# Is it because I'm a newbie??? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 14, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609 "2003-09-14T20:26:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/41 "2003-09-15T12:06:45Z")
If I had a penny for every time a thread or response of mine was ignored…I’d be about 26 bucks richer. [sub]Looking forward to my next penny…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/42 "2003-09-15T12:17:08Z")
**hanza** , the responses in your memory thread were not lame, just few. Why didn’t more people respond? Perhaps because it was a difficult question, vague. Perhaps it invoked staring into space remembering colorful balloons we have known and loved, rather than typing. I agree with the people who mentioned readability. You might find it easier to get all your thoughts down in one big block of undifferentiated stream of consciousness text, but more people will read your post if you preview and edit it. The editing may take more time than the initial writing. Put a blank line between paragraphs. Put two spaces between sentences. Break up some of the long paragraphs and sentences. Use fewer question marks. Correct more of your spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors on preview. More people will read the whole post, and more will respond. “Edit, edit, edit. Avoid redundancy.” - E. B. White ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/43 "2003-09-15T12:52:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*Don’t worry about it. The majority of my threads don’t generate many replies and look how long _I’ve_ been here! \*\* …And you are…? **hanza** , I don’t for one second think it’s because you’re a newbie. I think that lel hit it - they were difficult to read. Welcome, and remember that correct spelling, punctuation, and those durn blank spaces are your friends. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/44 "2003-09-15T13:20:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mariemarie \* > \*\*Put a blank line between paragraphs. Put two spaces between sentences. Break up some of the long paragraphs and sentences. Use fewer question marks. Correct more of your spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors on preview. > > More people will read the whole post, and more will respond.\*\* AND, in my opinion, people are more likely to _respect_ what you have to say as coming from an intelligent, knowledgeable, and careful person if it is properly formatted, maintains proper grammar and punctuation (including spacing), and reasonably good spelling. The latter gets a little more slack because typos happen so readily, and are so hard to see by their typists. Also because there are a lot of bright, well-educated, really _bad_ spellers on the SDMB! 😃 Special hint (not to you, **hanza** , but in general) - watch your they’re/their/there, your/you’re, its/it’s and your apostrophes (hint - they almost _never_ occur in plurals). As a matter of curioisty, **hanza** , (and derailing a bit) why is it that you’re so interested in _starting_ a thread that you’ll go looking for topics to do so? There may be others in this thread who do the same, and I’m curious - why is it important to you to _start_ a thread rather than just reading and responding when you have something to say? I mean, I can understand starting a thread when you really _do_ have something to say or ask, but I’m puzzled as to why anyone would seek out topics to raise just for that purpose. Can anyone explain that to me? Of course, I’m a newbie too, so there are certainly nuances I don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/45 "2003-09-15T13:25:52Z")
Whenever I start a Cafe Society thread on _Queer as Folk_ it drops like a stone. Let **Otto** start one and it goes on for days. I hate him. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/46 "2003-09-15T13:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homebrew \* > \*\*Whenever I start a Cafe Society thread on _Queer as Folk_ it drops like a stone. Let **Otto** start one and it goes on for days. I hate him. 😛 \*\* It’s because his handle is a palindrome, and we all know what THOSE people are like. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/47 "2003-09-15T14:59:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > \*\*If I had a penny for every time a thread or response of mine was ignored…I’d be about 26 bucks richer. > > [sub]Looking forward to my next penny…[/sub] \*\* One less penny for you. Re: the OP. My own experience is that the less you try to come up with a popular topic, the more popular the thread will be. Don’t worry about the number of responses you will get when you start a thread. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/48 "2003-09-15T15:54:51Z")
It’s a crap shoot…sometimes the topic will have been done to death, and the newbie doesn’t realize this, which is why their thread dies. I thought starting a thread called **Your unintentional voyeuristic moments** would get a hearty response, but it got scrolled into electronic oblivion. Another time I started a thread about Grandpa Simpson quotes which lasted for weeks. Just keep trying. You don’t always start a fire on the first spark. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/49 "2003-09-15T17:07:33Z")
I think I’ve had three threads that generated more than fifteen posts, and I have a few hundred posts under my belt, at least. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/50 "2003-09-15T17:22:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Velma \* > \*\*One less penny for you. > > Re: the OP. > > My own experience is that the less you try to come up with a popular topic, the more popular the thread will be. Don’t worry about the number of responses you will get when you start a thread. \*\* Oh, sure. Take away my source of income. I’ll have to turn my children loose on the streets to fend for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![hanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eb8c5e/32.png) [@hanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hanza)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/51 "2003-09-15T17:25:37Z")
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will try to keep in mind all the good advice about spelling, spacing, capitalisation etc. (I’ve noticed that it’s a pet peeve of some people’s before- it’s just a bad habit I will try to break.) I can’t make any promises about the spelling, I’m a pretty bad speller, but I stick to my guns about odour- and colour, and night and through etc.- that’s the way I was taught to spell 'em, so that’s how I’m gonna spell 'em. As for why I like to start threads, well of course I’d be lying if I didn’t say that at least a little part of it is about attention- all those people listening to what lil’ ol me’s got to say. But also, I am genuinely interested in abstract topics like “memory” and “dreams”, and I really like leading people into thinking in this area ( as for starting the thread about pizza topping just to get some attention- well, I’m not quite that desperate for attention- yet 😉 ) Thanks for all your responses- I think we can officially name this my most successful thread, evah!! hoorah! ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/52 "2003-09-15T17:33:42Z")
There is one place in which the newbie factor comes into play, and that is for people with very limited time. Often I have very little time to spend on the SDMB during the week. Having an actual career, teaching, and running my own Board of 400+ Members takes a wee bit of effort. So most days the threads I click on are: 1. GQ threads that directly interest me. 2. Pit threads that directly interest me. 3. Threads started by someone who directly interests me. So if you don’t fall into category (3) because I don’t know you, then you could say that is a “newbie” effect. However, newbie or not, fall into category (1) or (2) and you’ll get my attention. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/53 "2003-09-15T20:30:24Z")
Here’s something that no one else has mentioned and could be a big factor - you live in Budapest and are thus in a different timezone to the majority of people on this board. Timing is important - if you post a thread at 10am, the majority of posters are in bed fast asleep and your thread will slip quietly off the front page before they wake up. I’ve learned from experience 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/54 "2003-09-16T02:22:13Z")
But his post only slips off the first page because others are posting at the same hour. (I’ve thought of this excuse for myself, a nightowl, and it doesn’t hold water, unfortunately.) ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/55 "2003-09-16T06:27:28Z")
I don’t mind tossing a thread subject out there and watching it wither and die. At least I tried to spark some enthusiasm on the subject. If someone else starts basically the same thread and it becomes wildly popular, I take solace in the fact I at least thought of an interesting subject. And to the OP - congrat’s you have a winner here 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/56 "2003-09-16T07:32:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > \*\*I’m ecstatic if one of my threads gets to a second page. This has happened maybe four times. My real selfish joy, though, comes from answering someone’s query first, and correctly. That’s even rarer. > \*\* Oh! Look **hanza**! Your thread is now a two pager! **GuanoLad** I never tough of that back then! My first thread ever did run into 2 pages! I never thought that was big deal since I had lurked for months and I figured it was a good idea for a thread, what was reckless was that I started first in Great Debates! I figured that since I did not get my head bitten off, that I had finally found my home! 🙂 [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79097](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79097) Now you have done it, my head will swell more; see what you get from fighting ignorance? Some guys can begin to stop being humble! Horrors! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609/57 "2003-09-16T09:53:19Z")
Of course, the problem with this thread’s survival is, every time I see the title, I hear it in an Ali G voice: “Is it because I is a newbie?” Oh, well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-because-im-a-newbie/201609.md?page=2)