Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Should I explain things more?

I added a poll to the side bar. Please take the time to answer the poll (once, please).

My question is, are my posts clear enough? Like anyone involved in somewhat technical subjects I take certain points as common knowledge, and don't elucidate them. But it occurs to me that this may alienate some readers, and I want my posts to be more inclusive as well as more understandable, assuming that they are too opaque. I also want to do this without greatly changing the character of my posts (for example, I would like to assume that readers are familiar with the Hebrew alphabet, although if that isn't the case I want to know about it). Should I briefly explain who, let's say, Rabbi Yaakov Emden is whenever his name comes up? Or is the existence of Wikipedia enough?

I know the options in the poll are not really sufficient, so if anyone has anything to add, or specific suggestions, please comment them here in this post. Feel free to do so without signing the usual name you comment under, anonymous is fine. I will take all suggestions seriously.