Strange

The Three Scroll Test

by itslefty | March 24, 2009 at 02:01 am

977 views | 24 Recommendations | 8 comments

Whilst on the internet, I enjoy reading news, articles, tuition websites, blogs, forums and nearly everything else, BUT, before I even start reading anything, I always do "The Three Scroll Test" .

The Three Scroll Test is this.

I Scroll my mouse wheel three whole revolutions down the page.

If I haven't reached the bottom of the page on the third turn, I don't even bother starting to read.

Does anybody else ever do anything like this, or am I the only one?

I performed the test, I scrolled down three turns, I then copied and pasted the text into my word processor and checked the statistics that three turns of the mouse produces.

Pages: 2

Paragraphs: 6

Lines: 76

Words: 929

Characters: 5152

Characters (with spaces) 6075

So, as interesting as headlines and stories might be, sometimes I just don't have the time, the inclination or attention span to even start.

Also one more thing to add, potential employers when sifting through prospective job applications, CV's. I have been told "any more than two pages and you're in the bin".

Thanks for reading this far.-------

Up to the line the stats for this post are:

Pages: 1

Paragraphs: 16

Lines: 23

Words: 186

Characters: 884

Characters (with spaces) 1059

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Uwe Paschen

at 06:05 on March 24th, 2009

Well, you are with this method missing out on a lot of great writing and reporting as well as original well researched news article.

Most paper such as "Die Zeit," "Le Monde," " The Herald Tribune," just to name a few, Those would never have an article you could read since they would all be over three scrolls.

Content matters. It is like a good glass of wine, it take hard work and patience to make as well as know-how and "savoir vivre". Same goes for most things in life.

Jordan Yerman

at 06:04 on March 24th, 2009

No. I just start reading.

itslefty

at 06:26 on March 24th, 2009

Thank you to everybody for the feed back.

I agree with comments as regards the heavily researched articles, I have recently read an 128 page PDF document, it took me a day to read it with a couple of coffee breaks in between.

It was a long hard slog: but very interesting to me:

http://montalk.net/files/fringeknowledgeWEB.pdf

Just recently I find that I am very interested in reading another PDF book, its available FREE to download on the internet, its only 58 pages, however instead, I have decided to order the book hard copy at a price of £6.99.

And so I'll read it, but this time I'll be laying on my back in the sunshine with butterflies fluttering about my person, (or wasps) :o)

mariox

at 06:54 on March 24th, 2009

You are right.

Anyway, sometimes is good to have long readings on specific arguments.

anarkissed

at 10:54 on March 24th, 2009

I don't pretest but I do quit reading about 1.5 pages down if the article keeps going, because I've got a lot to do. The exceptions are when the topic is terribly engaging but that's pretty rare.

Fred Miller

at 12:00 on March 24th, 2009

A 'Scroll Test' is too mechanical for my liking. It suggests reducing everything written online to 'Data' which is excellent for researchers and their fellow-thinkers. To fully appreciate a writer's words and intent, the reader needs to first be drawn in by the Title, Headers, Lead Paragraph and so on. Even if the quality of the article suffers from poor Translation, Grammar and Punctuation, it may overcome its shortcomings with photo and video footage.

Yes, I confess, as a former Proofreader at a major Publishing House I am guilty of unconsciously scanning articles online in much the same way as the 'Scroll Test'. But the entire piece usually reveals its worth by its presentation, in less than a minute, which is not much. Add that to the Test and see how much you've read vs. how much you've absorbed and it's a waste of valuable reading time reading this. Carry on.

Albert Ball (not verified)

at 17:01 on March 24th, 2009

Thank You , but I wanna to just Read :)

Anon-and-on (not verified)

at 03:16 on March 25th, 2009

what a very strange thing to do, must be some sort of sickness, at least in my opinion. I can usually tell if I'm interested in a story from the first few paragraphs and if it is I will read to the end.

Seems like you waste more time than you gain?