Do you actually read people's posts?

[tomalak301]

Posting on here shouldn't be like writing a ten page essay or something.

Different people post on boards for different reasons.

Personally, I just come here to shoot the breeze, throw out a couple of gags, and basically pass an idle 10 minutes or so here and there.

Others genuinely seem to enjoy debating/arguing and/or discussing stuff in a lot of detail or to build deeper friendships with others here. I don't really do that, but I guess it must be irritating to these groups of folks that people like me basically just skim the topics and posts unless something grabs the eye.

Different ways of using the medium, really.

Oh I agree. How people spend their time on here is totally up to them. I think I'm the same as you. If I get into a debate, fine, but I mostly just post on here as fun and try to build friendships along the way.

However, because time is short, if there is a post that is long winded where you have quote/reply/quote/reply for like 10 things, that is something I probably will skip over. If it takes 10 minutes to read a post like that, than that's not fun, at least in my opinion, unless it's really really interesting. If that's what people want to get out of being here, I've got nothing wrong with that.

 

[Nardpuncher]

^^ That's a kind of post I wanted to mention. Someone multi-quotes the last 8 posters or so,responding to each one or that quote within a quote within a quote within a quote within a quote within a quote (isn't there a name for that...something with eggs I seem to remember?!?!) where you give up because you don't know who is talking to who.


Oh, threads like the ones in the Trek XI Forum that are 3,000 posts long with one line references to the other posters in that long thread are no fun to read.(post number 2433 has someone saying they want to throw bananas at some other member, who then says they'll just put a sombrero on it, then someone else comes in with a demotivational poster of a monkey then another member quotes another one and says they are their new love slave etc. etc.) I guess if you're participating in them they may be somewhat fun, but even when I've seen threads like that get started I soon lose interest.

 

[Niorah]

I tend to skim, mostly. After so many years being here, very little threads hold some semblance of novelty, so I'll generally avoid the ones that have been discussed ad nauseam before, leaving the fun to the people who are new around here.

I also completely ignore posters that are always saying the same, uninteresting, trivial, or just downright boring things over and over again. It gets to the point when you see their name or avatar and just skip it altogether.

If however the thread is interesting I will go the distance and read even posts that are a foot long.

 

[Holdfast]

(isn't there a name for that...something with eggs I seem to remember?!?!)

Yes, nested quotes.

If it takes 10 minutes to read a post like that, than that's not fun, at least in my opinion, unless it's really really interesting. If that's what people want to get out of being here, I've got nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, we're definitely singing from the same hymnsheet here.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

Being ignored doesn't bother me so much--I just internalize it and say that whatever I thought was such a brilliant contribution probably wasn't.

No, no, no.

The correct response is to rationalise it away as being so brilliant that no mere humdrum mind could understand it, let alone respond.

Sounds like a metaphysics professor I had. He told us the reason we didn't agree with him was because we weren't smart enough to understand him.

He also told us on exams that if we wanted to add our own interpretation, to do so in a different color ink.

The posts that give me tired head are the ones where someone is responding to a long post and breaking it down line by line.

 

[Holdfast]

Being ignored doesn't bother me so much--I just internalize it and say that whatever I thought was such a brilliant contribution probably wasn't.

No, no, no.

The correct response is to rationalise it away as being so brilliant that no mere humdrum mind could understand it, let alone respond.

Sounds like a metaphysics professor I had. He told us the reason we didn't agree with him was because we weren't smart enough to understand him.

He also told us on exams that if we wanted to add our own interpretation, to do so in a different color ink.

Suddenly, I have a new hero.

 

[RandyS]

.....

What did I tell you?

 

[Marie1]

I read some, sometimes mostly when someone else quotes them so I can follow the whole thing.

I often pay less attention to who is making the post.

 

[sidious618]

No, of course not.

 

[Shatnertage]

Being ignored doesn't bother me so much--I just internalize it and say that whatever I thought was such a brilliant contribution probably wasn't.

No, no, no.

The correct response is to rationalise it away as being so brilliant that no mere humdrum mind could understand it, let alone respond.

Sounds like a metaphysics professor I had. He told us the reason we didn't agree with him was because we weren't smart enough to understand him.

He also told us on exams that if we wanted to add our own interpretation, to do so in a different color ink.

The posts that give me tired head are the ones where someone is responding to a long post and breaking it down line by line.

Oh no, is this a nested post? Nobody's going to read it. I'll have to counterattack with some smileys.

When I hear about people like your metaphysics professor, I think that if they were so smart, they could wrap their ideas in words that were comprehensible to us littlebrains.

The different color ink thing is cute, though.

Shit, with my students, all I ask is that they don't cheat and don't say anything incredibly offensive on their tests/coursework. And that's sometimes asking too much.

 

[sevenstars]

Huh, I've been wondering that myself lately.

Since hanging around on the internet has pretty much destroyed my attention span, I'd have to say no.

I only enter threads I'm interested in to begin with. And if there are already 200 responses in a couple of days, I tend to stay away no matter what: too much work to catch up.

If it's longer than two paragraphs, I skim it, unless it's cogent, interesting, and to the point. If I run into a series of ten paragraph posts with quotations nested five deep, I just scroll on down.

You're not still reading, are you?

 

[Jenee]

Depends on the topic and how many pages/posts there are when I notice it.

In fact, in this one, I just skipped from page one to page five and didn't ready anything inbetwen

However, I always read posts from King Daniel - unless, he posted on pages 2 - 4.

 

[F. King Daniel]

However, I always read posts from King Daniel

 

[Mary Ann]

I don't have that much time on the internet every day so I only read a few forums and skim excessively wordy posts (though I'm guilty of producing a few of these myself!), though I will always read all posts by certain people and hardly read any by others. Tit-for-tat posting is ignored altogether. I work with dysfunctional toddlers and come here to relax, not be reminded of my working day.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I skim most of the time. I have so many people on "ignore" that reading a lot of topics is actually fairly quick work (although people do quote the folks I'm ignoring so I still have a tendency to respond to people I tell myself I'm done with).

I respond to whatever I feel like responding to. If someone complains that I only reply to one point out of a dozen paragraphs they posted - well, that's all they wrote that got my attention.

 

[Kira Nerys]

I skim read if one catches my eye ,I will read it further .

 

[Wynterhawk]

Yes, I read posts when the topic is something that I'm interested in. If it's a really good discussion, I'll re-read and keep a close eye on when new posts arrive.

 

[Jenee]

If the thread title is interesting, I'll open the thread and read the first couple posts. If it continues to keep my interest, I continue reading, if it doesn't keep my interest, I don't.

 

[Joshua Howard]

Usually at minimum I read half of the first page of posts in the thread, and the last page of posts, before responding. If it is quite interesting to me, I'll read all of them, but that is only if it is a topic that I am fascinated by. I don't ever respond without reading enough to feel like I know the context of the conversation, and after I make a post in a thread, I usually continue to follow the thread for a while.

I guess we all like to have people respond to us, or react to what we've said; and so we tend to write more about us, and our views, and less about what other folks have said. We tend to be self-absorbed, and so everyone gets to the point where they are all preaching to themselves; but that only pertains to topics which provide weak discussion material. If you've got something people are interested in (or disagree to some degree upon) then there is precedent for lots of reactive, interactive posts.

 

[Jenee]

I guess we all like to have people respond to us, or react to what we've said; and so we tend to write more about us, and our views, and less about what other folks have said. We tend to be self-absorbed, and so everyone gets to the point where they are all preaching to themselves; but that only pertains to topics which provide weak discussion material. If you've got something people are interested in (or disagree to some degree upon) then there is precedent for lots of reactive, interactive posts.

If a topic is interesting, I like to question others about thier opinions and ... compare/contrast it with mine.

Many times, that will liven up a conversation - even IRL.