Feedback to eHarmony: Why no paragraph breaks?


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Harryoss is offline Harryoss Post #1  October 11,2010, 1:57pm
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This topic is really just a "website feedback" thing that I didn't really know where else to post. It's bothered me before on other websites (not necessarily dating websites), and it bothers me about eHarmony:

Why does the eHarmony website clip paragraph breaks? This is true for all profile tabs, as well as the open ended questions' tabs (And thank goodness it's not true for the open communication emails). If I want to mention 2 or 3 separate ideas in there, why can't I put them into separate paragraphs.

Let's take a look at a simple example here (taken from my profile): And a note, what I'm about to copy here is only 500 characters long... It could have been 30% longer if I had chosen to use the entire 650 characters.


"I typically spend my leisure time"

Spending time with family and friends, regardless of what and where we do it. I have a 20 month old nephew who I LOVE spending time with as well, taking him to the park or petting zoo, etc... For any leftover spare time, I like watching movies (be it at the movie theater or at home), playing the Guitar, working out (though admittedly not as often as I'd like to), and of course Cooking (I'd actually go WAY out of my way, spending hours, cooking one of my favorite meals if I find I'm suddenly craving it).



NOW Let's look at what I'd LIKE it to look like

Spending time with family and friends, regardless of what and where we do it. I have a 20 month old nephew who I LOVE spending time with as well, taking him to the park or petting zoo, etc...

For any leftover spare time, I like watching movies (be it at the movie theater or at home), playing the Guitar, working out (though admittedly not as often as I'd like to), and of course Cooking (I'd actually go WAY out of my way, spending hours, cooking one of my favorite meals if I find I'm suddenly craving it).


As you can see, 2 different ideas separated into 2 different paragraphs. It's much more visually appealing, and looks a lot less like a wall of text.

This is even more true for the stage 3 open ended questions thing. One match asked me to tell her about 3 random things about myself. I assumed that because she went with a small number, 3, as opposed to 10 or 25 or smthn, that she'd also wanted me to add a few words about it instead of just listing.

Anyways, long story short, I was quite appalled when I saw what the damn thing looked like after I had sent it to her.

Bottom line: There's a reason why almost EVERYONE will tell you that the FORMAT of a resume is just as important as its content. It has to be visually presentable... Why can't we format our profiles as we like, and equally important, why can't we format our open ended answers as we like?
 
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DancingFool is offline DancingFool Post #2  October 11,2010, 2:15pm
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To put it simply, you really ought to keep things brief.

One of the problems on EH is bulk - tons of profiles to read, tons of steps to follow - it all becomes a time consuming chore. Seeing a profile that can't even put things into a single brief paragraph will make a lot people cringe and pass it by.....I'll read it later.....but later never comes because next day there are others vying for your attention.

Same goes for short answers - keep them short. If it takes more than a paragraph, your answer is too long.
 
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Harryoss is offline Harryoss Post #3  October 11,2010, 2:42pm
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That's... an interesting point of view.

Personally, I've always appreciated it when a woman took the time to express their thoughts fully, however long it might have been. The longer the better, I always thought.

Hmm, definitely something to keep in mind.
 
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under_siege is offline under_siege Post #4  October 11,2010, 2:58pm
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Hi to all, I'm new to the forum.

I agree with Harryoss...the lack of breaks makes everything seem muddled together...as if you yourself are not capable of separating thoughts. Hate to sound pedantic, but it's a total turn-off in my book. Might as well throw in text speak as well.
 
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Harryoss is offline Harryoss Post #5  October 11,2010, 3:59pm
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under_siege wrote :
Hi to all, I'm new to the forum.

I agree with Harryoss...the lack of breaks makes everything seem muddled together...as if you yourself are not capable of separating thoughts. Hate to sound pedantic, but it's a total turn-off in my book. Might as well throw in text speak as well.
To be honest, this is why it bothered me in the first place. I'm not saying I'd like to write an essay in every single field of my profile, or for every single answer to an open ended question.

However, when the situation calls for separate ideas (For example, when my match specifically asked me to list 3 random things about me)... it would be nice to be able to separate the ideas and put it in a nice format. Otherwise It could be off putting to someone (as under_siege points out as well).

I mean, for my case, my response didn't even use up half the allotted characters to the question (1000 is the limit for those), but it looked absolutely horrendous when I saw it with all the paragraph breaks gone.

In any case, so long as it remains the way it is I will go with Dancing Fool's advice, and keep things short, that way I won't need paragraphs to begin with. I do hope that doesn't make me come off as someone who didn't put any thought or time into the questions or something, though.
 
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cal_dude is offline cal_dude Post #6  October 11,2010, 4:09pm
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I've spent some time rearranging my stuff so that new thought or sentences start on new lines. But I agree that having natural breaks would be nice.
 
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cal_dude is offline cal_dude Post #7  October 11,2010, 4:12pm
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I can try to reconcile the two points of view: if you feel that a longer description adds some new info and value, go for it! But when the same thing is mentioned several times ("living to the fullest" etc. ), briefness would have been beneficial to such profiles.
 
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MicMan is offline MicMan Post #8  October 11,2010, 4:20pm
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Harryoss wrote :
Personally, I've always appreciated it when a woman took the time to express their thoughts fully, however long it might have been. The longer the better, I always thought.
Don't make the mistake that quantity equals quality. I've read many people that bloviate on and on without saying much. I believe the mark of a good communicator is someone that can get a point across without droning on and on.
 
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Harryoss is offline Harryoss Post #9  October 11,2010, 4:35pm
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MicMan wrote :
Don't make the mistake that quantity equals quality. I've read many people that bloviate on and on without saying much. I believe the mark of a good communicator is someone that can get a point across without droning on and on.
Fair enough.
 
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eH_Advice_Host_Kate is offline eH_Advice_Host_Kate — Advice Official Moderator Post #10  October 12,2010, 10:27am

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Hi everyone,

I just wanted to check something – when you’re writing in the profile answer sections, aren’t you able to create paragraphs by clicking “enter”? I thought that was possible. Please let me know how it is that your information gets bunched together.

In the meantime, I have sent this topic up for feedback, so thank you, Harryoss, for creating it.

~Kate
eHarmony Advice Host
 
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