# tl;dr tl;dr, short for "too long; didn't read," is forum shorthand people drop under walls of text to say they skipped it, or tack onto their own posts as a one-line summary. First logged on Urban Dictionary in January 2003 and spreading through General Mayhem, 4chan and SomethingAwful that same year, the abbreviation grew into one of the most reused pieces of English-language forum slang and later gave Reddit its own /r/tldr digest. ## Origin The abbreviation first surfaced on Urban Dictionary with an entry dated January 15, 2003, defining it as "Too Long, Didn't Read" and framing it as a reaction to posts the reader was too lazy to get through[3]. Within months it moved onto discussion boards: the earliest documented forum appearance came from a General Mayhem user posting under the handle "waptang" in a thread dated June 19, 2003[2]. A second Urban Dictionary entry filed on November 20, 2003 later got picked as the site's Word of the Day on May 16, 2005, which pushed the term in front of a much wider audience[3]. Know Your Meme traces the same 2003 forum adoption across General Mayhem, 4chan, SomethingAwful and FARK[4]. - **Platform:** Urban Dictionary / General Mayhem (early forum spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2003 ## Overview People use tl;dr in two opposing modes. As a dismissive reply, a commenter drops "tl;dr" under a long post to signal they refused to read it, which readers who know the term often treat as spam or a lazy heckle[3]. As a courtesy, authors of long posts write their own "tl;dr:" line at the top or bottom, condensing a wall of text into a single summary sentence for skimmers. The shorthand carries a built-in sneer about attention spans, and the Urban Dictionary entries from the mid-2000s lean into that, with one definition openly mocking the "lazy, ignorant" posters who type it instead of engaging[3]. That ambivalence, equal parts helpful summary tool and insult, is why tl;dr kept its charge even as it spread to Wikipedia talk pages[1] and became a default section header on Reddit threads. ## How It Spread After the 2003 forum pickup, tl;dr diffused through the English-speaking message-board web across the mid-2000s, with Know Your Meme noting adoption across General Mayhem, 4chan, SomethingAwful and FARK[4]. Google search interest for the term spiked around 2006[4]. The shorthand jumped from message boards into reference and aggregator sites by the end of the decade. On September 18, 2007, Wikipedia editors created the internal essay "Wikipedia:Too long; didn't read," using tl;dr as a label for talk-page replies that dismiss long arguments without engaging them[1]. On November 14, 2009, Reddit poweruser qgyh2 launched /r/tldr as a daily round-up of notable threads, formalizing the abbreviation as a product feature rather than just slang[5]. ## How to Use The common convention is one of two formats. Writers typically prefix a short summary with "tl;dr:" and place it at the very top or bottom of a long post so readers can skim before deciding whether to read the full thing. The dismissive form is just the four letters on their own, posted as a reply, which is why many communities treat a bare "tl;dr" as rude or low-effort[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is tl;dr? tl;dr is forum shorthand for "too long; didn't read," used either to dismiss a long post or to label a short summary of one[3]. ### Where did tl;dr come from? The earliest known Urban Dictionary entry dates to January 15, 2003, and the earliest documented forum post using it was by General Mayhem user "waptang" on June 19, 2003[2][3]. ### What does tl;dr mean? It is an abbreviation of "too long; didn't read," sometimes written TLDR without punctuation[3]. ### How do you use tl;dr? Writers typically add a "tl;dr:" line with a one-sentence summary to the top or bottom of a long post, while readers sometimes post just "tl;dr" as a dismissive reply, which many communities treat as spam[4]. ### Is tl;dr still popular? The term is a classic piece of forum slang that was institutionalized by a 2007 Wikipedia essay and the /r/tldr subreddit launched in November 2009[1][5]. ## References 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Too_long;_didn%27t_read]() 2. [https://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=150556]() 3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tl%3Bdr]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tldr]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/tldr/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/tldr Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library