I’m sure this happens to a lot of people. You go to bed still thinking about a particular post or thread.
Now, I don’t mean threads you began - of course you’re thinking about them! I mean ones you’ve merely posted in.
Maybe something you said caused a reaction that stuck with you, whether negative or positive - but never ambivalent.
And then after you logged off, shut down for the night, your conscious drifted ever casually to that post or thread. Maybe this thought kept you up at night, or maybe it just besieged a dream or two.
As a corollary, sometimes you think of things you could have said. Things that were wittier or that explained your position much better. It’s much the same in real life, of course; a situation occurs for which we do not have the “right” words. Those come much later.
So, how about it? This happens to other people, right?
Say you get into a quarrel with someone in a thread. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re ignorant. That kind of thing sticks in your craw, epecially if you don’t normally engage in that type of conflict.
Usually I’ll see a thread and a poorly formed arguement will pop in to my head. And maybe I’ll type it out but then I’ll refuse to post it. Usually over the next day or two I’ll be unable to stop thinking about the thread and my arguement usually comes into clear focus. Then I go back and see about posting it if no one else has made the point.
Here’s one. The Harvard mystique over in IMHO. I’ve got something about endowments and how Harvard has the largest one but it just doesn’t feel right. I hope I don’t lose too much sleep over that!
Oh, yes, do I know what you mean. I absolutely hate those horrible grammatical and idiomatic errors which I notice immediately once the post is up, or worse, the second after I hit the Submit button. (One of those times the hamsters mercifully ate it. Never thought I’d be glad of their voracity)
After the agony of grammar comes the horror of content. Is it right what I have said, didn’t I make a stupid mistake, forget an argument, misread what the other poster said? It gets to the point where I wish I hadn’t posted at all.
I don’t need an edit feature; what I sorely miss is a delete button.
The thing is, it’s there for all the world and its cousin to see. And nothing you do is going to change it. A word said in passing is quickly forgotten, and vanity will aid memory in removing it from the past as you remember it. A post is for eternity.
I hate to say it, but this is one case where the computer should ask you: Are you sure? before going ahead.
Fern forest, wouldn’t the joke be like something that Harvard owes it rep to the endowments of its students? Or am I being wooshed?
I never fail to think of the perfect snappy comeback a day late and a dollar short, after the computer is bedded down for the night. Why this stuff sticks with me more than real life, I don’t know; maybe because real life is so boring by comparison?
Thankfully I lost no sleep on that one. I guess it’s primarily Cafe Society where I lose sleep. I’ll stay up analyzing “Star Trek” or some other show in my head for hours.
a few, like the microwave foods one, i stayed awake forever trying to think of things you can’t nuke.
there were a couple of posts about cats that had me laughing even the next day, talk about feeling like an idiot at work when someone catches you smirking about it!
Ummm. My name is Mastema, and I suffer from post submission guilt and anxiety.
[Everyone] Hi Mastema!
Once I click the submit button, almost invariably, I wish I could undo it and re-read, or just not submit my post. I’ve had this problem ever since I started here. I thought it would get better with time, but it just isn’t. . . Sob. . . I’m sorry, I just can’t go on.
dantheman, this is a widespread phenomenon, I’m sure. After all, the Straight Dope is an addiction. It sticks.
When threads get stuck in my head, I talk to Catalyst about them and compare notes. I’ll occasionally prattle on to the skeptic as well, in addition to a host of my non-SD friends. I’ve had other posters ask me to read over their posts/threads and ask for my opinion on what they wrote and how it came across.
Sometimes I worry that my anonmyity might one day be destroyed and I’ll be forever remembered with a sneer as that girl who started "The Least Popular Thread Ever."
Humm… Interesting thread. But considering people actually replied to it, I don’t think it’s the Least Popular. Take a look at MPSIMS one time and sort by Views (don’t do this often, for it taxes the server somethin’ fierce). Make sure you have it set for All Dates. Then you’ll see which are truly the Least Popular.
Ooooh. Thanks for the tip, dantheman. How wretched. As soon as I feel sufficiently shameless to go through with it, I will. And point and laugh. Muhahahahaa! The first time I typed your name just now, I spelled it danthemean by accident. Tee-hee.
Take a look at MPSIMS one time and sort by Views (don’t do this often, for it taxes the server somethin’ fierce). Make sure you have it set for All Dates. Then you’ll see which are truly the Least Popular.
The first time I typed your name just now, I spelled it danthemean by accident. Tee-hee.