recognize to have a layout that I personally don't like, I click stop, add "?style=mine" to the link and go from there, since I keep the default comment style on my journal at all times. [And of course, if I wasn't fooled by awesome formatting, I copy/paste the URL into a new tab and edit it there]

... Somehow I don't think that/I made any sense. D:

I don't deny that people go "lol this cut is so fake" or "fake like Michael Jackson's nose!" are incredibly and insanely annoying, and I wish to slap them across the face every single time they do it because it drives me absolutely bonkers.

[ele5.livejournal.com]

Somewhat seriously... Those "fake as..." annoy me a lot, but otherwise I don't even read the texts, except the information where it leads... So, the standard "Fake cut to my journal" doesn't matter me at all. Of course, in the way I've been using it, ie. omitting all the signs of a cut and keeping it looking like a link, makes it stupid, but it's not something I look at.

Perhaps I don't concentrate on right things, but basically I'm happy as long as people don't post pictures (big pictures at least, icons don't matter), especially, big pictures with nc-17 stuff without cutting or linking or such. Once I've found uncut gay sex on my flist. I really felt like ripping the poster into pieces. If that had been cutted or linked, I would have forgiven any text on the link.

[lechaco.livejournal.com]

yeah I tried the fake cut thing once but found it too troublesome to warrant another go. it's a waste of time. :\

maybe a "fake cut" psychologically makes people click it when it really redirects you elsewhere (where you might have to scroll through rants and other stuff that was outside of the personal lj's original lj-cut??). of course, it says that it's fake but maybe there is a psychological thing to it. like where you KNOW it's a scary trailer yet you want to click, kinda thing?

in other words, I don't know :D

[lpatobe.livejournal.com]

Because one person did it and the rest are sheep? Fake cut jokes are almost 100% guaranteed to persuade me *not* to click on the link.

[lina-lau.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think fake cuts just look better than a link. :x It might just be me, but it kinda fits in with the rest of the lj friendspage more, and it just doesn't look as... empty and insubstancial as a link? Might just be me though. I usually warn and say something like "Linked to my fanworks journal" or wherever it is in the linky bit though. >.>

But yeah, I get annoyed by jokes about the fact that the cut is fake sometimes, but it doesn't bother me all too much, since I tend to check the address that links take me to anyway, whether they warned me that it will take me off site or not. XD;