This is how trying to read unnecessarily spaced words can be frustrating to people with vision impairments, attention disorders,
dyslexia, migraines, etc.
Please don’t do that. (And yes, there is the exact same spacing between every word. It’s just the dash/theme/device you’re viewing it makes it even more distorted, and that’s why people ask you not to do this! This example is overly excessive in hope of getting the point across. Even double spacing can be too much when conditions below are factored in. Just because it might not affect you doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect many others.)
Now, imagine if every bit of text you ever needed to read was written like that. Signage, legal papers, rental agreements, job applications, text books, emails, novels, fan fiction, etc.
It’d get stressful really quick, wouldn’t it?
Also, doing this ‘for the aesthetic’ may look cute to you, but it is a major accessibility issue for those people with vision impairments, attention disorders, dyslexia, migraines, and more.
Screen magnifiers - a common tool used by the visually impaired - will make those spaces you add even larger, thus making it even more difficult just to find the next word in your reply.
Screen reading software varies drastically between developers, and are often expensive for high quality ones that might be able to ignore the spacing. Others, though? They will take each space as a break between words, and will pause for each and every space, which ranges from two to ten or more spaces between every word. It would be like trying to stream an audiobook with it buffering between every word.
Attention disorders and dyslexia both may experience where they get distracted by the “rivers” of space that is created as a result of the spacing, further increasing difficulties with comprehension and retention of what they just read, when they may already be struggling with such without the spacing.
Also, the human eye perceives images on a screen different to that of printed media so what can work in print - such as
justified text, which also increases spacing between words in a less uniformed manner - can not necessarily work on a computer screen.
You may not be aware but the image on a screen is not static, in fact it’s updated and refreshed many times a second. Reading on a computer screen is much harder on the eyes than reading from printed media, which is why you should always take breaks and look away from the screen several times throughout your time at one to reduce the risk of eye strain and injury.
Not to mention that not all blog themes are created equal. While your post might be readable to you on your own blog, on someone else’s blog, it may not be readable at all.
And you might be thinking “well, that’s on their blog, so why should I care?”
Because with how tumblr likes to hide posts from the tags and such, finding new people to interact with is growing increasingly difficult for many roleplayers. But say someone finds your thread on their friend’s blog, and while they can read their friend’s reply just fine, they get to yours, and they struggle to move from word to word in trying to read your writing.
What kind of impression do you think that leaves on them? Not likely a good one, right? Sure, some of them might click through to your blog, or the dashview, but chances are most people are just going to opt out and bypass you completely as a potential rp partner.
This might be a long shot, but I finally started a Patreon for my writing. If you’re interested in supporting me and finding out more about my current projects, feel free to subscribe!
RPers, reblog this is if it’s ok for your writing partners to message you to make sure you’ve seen a reply.
With tumblr’s notifications and threadtracker both on the fritz lately, this user is accepting IMs to help keep track of a thread!
(Note that this is not permission to pester anyone for replies. Just send the post itself and maybe a quick message about making sure we’ve seen it – no need to get aggressive!)
Following his gaze, she looked down at her reddened hand.
She probably should run that under cold water for a while – she had enough
experience with burns and scalds to know what to do. And really, she should take
the tip and at least clean her hands. The chocolate and sugar in her hot beverage
would at least make her hands sticky until she cleaned them off.
But making this (very kind) man buy her coffee when she hadn’t
been focusing? That wasn’t on.
“No, honestly, you don’t have to buy me a new one. It was
just a mocha, but it wasn’t expensive or anything.” At the back of her mind,
she could hear a little voice whining about the fiver currently spilled all
over the man’s shirt, her hand, and the floor.
“Really, I should be paying you back for ruining your shirt.
Have I ruined it? Oh God, you don’t even have a spare on you, do you?”
Craig looked back down at the coffee-covered shirt. It was nothing special, just a plain grey top, but the stain would definitely need a few washes to get out. He shrugged dismissively.
“I’m sure it’ll come out, it’s only a t-shirt,” he said calmly, “and I think I do actually have a spare in my car, so it’s all good.” He smiled, internally cheering his decision to keep his gym clothes in the car, as he was intending to drop in for an hour or so before his afternoon shift - after a good coffee first, of course.
“I’m getting myself something anyway, it’s really no problem.”
