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People keep telling me that fluff is distracting, but I personally find this incorrect at best, and a big lie at worst.

I mean, Austin's or Matpat's videos would be hard to remember if there wasn't their small comments or reactions. And if they make it right, people could easily recall otherwise complicated or hard to understand things.

So why we think that fluff is distracting?

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  • $\begingroup$ Note: I upvoted this question to counter the downvote it had. This question is perfectly fine and shows concern on side of the user. I don't know what either Austin or Matpat are, but it doesn't seem to matter for the question as the gist still comes across. $\endgroup$
    – dot_Sp0T
    Jun 10, 2017 at 14:08
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    $\begingroup$ Yea, what are you talking about in the second paragraph? $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Jun 10, 2017 at 16:48
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    $\begingroup$ «find this incorrect at best, and a big lie at worst.» can you note which questions serve as counterexamples? Then we can tell you better how they are different from what you like to post, better than simply calling it “fluff”. $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Jun 10, 2017 at 16:53
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    $\begingroup$ MatPat is a Youtuber. I don't see how this is relevant, as he is not building a world, nor asking questions on Worldbuilding with his videos. It's an entirely different formula. $\endgroup$
    – Laurel
    Jun 10, 2017 at 20:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Laurel Why? He tells stuff in a way you remember it, so do I. If someone finds a question readable and interresting, and is able to remember the things in it, then it's written well. $\endgroup$
    – Mephistopheles
    Jun 10, 2017 at 20:31

3 Answers 3

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You are being told that your fluff distracts from your questions.

Fluff itself is fine. But everything needs to be balanced. Your questions contain a ratio of fluff to content of about 9 to 1. So for every line of actual content in your questions there seems to be 9 lines of fluff.

A good ratio would be around 2 to 5, for every 5 lines of content there's 2 lines of fluff.

Fluff is good when it's supporting. It is bad if it takes over and it becomes hard to filter it out / find the real thing...

Addendum: Ironically this question right here is more or less perfect regarding the ratio of fluff to information.

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In addition to what the others said: your question (and comments) suggest that you think your goal should be memorable questions. That's not the goal. The goal is clear, interesting questions, and additionally ones that will help other people who will find them via search engines. Nobody cares about your storytelling when reviewing questions here. Your storytelling belongs in your stories, which you can publish in venues where people are looking for entertainment rather than Q&A.

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    $\begingroup$ I wish I could upvote this more than once! $\endgroup$
    – dot_Sp0T
    Jun 16, 2017 at 11:42
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One of the key differences is that here you're asking volunteers for help...

When said volunteers tell you that they'd rather not have to pick through the fluff in order to help you, and you continue to post fluff, you're telling these volunteers that their time isn't valuable.

While I'm sure that you find your fluff hilarious and memorable, others are telling you that you're making your questions harder to understand and that they don't appreciate that.

How many times does it need to be explained?

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