You’re just jealous that you didn’t get to it first. 
[…Ouch! Those tomatoes hurt!..]
“Because it’s possible to repeat the general theme someone else has espoused and still have a unique viewpoint. Also, it can take a lot less time to compose the message and get your thoughts down than it can to wade through a few pages of posts.”
But how do you know you’re providing a unique viewpoint if you haven’t read all of the posts? I just don’t think posting blindly without reading the whole thread can be defended…particularly not in GD, which is probably where this is the biggest problem.
GQ? Well, you ought to read the thread or you won’t know whether or not the question was answered AT ALL.
Cafe Society? Pretty much fluff, but you will still look (to those of us who pay attention) like an idiot if someone posts, “I don’t know why the Professor could keep the radio working but couldn’t build a BOAT,” and then a page later you post “Have you ever noticed that the Professor could build almost anything except a working boat?”
IMHO? Opinion. Obviously.
MPSIMS? Fluff.
Pit? Abuse (generally), and if you don’t bother to read the whole thread in the Pit, it’s not off-topic for me to call you a waste of synapses when you post a previously-stated thought as though you were the first to come up with it.
GD, though…as kabbes said, “No harm posting an inflammatory argument that was hashed out and settled 2 pages ago after 3 pages of bitter incrimination and flame, thus re-igniting the whole sorry mess and so preventing any chance of ever reaching a resolution?” I’ve seen this happen on more than one occasion; and in my not REMOTELY humble opinion, the people who do this have a vastly over-inflated sense of self-importance.
As an explanation for that last…“My thoughts on this are so original and intelligent that no one else will have posted them.”
I have opened threads in GD and GQ and known the answer, or had what I thought was a brilliant point…and seen someone else address it. However much I would ALSO like credit for having the idea, I don’t need the recognition of it, so I don’t post it…and I don’t ASSUME that I should have anyhow.
Well, it’s probably best taken on a case-by-case basis. There will be many threads in which reading the entire thread is mandatory, for the reasons you’ve mentioned. GQ and GD are two fora that definitely require this.
But MPSIMS, CS, and IMHO? Not necessarily. Depends on the material. Also, people can hijack a thread with good intentions - I don’t mean taking the subject in a completely different direction, I mean adding an anecdotal post that reinforces or refutes the OP.
The Pit is a unique animal, though. Let’s say there’s a big disagreement between a few posters in a thread, and the person who’s being pitted says something completely off the wall and insane on page 3. People who haven’t read the first two pages can certainly still comment on that particular post.
The winner for Most Ironic Statement goes to…
“Well, it’s probably best taken on a case-by-case basis. There will be many threads in which reading the entire thread is mandatory, for the reasons you’ve mentioned. GQ and GD are two fora that definitely require this.”
In other words, you agree with me. Thank you. Particularly since I covered the other fora in my post.
“The winner for Most Ironic Statement goes to…”
If you feel the need to believe that I think I’m hugely important, be my guest. The winky-smiley doesn’t detract from the sentiment expressed. Sorry. Unlike the people who think what they have to say is SO IMPORTANT that it can’t wait until they’ve finished reading, I know I don’t matter in the slightest.
“Then why do you post?”
My own personal entertainment. Just because it’s for entertainment doesn’t mean I don’t personally enjoy pointing out stupidity and random rampant ego manifestations when I see them.
You’re an odd one, Hamadryad.
Holy shit…he’s discovered my tragic secret.
I don’t understand the problem here. Read the thread, then post. It should be pretty straightforward. Fighting ignorance, correct? Then don’t be ignorant of what others have had to say beforehand.
I think that people who don’t read the other posts but still post themselves are basically saying that no one else’s posts are worth reading, but theirs is.
It’ll be even funnier when I do it on Page 2!
Well, that’s the corporate Vision Statement, sure. Day to day reality, it’s about as accurate as any other such thing.
I actually think that reading the whole thread first is most important in the pit, where tempers are always on a hair trigger. That’s where you’re most likely to cause maximum damage with a bumbling phrase. It’s where there is most likely (especially in a 5 page thread!) to have been some pretty major fights that should be trodden oh-so-carefully over. It’s where you really ought to be avoiding the conversational equivalent of tossing a pin-less grenade into a crowded mob.
Once the “muthafuckers” and “cunt-faces” have died down, the OPer has clarified and apologies extended both sides and some semblance of peace is finally about to be struck, the last thing we need is some clueless tosser reading the OP and nothing else and declaring “OP-er, you’re nothing but a cunt-face!”
Witness Scylla’s recent train-wreck for some prime examples.
pan
If everyone else has been involved in the war and some doofus decided to respond to a point that’s already been hashed out, sure. But if that same doofus is responding to a nasty flame that someone else said, they’re well within their rights to bitch right back at that person, even if the insult’s been settled among everyone else. The Pit is where it gets personal, for better or for worse.
“If everyone else has been involved in the war and some doofus decided to respond to a point that’s already been hashed out, sure. But if that same doofus is responding to a nasty flame that someone else said, they’re well within their rights to bitch right back at that person, even if the insult’s been settled among everyone else.”
Which you won’t know unless you’ve read the whole thread.
Doesn’t matter if you know it or not. Because the Pit can get very personal, people will react to an insult regardless of what others have said about it; they’ll react based on how it affects them (or how they perceive it to affect them).
[Judge Wapner]
I know you’ve been sworn, and I have read your complaint…
[/Judge Wapner]
He said that at the beginning of every case on every episode I ever saw.
All Hail the mighty wisdom of Wapner!
gotta go, Final Jeopardy’s on!
“If everyone else has been involved in the war and some doofus decided to respond to a point that’s already been hashed out, sure.”
Let me try this again…
WHICH YOU WON’T KNOW UNLESS YOU’VE READ THE WHOLE THREAD.
Did you see it that time? I guess I have to figure that you’re doing nothing but agreeing with me, since in the above statement (previous disagreements nonwithstanding) it looks as though you’re referring to someone who responded to a point without reading the whole thread as a “doofus.”
So yeah, I agree completely…people who post responses without reading the whole thread are, indeed, doofuses.
Is there some reason why you’re “shouting”? Do you feel important doing so? You just look like a loon.
You completely disregarded my last post. Please read it again, then try to post a coherent thought without losing control.
I’m “shouting” because you’re apparently not “hearing”…which in this case is (in theory) “reading” - or, if you are, you’re not “comprehending” very “well.”
Unless, of course, you ONLY want to discuss whether or not people are “allowed” to fly off the handle in the Pit…which is NOT what this thread is about. At least, that’s not the impression I got from the OP.
This leads to universally unpopular pile-ons, which virtually all agree are in very poor taste. In order to avoid this sort of thing, we read the threads first.
dan, you know, she really doesn’t look like a loon. I would enjoin you to step back and have a look at the implications of what you are suggesting before you accuse Hama of lack of control.
Dayum, Hama is sexy when she wantsta be.