Myth: longer posts win because they boost dwell time

Myth: longer posts win because they boost dwell time

The question: does maximizing word count maximize dwell time (seconds a reader's screen rests on your post), or is that a misread of the signal?

The advice assumes dwell scales with length. The algorithm appears to reward attention, so people inflate posts to manufacture it. But dwell is attention held, not text presented — padding a post lowers completion and can trigger faster scroll-away, the opposite signal.

Three findings:
— Tight, scannable posts often produce higher dwell-per-character and better completion than bloated ones; readers finish and re-read.
— The '...more' expand click is itself a positive signal, so a strong hook that earns the expand can beat a long post nobody opens.
— Saves (a stronger signal than length) come from density and usefulness, not word count.

Caveats: dwell is inferred, never reported to us; correlation with quality confounds everything. Directional, treat with care.

Bottom line: optimize for attention held, not words shown. Cut every line that doesn't earn its dwell — a 900-character post fully read beats a 2,800-character one abandoned at 'more'.