Why online news is formatted like that

[vilakins]

The SIL from hell annoyed me all over again at breakfast when she started an argument about layouts and fonts and editing. She talks stridently over people and treats everyone like a schoolchild she's dinning something into, possibly as a result of having been a high school teacher (she's now an editor), but I'm too stubborn to take it and argue back. I do however think it's mostly her natural personality. I am soooo glad I'm not going to Greece and Bulgaria with them. She had a map out last night on which she was showing Greg (very loudly and definitely) where she's decided they'll go.

However I did learn something this morning. I loathe the layout of on-line news reports where they have a sentence per paragraph and have often wondered why they do it. She used to write a column for her local newspaper and apparently the standard is 30 words per paragraph which looks fine in a narrow column, but doesn't on a web page. It makes sense now!

Comments

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I used to work with editors, and most of them were quite reasonable human beings. The one who wasn't had been an old-fashioned type of matron in a hospital (I have some idea of what they were like, due to my mother having been a fully-qualified nurse before she became too pregnant with me to go on working for a bit). It must be an authority thing...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think it's just what she's like. Even at the wedding tonight it was "Come on. Let's go" when she was ready to go. I said to Greg, "Let's say goodbye to the couple and all your relatives first; giving in to her just feeds her ego." So we did. [stab]