Vincent, In my (very) humble opinion, your advice is only brilliant--well, okay, it's also pithy. For me, an info dump is any concentration of information that I notice. As a writer, I may be more sensitive to them than "normal" folks, but that's a hazard of our trade. Bayou Bill 8)

It depends so much on the story, too. A second book often has small infodumps referring back to the previous story, but readers might not mind because, well, they bought the second book because they're revisiting favourite characters. I suppose it depends on where and how much you dump. Some manure is good for the flowers. Some not. ;-)

I like a story that starts fast, don't get me wrong. But one reason you might see this immediate blast of background info is that the author only has limited amount of words to tell the whole story. I've had the challenge several times of a 12K limit. That short of a word count doesn't give you much wiggle room. You haven't the luxury of lazily doling out backstory like appetizers. Also, in my opinion, one paragraph doesn't qualify as an info dump. Sheesh, I remember the days when a novel would take three chapters to really begin.

I still think it is a stylistic choice. I have several 10k stories in fantasy worlds but focus on telling the reader what they need to know when they need to know it. One sentence here, one there, and a lot of implicit stuff. I am of the opinion that 'world' is plot's bitch. ;)

I've read books from both camps. When I was younger I didn't pay much attention, but as I study writing more, I notice things more. Even without looking for it, info dumping now stands out like a sore thumb to me, it's really disruptive, I find myself starting to skim, in order to get back to the actual story.

Yeah, that's true for me as well, but sometimes you can't get away from a minor info dump. I say minor, because most info dumps should fit in with story progression. Did you all notice most of the Harry Potter novels had info dumps in the first chapters, recapping Harry's pitiable life? I think the author could have skipped some of them, but given that she wrote for a supposedly younger audience, perhaps not.

They were perfect for my son, who started reading them when he was almost 8 and still enjoys them.

I still read YA (like Tamora Pierce) and find it as variable as any other type in most qualities except language complexity and "adult" material.

Maybe it's a series thing. You write a series, you sometimes have to do a dump in some novels to get past the old and on with the new. I'm redoing The Gryphon Taint to republish it as a second edition. I wrote the first four chapters a good twelve years ago. Older style, info dumps, but it's the third book in a series, each book over 100k. There's a lot of information in each book. I had a massive info dump at the beginning of chapter two because I didn't want to spend chapters showing how abused my main girl character was and work in the details, bit by bit, as to why she was abused. I wanted get the basics in and go straight to her last days on a farm and get on with the main plot. I still ended up with nearly three pages of scene setting and info dumping. I can't see how to edit more of the dump out without making readers "look around corners" as I think someone said up in another thread. It's either info dump a little at the beginning, or worry that readers will stop suspending disbelief when I land her in jail awaiting trial for witchcraft. I'm hoping by the time readers get to that book in the series, they'll forgive me for the three pages.

Actually, I'm hoping they'll forgive me for the first three chapters. I really changed my style since then. I was doing a Tolkien thing. Could smack my head now.