From time to time, a long talk-page comment or conversation will cause one or more editors to state that it was TL;DR; so long that they didn't read it. In such situations, it is usually helpful to summarise the key points. However, there are occasions where a comment or discussion is difficult to effectively summarise, perhaps due to the difficulty in doing so neutrally, or because of the complexity of the matter being discussed. In such cases, it may be worthwhile to encourage these people to skim read it.

A decision to respond to TL;DR with a link to this page should not be taken lightly. It should generally only be done after concluding that a summary is not feasible.

If you do quote this page, you should always attempt to explain why reading the discussion or comment in full will be of particular value. Remember, in the vast majority of cases, a person stating that something was too long to read has done so in good faith; it will not be obvious to them why they should invest up to several minutes in reading.

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