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One of my question was recently edited by an other user who merged it into a single paragraph question.

I think multi-paragraphs questions are easier to read so I would like to undo the edit made by that user.

Before doing so, I would like to know if there's any clear guidelines about the paragraph format we should use? If there's no guidelines, then people should avoid editing questions based on their personal preferences (unless the question is really hard to read).

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    No, I personally think that that edit should be rolled back, actually. Readability counts!
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 19, 2013 at 1:13
  • It's a matter of taste. If you have 3 or 4 sentences and no code it is probably one paragraph. If you have 40 sentences then 1 paragraph would be a "wall of text" and I would split it up. If you don't like an edit someone did to your post you can roll it back.
    – Kate Gregory
    Dec 19, 2013 at 1:14
  • I find smaller paragraphs more readable on websites, especially if using a tablet or smartphone, so I agree with Martijn.
    – Rory Alsop
    Dec 19, 2013 at 1:32
  • I disagree. That is one paragraph, and formatting it as several is just confusing. I'd have made that edit myself (and corrected the grammar while I was at it: it should be handles and third-party plugins, hyphenated and pluralized), but since you object I'll leave it alone.
    – TRiG
    Dec 19, 2013 at 2:37
  • Sure thing, @Ben.
    – ale
    Dec 19, 2013 at 4:03
  • Weird, @MartijnPieters. I find it more readable as one paragraph. I don't see a distinct flow of separate ideas there: I see one short cohesive paragraph. I mean, if the OP wants to split it up for some reason I'm not going to argue, but I find it very odd that so many people are agreeing that it reads better that way.
    – TRiG
    Dec 19, 2013 at 22:26
  • @TRiGisTimothyRichardGreen: It can go either way; the edit was not needed, though, really.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 19, 2013 at 23:38

1 Answer 1

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People don't "read" on the web; they scan. As such, your text should be broken up into bite-size chunks. A single large paragraph is just a wall of text and is hard to read.

Just don't overdo it.

If there's an edit you disagree with, roll it back. Just don't devolve into an edit war.

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    I'm highly tempted to edit this answer and combine it all into one paragraph.
    – Ben Lee
    Dec 19, 2013 at 4:38

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