Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/19390
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm at the very beginning of a blog post for [Worldbuilding Stack Exchange's blog, Universe Factory](http://medium.com/universe-factory), written in conjunction with an answer to a question on Worldbuilding. It's going to about astronomy (mostly orbital mechanics), and I don't plan to shy away from mathematics, albeit hopefully clear and accessible mathematics. My goal is something approaching technical writing.

I've written an outline for the post, in part because it's going to be longer than normal. Most blog posts on Universe Factory are estimated to be about five-minute reads, typically short and to the point. However, my post is most likely going to be something like a thirty-minute read, especially if any enterprising readers choose to fully work out some parts of it.

Part of me is worried about this, because while it seems like the audience of the blog is scientifically literate enough to make it through the material we've been writing, thirty minutes is comparatively a lot, and this post is going to be denser (in math and science) than normal.

For blogs in general - and especially this blog in particular - how long is too long for a blog post? Might I sacrifice details and condense the post in the hope of keeping readers attracted, or can I keep the post as-planned?

I'd love to see various comparisons in readership (i.e. how many people finish reading the post) between more condensed blog posts and expanded blog posts, but that's most likely impossible, because you can't tell where an internet reader left off on a post, and hits are accurate to only a certain degree.

Original score: 7