OPP: Other People's Posts

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Be honest: do you really read other people's posts, particularly in the bulk-information-gathering variety of thread, such as the recent Unusual Characteristics and Eye Color threads?

I've long had the impression that people on internet forums are mainly interested in posting, and then reading and re-reading their own posts. I'm not necessarily condemning this; I think it's just human nature. But it would be interesting to know exactly what the story really is.

I'm sure we've all seen those threads where it's obvious that somebody hasn't read a word of what was said before he or she got there, other than to get the gist of what the topic was about (maybe by only reading the thread title and the first half sentence of the OP's first post). Then there are those threads where people seem to have a passing knowledge of what's been said, but still seem more interested in what they've said, as indicated by frequent refrains like "As I said before ..." or even direct quotes of themselves, heh (a personal fave of mine). And lastly we have threads where there is an even back-and-forth where people are reasonably well-informed on what others have said, presumably because they read and digested others' posts.

The thing I find most striking about this tendency is not just the apparent egoism involved, but the naivete. Do people really think that everyone is just waiting for them to weigh in and supply all the answers, and that they generally have them while no one else does? The common tone (e.g. "listen up, here's the deal") seems to suggest this, and thus that there is a distinct lack of humility on internet forums. (By that I don't mean politeness; the BoM, for example, seems generally populated by polite people who don't flame without cause and troll and all that. I mean humility, as in the understanding that you don't know everything.)

As for eye color and whatnot, can you recall what anyobody else's eye color is besides your own without going back to look at that thread?

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Disclaimer: I don't really mean this as a "Shame on you!" moment. It's just interesting.

 

I pretty much read everything that gets posted. Whether I incorporate that into my posts or not is another matter. I probably won't post a response if someone has already echoed my opinion or if it's just plain baiting though.

 

Okay, the thread has been answered. No need for further posting.

 

If it's a thread I'm posting in, I read every post. I come here because I enjoy the exchange of ideas with others. I try to respond to any posts directed at me as well. It's just basic etiquette.

 

Since voting in that thread, I can barely remember what MY eye color is, much less anyone else's.

I know there was a lot of blue. I think BoV was blue (baby blue to be precise, that are the joy of cougars everywhere). I think 8 had hazelish, greyish eyes with amber rings in them.

Easier to remember when there's a story or something out of the ordinary. I usually read a post before I respond... but remembering that someone said "brown" or "green" a couple of days later is expecting a lot!

 

If it is a thread I'm interested in, I read every post. If the thread gets hijacked in a direction I don't care about anymore I stop reading. I may check in later to see if it is back on track, but then I tend not to backtrack and read all of the older posts.

 

Depends on the thread type. In the serious threads/forums, I read the posts. In the Random Babbling/Guessing Game threads, I read some but only the last 10 or so.

 

If it's a long running thread that I'm just getting in on, (as in 10 pages already) I'm just going to skim it and then weigh in. But if I'm in on the ground floor, I read everything except the insanely long, repetitive, psychopathic posts. I also don't necessarily follow every link, though I refrain from commenting on something I haven't read because I'm not a grade A douche.

I remember stuff that I think is important -- eye colour is cool, and I like to go back to threads like that and see how the poll is doing, but I won't remember anything other than general trends or really funny posts.

If I start a thread, I usually want to see what people have said, so I'll read everything there.

 

Like everyone else has posted, I hate tarantulas too!

 

In most threads I read everything, and the ones that don't interest me, I usually don't read or post. To use the eye color thread, I don't know any of you personally, so I don't give a rip what color any of your eyes are, and I'm sure no one really cares what color mine are either. So I didn't even open that thread. But for the alleys, if I'm going to respond to the topic, I always read it so that in my reply I can sound a least a little less of an idiot than my standard state would suggest.

 

"As I said before..." posts can be just as indicative of the of the poster's indignation over someone not actually "reading" his/her post as actual egoism.

I personally try to read every relevant post in the thread I'll be posting in (which is everything except random anecdotes/off topic posts). I do this for two reasons: one is etiquette and the other is because I consider myself an pursuer of knowledge of all kinds - whether actual facts, obscure points of view, etc. Now, since I took the time to read - and digest - other people's posts (and I do take my time to sort through some of them) then I expect to be treated the same. Unfortunately, a lot of the people I've encountered over the internet rarely do more than "skim" through a post, ignoring everything remotely subtle. Enter "listen up, here's the deal" posts, which try to explain the poster's view in much simpler terms (leaving out all subtleties, and usually with a bit more sarcasm than usual) and boom. Flame wars/drama.

I just read/skimmed through the eye thread so I remember someone commenting that tests rarely have an option for gray eyes, an interesting tidbit on how eye color can change as you age, someone commenting that their eye color depends on what he/she was drinking at the time and that one of the moderators had one of the rarer eye colors. Someone had heterochromia (sp? different eye colors) but not complete heterochromia. Me, I have brown eyes and the only interesting thing about that is that people like me are everywhere. Definitely not something to write home about, hence the missing post.
I didn't bother to associate eye color with a name because I think such info should be reserved for people who actually know each other - and I do this in the spirit of politeness, so nevermind that the boards do give you degree of anonymity.