THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

If you browse the blog from the homepage, then anything below “the jump” is not displayed on the front-page.  For example, if you go to FanGraphs’ homepage and scroll down to that post, “Audio after the jump,” is the last thing there, and you have to go to the article’s own page to get the audio.  It let’s readers who don’t go directly to articles through an RSS feed or something similar to know there’s more than what they see there, and that they have to follow the link to get the whole thing.

And it’s not “internetese”—it’s an old newspaper term for an article that continues on a different page.

You need to find something more rant-worthy.....

I understand it, but I’m with MGL that it is annoying and doesn’t add anything.

Right, if you see the “Read more” at the bottom of the blog post, then clicking it is “after the jump”.  But, once you open the blog post, the “read more” disappears (part of the software program), but the “after the jump” remains in the blog post (author-added).

i’m a fan of ‘after the jump’

unclutters the homepages of blogs

You know what I hate?  People who promise to do something drastic if “something” happens one more time, and then don’t follow through.  Come on, raise the blinds and window and let ‘er rip.  You can unplug your peripherals first if you want, that still counts…

#1 and #5, isn’t the “Read the rest of this entry” link sufficient to let the reader know there’s more?  Why be redundant, and then, as tangotiger said, have a non sequitur in the middle of the full post?

I agree that attempts to be cute can be really annoying.  I probably am going to keep my computer on my desk, though.

Using “after the jump” specifically was my suggestion to Carson, because there are some problems with putting the audio player on the homepage. Even though there’s a read more, I was mainly concerned some people would wonder where the audio was since it’s fairly rare we use “read more” links.

It seems you’re not alone in your dislike for the phrase and that it does have some stigma I just wasn’t are of: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=after%20the%20jump

I wish MGL would post everything that is not baseball related “after the jump.”

#7, it depends on where and how noticeable the “read more” link is. On my blog, it’s kind of small and in the corner of the page with other links that most readers can safely ignore. So if it’s not really obvious that you’ve got more to say, I think it can be pretty easy to miss that there’s a “read more” button.

I generally just don’t use “jumps” anymore, because I don’t like the way it breaks up the text either. But I do feel like when you use one, you usually need to make some reference to it in the text or it looks like you’ve just written the most abrupt ending in internet history.

"I tried to Google it and I still don’t know what it means.”

How about we just write in English rather than “internetese?” I don’t know what “Google it” means and I don’t think I need to care (what it means).

I believe Murray Chass’ assistant authored comment 11.

It can also be helpful to let readers know what is after the jump even if you use jumps regularly and you’re confident readers can find the link easily.  A lot of readers will skim the teasers on the home page and only follow the link to the full article if something catches them.  Letting them know of something specific that might catch them (maybe a list, graph, image, piece of media, etc) is helpful in that case.

never bothered me.  you have to say something to let readers know to click through, after the jump is just as good as anything else.  could be im more comfortable with “internetese” but i doubt it.  maybe it is a little corny though.

Guy, I know that it is an old print media term. It is “internetese” because while it may have been “print media lingo” you would never see it in print media.

Apparently, there are different internet definitions.  This is from the link above:

“‘The Jump’ in online media refers to a large block of inline advertising separating a page of text. It is a form of advertisment commonly used by bloggers and tech-press, but creates a major distraction for readers. The web-equivalent of the commercial break.
The use of the phrase “More after the jump...” signifies that a reader should scroll down past the adblock for further on the story, as with “More after this word from our sponsors” on television.”

That is how I usually see it on the internet.  An ad or a photo and then the rest of the article.

The POINT is, How can something be valuable when 90% of the people reading it have no idea what “the jump” is?

Poll all of your friends and co-workers please and ask them what “after the jump” means when they read that on the internet.  I will say that 90% will not know.  If that is the case then it cannot possibly be useful.

How about, “Article continues after the photo/ad below?”

“Article continues on the next page?”

“Click the link below to read rest of article?”

There are some things that make perfect sense if most of the people you are addressing know what the frick they mean.  If they don’t, then it is pretty worthless.

Please…

yeah but whats the percentage of frangrpahs readers that know what “after the jump” means?  i wouldnt be surprised if it was over 95%.  i’ve seen it in regular use for years now.

i dont think theres any chance that people are being confused by the phrase after the jump.  now, style wise, if you want to contend that after the jump is stupid and shouldn’t be used, i think you’d have a better argument.

I guess I’m in the minority, but I agree with mgl.  I didn’t know what it meant for a long time and it is such an annoying phrase when 99% of the time the text that is “after the jump” is about 10 pixels down.  In the case where you are on a “front page,” you are going to already know there is more stuff coming so it’s not necessary to say it. 

At the very least, you can say it in English instead of using such pointless jargon.

#17, exactly.

I guess I am not the only one who finds it annoying and unnecessary:

http://allinthehead.com/retro/272/more-after-the-jump

One other note—Until this thread, I didn’t even realize that the “jump” was referring to advertising. 

I’ve been browsing the net with FireFox+ABP for so long that I completely forgot that pages contain ads for other people…

why are there so many haters? its really not a big deal either way… i thought the jump was a primary way websites generated more “hits” in order to get more ad revenue. you clicked on the “read more” and it looks like the website received more views.

it also might help a website that discusses many different topics. saves people time when scrolling down to posts interesting to them.

#20 to me, it is not so much what it is or what it does.  I don’t care about that.  It is the stupid use of a term which not many people understand and serves no purpose ("the jump"), when there are perfectly good “English” substitutes.

It would be like me having a baseball conversation with a casual fan and saying something like, “Yeah, I love Figgins because his WAR is so good,” without any explanation as to what WAR is…

I hate that term. People who use it these days are using it in a completely useless manner. This phrase/term used to have full meaning (following a specific link to another page) but some people like using it to sound “cool”. “See ____ after the jump” And that ____ after the jump? It’s in the next line down. Everytime I see another blogger use that term wrong, I immediately stop reading and never re-visit again. So bloody annoying. I’d rather read some one write “lyke dis fo everythang and shizz” if I want my IQ points dropping like flies.

"The POINT is, How can something be valuable when 90% of the people reading it have no idea what “the jump” is?”

Is that statistic site-adjusted?

I break up long posts on my site to keep more posts on the front page. And I used “after the jump” today without a second thought. It was the only way I knew how to phrase it.

It really, really made me feel cool, though. I felt like James Dean kicking a jukebox to make it work. That’s secretly why I did it. You really know how to cut to the core of me.

Completely agree with this article.  That stupid phrase has been bothering and confusing me for a while.  Even now, I still don’t know what it means either, just a lingering suspicion.

Is this a time warp or something?  How (why) does someone resurrect a thread like this?

How (why) are you such an asshole

I have never looked up the phrase or had it explained to me. I didn’t know the bit about ads. I guess technically I’m one of the 90% who “doesn’t know what it means.”

Yet I have never, ever been confused by the phrase. Not even the first time I saw it. It’s called context clues.

Some of the earlier arguments here about how it’s crammed into the middle of a longer article, thus making it awkward, are totally valid to me. The idea that people shouldn’t use phrases specific to the field is ridiculous.

We should never ever call someone a “spray hitter” because there are plain English words that explain the idea. We should just say, “an approximately even number of his batted balls go in all directions.” After all, 90% of people probably don’t know what “spray hitter” means.

Unless they can use elementary-school-level context clues.