# "I haven't read the thread yet, but..." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 2, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985 "2010-03-02T13:53:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [March 3, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/61 "2010-03-03T02:55:47Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Or, better yet, consider a thread a barber. He may, or may not, shave himself . . . Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Best cartoon I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/62 "2010-03-03T02:58:02Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > WAG: I’d bet that every other page of the Avatar discussion thread had a similar comment. The problem is that the DWW/FG comment isn’ t actually all that far off the mark, IMHO (even if it does get repeated a lot). So not really quite the same as what’s being discussed here, I think. > [@xtisme](#): > > Not to be pithy (since I haven’t read the whole thread yet), but sometimes when I’m reading and posting from my phone and just want to answer the OP without reading through every 'dopers response I do this. Especially when I’m on the road or when I’m in an airport, sometimes I see an interesting thread and want to give my 2 cents worth (and a bargain at triple the price, I tell you!), so I’ll simply post my response to the OP directly, without seeing what others have written. Sorry if it offends… Well, now you know it offends you’d be well advised to stop doing it. 😉 Seriously though, as has been said, it depends on the nature of the thread. Some topics (“What’s your favourite beer?”, for example) it’s fine. Others (“What should I do in [Situation]?”) can often be context sensitive or have their nature changed by the addition of later information, so it’d be good manners and prudent to read the whole thread first, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/63 "2010-03-03T03:04:01Z")
I can’t believe no-one has mentioned the CS ‘Critique my sitcom’ thread! It’s a perfect example of why this sort of thing is sometimes acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/64 "2010-03-03T03:18:59Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Okay, how about threads that don’t discuss themselves. Put all of _them_, and only them, into one big thread Can’t be done (except of course in the sense that you can make a thread discussing all and only the _older_ threads which don’t discuss themselves), no more than you can make a thread with more posts than in any thread. And there’s no barber like the one you were about to describe either. Neatly cuts the paradoxes off at the start, doesn’t it? 🙂 The only difficulty is when you start having reason to think it should be possible to make such objects, but I certainly lack such an intuition for threads and barbers… ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/65 "2010-03-03T03:20:33Z")
Do you know about heterological words? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/66 "2010-03-03T03:25:31Z")
Yes, I find that antinomy rather more troubling, there being greater intuitive reason to suppose the ability to make such a paradoxical definition. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/67 "2010-03-03T03:27:09Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Yes, I find that antinomy rather more troubling, there being greater intuitive reason to suppose the ability to make such a paradoxical definition. Indeed. It is a wonderful thing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/68 "2010-03-03T06:08:21Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > You win the thread. Cool, I’ve never won a thread before! > [@Indistinguishable](#): > > This is perhaps embarrassing, but I don’t get it… > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I didn’t get it either, but I wanted to read this thread a few dozen times before I admitted it. Make sure I didn’t miss something. Sorry for the confusion. I was in a weird mood before I left for work. > [@Rysto](#): > > WAG: I’d bet that every other page of the Avatar discussion thread had a similar comment. Yep, that’s it. > [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > The problem is that the DWW/FG comment isn’ t actually all that far off the mark, IMHO (even if it does get repeated a lot). So not really quite the same as what’s being discussed here, I think. Spoilsport. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/69 "2010-03-03T06:48:23Z")
I’ve read the whole thread, but I just wanted to say that I don’t have anything to say. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/70 "2010-03-03T08:14:03Z")
I think one of the best things you can do is to go ahead and type your response, if you feel you must say something. Then go through quickly and make sure it hasn’t been said before. And, if you still feel the need to say it, just acknowledge the other person. I don’t think it’s hard to read the first few posts, skim, stop to read any clarifications by the OP, read the last few posts so you know their still talking about the topic, and then say what you want. Sure, you may double someone else, but it’s not going to happen that often. All this said, I don’t get the ire. There are enough times that people are deliberately rude to go out and get mad at people who don’t realize they are annoying you. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/71 "2010-03-03T13:28:01Z")
See, now if you’d actually read the thread you’d have realized that most people used the words ‘minor’, ‘annoying’, and ‘I just ignore them’. There wasn’t any actual ‘ire’, as in anger. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/72 "2010-03-03T15:43:49Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > I’ve read the whole thread, but I just wanted to say that I don’t have anything to say. And I have read everything in this thread _except_ this post, but I agree with it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/73 "2010-03-05T10:24:20Z")
This sentence is the first sentence in a self-referential post. The third sentence clearly states that it doesn’t care about any other posts or the OP. “I don’t read/care/understand/or want to understand the OP or any other poster because this is a self-referential post.” This is the last sentence of this post. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/74 "2010-03-05T10:37:31Z")
The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence is false. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/75 "2010-03-05T11:24:31Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > See, now if you’d actually read the thread you’d have realized that most people used the words ‘minor’, ‘annoying’, and ‘I just ignore them’. There wasn’t any actual ‘ire’, as in anger. I read every single post in this thread before I responded (intentionally making sure I didn’t skip a single one), and you couldn’t tell. Kinda funny how some people say it’s so freaking obvious when that happens. Maybe the person you are talking about just reads things differently than you. I can play this game, too: If _you’d_ read the thread, you’d notice that, before the thread got derailed towards the end, there were at least 8 people (I just RE-counted) who were really acting upset. And obviously I was talking about them. I still can’t get over the fact that I made sure each of my points had not been quite made before, and I still get told I didn’t read the thread. Why should I if people are going to assume I didn’t anyways? ETA: Besides because of my OCD. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/76 "2010-03-05T13:23:59Z")
Sorry to upset you, on review, I see I left out a smilie after that reference to reading the thread, it was said in humour, not in earnest. Of course, without the smilie, that’s impossible to see, my bad. I do stand by the fact that most posters pointed out it was minor and annoying however. Not exactly ire, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/77 "2010-03-05T14:12:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I can play this game, too: If _you’d_ read the thread, you’d notice that, before the thread got derailed towards the end, there were at least 8 people (I just RE-counted) who were really acting upset. And obviously I was talking about them. As the OP and someone who just now reread the thread, could you list those 8? Because I count, _maybe_, one - Cat Whisperer got his/her rankles up a bit responding to Starving Artist. But that’s it. Everyone else reads as if they’re annoyed, but certainly not “really upset”. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/78 "2010-03-05T15:50:32Z")
> [@TommyTutone](#): > > My son likes to burst in with his opinion and/or comments without listening to what others have to say. > > He’s seven, what’s your excuse? That’s how they did it in the fifties? ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/79 "2010-03-05T16:57:49Z")
I just want to agree that this bugs the crap out of me too.I’m an active member of close to a dozen forum sites and this one is by far the worst in this regard. I may have even started a pit thread on it years ago. If I can’t be bothered to read the whole thread, I just don’t post. I hate re-reading the same point from 5 different people. But, yeah, I should probably just get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985/80 "2010-03-05T17:29:42Z")
Were my rankles up? I don’t even remember that - let me go look. {looks}That’s interesting; re-reading it, I was never upset about anything. I just realized that I had said something that was unclear, so I tried to clarify it. Good lesson here - never assume that anyone reading what you’ve written is on the same page as you. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-read-the-thread-yet-but/530985.md?page=5)