In which the merits of the fake LJ-cut are debated

[kalimyre]

So I've noticed a lot of fake lj-cutting on my flist lately. You know, when you write a post and put a link in it, but through the clever use of coding make the link look like a cut tag. I have to admit, this is something I've never quite understood. So I turn to you, O Wise Flist, to explain it to me. Also to click the happy buttons in my poll

Comments

[read_300300]

I hate fake cuts. Seriously. Well, most of the time, they're okay, until you hit someone's LJ with text that is SO SMALL that you can't even frelling read it! I know it's probably strange to feel that strongly about it, but the whole real-cut white screen with big, black, uniform text is so much easier to read than someone's hot pink journal with red text. And what's worse is that you can't increase the size you see the text. For people like me who need large, open fonts and not frilly, hard-to-read stuff... it gets really annoying.

[kalimyre]

Oh yes, links that go back to something formatted in some hideous headache-inducing way are aggravating. I'm mostly kind of indifferent to fake cuts, although if they take me to something that's hard to read, I'm just not going to bother with it. If they can't format their stuff in a way that's readable, then I'm not really interested in reading it.

[dzurlady]

Your poll doesn't really have the right option for me, which is something like 'I hate them with the firey passion of a thousand burning suns, and my opinion of those using them drops sharply.'

I hate them! I really, really, really hate them. If I am wavering about reading a fic or not, that is enough to make me decide not to.
Several things I have thought of:
1) Some styles I've had display links differently, so fake cuts don't even match real cuts. Lame.
2) People who label it as a fake cut - why?
3) People who have an ordinary link but *call* it a fake cut - even more stupid
4) I want to know where I'm going when I click on something, thanks - I know I can hover, but why should I have to?

[kalimyre]

Ah, see, I hadn't thought of the different styles thing. Of course, it's also aggravating when a different style shows link text exactly the same as all the other text, so the only way to know it's a link is to mouse over it.

Also yes, I definitely don't get the thing where you have a regular link and call it a fake cut. I suspect those are done by people who do not know what a fake cut is. Overall, I think this poll has shown me far more people who are irritated by fake cuts than who like them, which tends to reinforce my not-using of them, so it works out. ^_^

[secondsilk]

I have linked back to my journal since I knew how to do html links that weren't simply the http://www.whatever

And I have used fake cuts since I learned how. They look better than plain links. And I think I do prefer clicking one - although I so rarely read from comms now, that I don't remember. (I found your fic by a recommendation on my f'list. I don't remember the last time I checked my comms list.)

I usually fake cut text is usually 'this is a fake cut' or something similiar, because I remember someone complaining about clicking on something they thought was a cut and discovering that it wasn't. I use simple comments pages, though, so I know that it's definitely readable.

I'll reconsider my fake-cutting next time I crosspost. But I've decided whether I want to read a fic from the header information and the summary and the user's icon. Then I just click to open the fic in a new tab, regardless of what sort of link it is.

[kalimyre]

I agree with deciding to read the story based on the header more than the type of link/cut/whatever in the posting. Deciding based on the user icon is a new one, though. Does that tell you more about the fandom or the pairing or the type of story? I would think those things would be in the header.

[secondsilk]

The icon can tell one a little bit about the author's style. I'm always conscious of chosing an icon appropriate to the fic when I post, if I don't use my default icon.

I usually scan by comm reading list pretty quickly, so I stop to read headers when the icon has caught my eye.