# Aborted thread responses **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 12, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474 "2004-08-12T02:07:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/1 "2004-08-12T02:07:26Z")
How often do you start to reply to a post, then say “aw, forget it”? (I wonder how many times that will happen to this thread 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/2 "2004-08-12T02:14:03Z")
About 33% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/3 "2004-08-12T02:14:40Z")
Four or five times a day, I’d guess. Probably even more than I actually post. Sometimes my comment just isn’t as pithy/funny/convincing/whatever when I read it back to myself. So remember, folks: When you see an official **Hal Briston** post, you know it’s met with the most stringent quality controls possible. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/4 "2004-08-12T02:17:28Z")
Plenty of times. Usually it’s in a fairly straightforward thread and I feel like posting a humorous (to me, anyway) or smartass reply and something just says, “Nah…” Recent example, in [this thread about pancakes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268889&highlight=pancakes), I was sorely tempted (on several occasions) to post this: “Pancakes: how do you like 'em?” “Off the ass of a $1000 hooker!” ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/5 "2004-08-12T02:19:32Z")
Probably not quite as often as I should. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/6 "2004-08-12T02:20:55Z")
About a quarter of the time. Most often because someone else has beaten me to my answer, on preview, or I have just calmed down enough to remember that I really don’t want to have to listen to the whining that result from my post. Usually my own. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/7 "2004-08-12T03:26:48Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/8 "2004-08-12T03:54:11Z")
Notice how long I’ve been here (never mind that I actually started reading the boards when they were on AOL) and how many posts I have? And now you know why I don’t post much, even though I think about it all the time 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/9 "2004-08-12T04:16:13Z")
Once in a while. Usually when I think I may be overreacting to something, or if I want to make a joke and it’s not ready yet. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/10 "2004-08-12T04:32:16Z")
I’d say about one in every four to five posts. Looking at my post count, it’s scary to imagine how big it’d be if I didn’t censor myself. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/11 "2004-08-12T04:57:16Z")
What’s more alarming than that is responses that get cut off right in the middle (or before the end, at least) by some unknown factor. It was quite preva ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/12 "2004-08-12T06:04:31Z")
Depends on how much I’ve had to drink 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/13 "2004-08-12T06:46:39Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Depends on how much I’ve had to drink 😉 Same here. The posts that piss people off usually happen when I’ve had a bit much. If I’m lucky, I’ll type out my snide reply, review it and erase all five paragraphs of it. If I’m not, I usually dread visiting the board the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/14 "2004-08-12T10:17:26Z")
I do this quite a bit and on a few occasions I’ve aborted an argumentative response in a debate thread because typing it out made me think about it and realise that I wasn’t actually all that comfortable holding the view. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/15 "2004-08-12T12:18:28Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Looking at my post count, it’s scary to imagine how big it’d be if I didn’t censor myself. You haven’t even hit 5K yet, you little whippersnapper! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/16 "2004-08-12T12:37:03Z")
45.2% of the time ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/17 "2004-08-12T14:08:39Z")
Quite a few. Since I’m at work, I get inturrupted a lot. If I haven’t finished a post, I usually delete it when I get back to my desk. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/18 "2004-08-12T14:50:32Z")
I probably abort 15 to 20% of my would-be posts. Yesterday, for example, I was going to make a reference to Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” in some thread about playing poker, but I decided, “nahh, too lame, not original, not funny.” ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Dirx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/19 "2004-08-12T15:05:54Z")
I was gonna post here, then decided against it. Oh wait. 😃 I’m in the same boat as **Merhouse**. I abort most of my would-be posts. Usually because they’re not as funny as I thought, or if I decided I’d rather not share that bit of information about me, etc. I’m just more of a lurker anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474/20 "2004-08-12T15:19:31Z")
The world is deprived of Inigo’s wit about half the time when he wants to reply. Typically it’s because what I had to say turns out to be un-funny, uninformative, unnecessary or just plain obtuse. No, YOU don’t have a special filter on your account that lets you see the rejected posts, the ones you see are the good ones. ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aborted-thread-responses/259474.md?page=2)