::::looks for OP … finds only hamster droppings:::::::
Yep, the RIGHT way is to leave a post when you start a thread!
So glad I pasted it before I sent it…
OP
I have been getting so bored with the SDMB lately because I am looking at it wrong.
I have been looking for interesting posts to reply to. This causes me to virtually ignore large threads (being a human with an ego I want my reply to be seen and noticed. I am under the impression that it will not be noticed in a huge thread) and looking for ones with as few replies as possible.
What I should have been doing (and did today) was looking for interesting posts/threads to read. Not reply to. I didn’t realize until now that there’s a reason why those threads I look at have few replies (apart from the very new ones) - that is they are obviously not worth replying to.
Bye.
“I didn’t realize until now that there’s a reason why those threads I look at have few replies (apart from the very new ones) - that is they are obviously not worth replying to.”
Every thread starts out with 0 replies and 1 view (the OPer has the first view). That a thread has few views can be as simple as it’s 4:25 AM at the ChiReader server when it gets posted and the boards go down for maintenance five minutes later:)
See, that’s the exact opposite of what happened to me. I started out simply reading the threads. Then at some point I thought PING! “I have something to share on this subject.” Ah, but I’m not registered to post. Oh well, it wasn’t that important. Happened several times. Then one fateful day (November 22, 2000, to be precise.) someone posted one of those silly little trivia threads (javaman, to be precise), which I absolutely knew the answer to. I had to register and post. Which I did. After that I have typically restricted my posting to either making salient points, or insipid jokes. In fact, I often won’t open a small thread unless it’s new or has an interesting title. I still read a great deal more than I post, and I prefer in-depth threads with lots of reading material, which I occasionally chime in on. Few of my replies are seen or noticed, so you may have a point after all.
Reading is more fun than posting, IMO.
Yes I know. that’s why I added “except new threads” in my OP.
But the fact that other people haven’t posted to a thread doesn’t mean it isn’t worth replying to. That just means other people haven’t responded. There’ve been several threads where people announced they were getting married or that someone had died or they’d graduated or whatever … and sometimes those threads garner very few responses. It seems to me to be herd mentality, in a way … that other people haven’t replied to a thread somehow means it isn’t worth replying to.
I guess I should have remembered the pedantic people and put ‘most of’ before ‘those threads’
I am not so shallow as to assume all low-reply threads are rubbish. I am well aware of the phenomenon of un-replyable OPS, such as ones asking simple questions where the first reply is a good answer, no-one feels the need to reply after that. But I believe the vast majority of matured low-reply threads are not worth replying to.
And, IMO there’s nothing less interesting to me than reading that some complete stranger has got married or graduated. so those type of posts count when I talk about posts not worth replying to or looking at.
In fact I think people should stop posting trivial crap about their lives. I am sure they are fascinating experiences to the author, but (and I am not being nasty here, this is a fact-) it is highly unlikely that most dopers will be even remotely interested.
For instance, Graduating University for me was a great experience, but If I posted the news here I am sure it would get one or two ‘congratulations’ replies from polite people. but deep down no-one would care in the slightest (except in the unlikely event that two dopers are close to each other, in which case it is an ‘in’ event)
Lobsang, they aren’t posting for “most dopers”, who, as you correctly point out, don’t care, They are posting for the handful (or double handful, or generous serving) of dopers with whom they have established relationships and who do care about “trivial” events–just as Buffy fans start Buffy threads that “most dopers” don’t care about for hte sake of the dopers that do. I mean, I don’t care about 99% of the topics that get hammered to death in GD, but I am glad that that dialouge is going on because it enhances the collective quality of the doper experience.
I don’t want to rag on oyu too hard here becasue you are 100% right about it being important to read for hte sake of reading as well as for the sake of posting, and the fact that you have come to that realization suggests that you will grow a great deal as a writer and as a poster in the future. But dismissing the things that don’t interest you as trivial and not worth posting is not a good idea.
Congratulations Lobsang. BTW, what is a tote operator?
Yep, I’ve actually been here a long time, but my post count is pretty low because I read a lot more than I post.
A Buffy thread is different because complete strangers can identify with it. But the ‘trivial crap’ (I am sorry I used that word. I did not mean to say that people’s lives are crap) I refered to is stuff that is very specific to someones life. OK, important events in someones life may garner interest from a few close friends of the OPA (Original Post Author) and be justifiably posted. But sometimes I see posts as trivial as “well I got my new washing machine” (in which they then may go on to describe it’s features).
When I said “I think people should stop posting trivial crap…” I was expressing an opinion, not making a demand. People should post whatever they want. The main point of my OP was that most few-reply, non-new posts will be boring to me. So I should look at the larger threads.
Then some people went on to justify those post which I refer to as boring. Well your justifications were all correct, but that does not alter the fact (and point I was making) that they are boring [to the average person lookng at the sdmb for fun/to pass the time - in this case - me].
Please no-one take offence here - ‘boring’ is relative. It is normal to find boring the life-events of complete strangers. I am sure many would find my posts boring if I taked about my life events. I will not be offended.
Thanks.
A tote operator operates (babysits) a totalisator. In plain english that means I look after a system of computers which allow people to bet on horse dog and jai alai tracks over the internet. Babysitting means I only have sporadic tasks to do. So in between them surfing the SDMB is about the only thing I end up doing.