actually, short shifters make it easier to "slam" the tranny into gear. the shifter is shorter, so your hand doesn't have to move it as far to shift from gear to gear, which means you can do it much, much faster (which is the point of a short shifter to begin with). an exaggerated example would be like comparing the shifter on a school bus to the shifter on a regular car. you can shift much faster on a car. easier to shift faster = easier to do harm to the transmission. you aren't necessarily messing with your transmission every time you shift with a short shifter, it's just *easier* to.

i try to be careful and not shift real fast with my short shifter. it doesn't need to be lightning fast for regular driving anyway..