I usually skim through half the OP and reply so they are either hit or miss.

Just like how I only read the title of this thread and replied.

wildbear247 wrote: »

I feel an inability to read & digest longer material is a problem of the modern times and growing too accustomed to short blurbs of data, whether from a web search, a text message, online videos, etc.

Possibly, but the art of expressing ideas coherently is also on the decline. I am seeing more "stream of consciousness" posts where people just throw down words as they are thinking them. The jumble of words and ideas is often incomprehensible, whether they are walls of text or one idea per line.

That said, there is a reason why we find "Executive Summary" and "Abstract" in business proposals and academic papers. The target audience frequently has the attention span of a gerbil, so if the summary does not sell the paper, the author wasted time writing the rest of it. The TL;DR section can make or break the paper.

I also feel like I should add, I personally try not to reply to posts I haven't read.

A video is probably better for a long/lengthy discussion/exposé.
For a forum debate, I think it's best to resume your points in several bullet point categories and then touch up on them in further discussion.

That said, if a long post is well structured with 'intro' 'argument' 'conclusion', then yes I'll read it.