It’s hilarious! Look at how many times posters repeat these ideas:
Political signs in a neighborhood can show people that they should vote for candidate X b/c they share the views, needs, values etc. of their neighbors
Signs help uninformed people learn about candidates, or at least inspire them to go learn about them
Signs help people remember names, so that when it comes time to vote for those other races on the ballot, you go w/ the name you recognize most likely
It’s not that I disagree w/ these arguments- although I do disagree with #2 until I see cites or hear proof- but the rest I absolutely agreed with, and did agree with several times in the course of the thread when people mentioned them. It’s not like they had to repeat these facts b/c I was being stubborn against them, it’s that later posters either responded to my OP w/o checking to see if others had already said the same thing; also, certain posters responded w/o bothering to understand what I had said in my OP in the first place.
Folks, try not to be a drive-by-expert-who-disagrees-with-OPs-w/o-even-reading-them-or-most-of-the-thread-first.
Argh! This is also one of my (hopefully few) pet peeves. It bugs me to no end. However, I don’t ever say anything about it because I assume there must be some reason why they’ve done the unthinkable. But I definitely appreciate you pitting these sort of actions so I can tag along and, for once, say “me too!”
See, if I had just skipped past the later posts, I could have happily posted a snarky reply and been on my way. By reading your post you have ruined this for me. For shame.
I generally pass on a thread over 30 posts as in most cases I won’t have anything new to say and I don’t want to wade through that many posts unless it is an area of knowledge for me.
andrewdt85 you are absolutely correct, a lot of us do this. I see it in threads all the time and quite often find out I have done it myself.
I dunno. Sometimes it’s usefull to get a sense of how widespread a feeling or a thought is. Sometimes the tenth poster has an interesting perspective. I don’t mind it.
By their very nature, threads placed in IMHO solicit opinions. Why should I refrain from posting my opinion just because someone has shared it already?
Folks who are clearly posting in response to the thread title and not the OP irk me, but that’s a bit more specific than what you seem to be railing against.
I not only don’t mind a different viewpoint, but I welcome it. What seems to make my eyes roll around sideways is when someone offers a repeated opinion/idea like they were the first poster on the scene. That seems to negate the other 42 who’ve already observed whatever and, typically, I only feel this way when it hasn’t happened to me. I only feel invisible.
Also, I don’t mind the people who write out a reply that includes they haven’t gotten all the way through the thread yet, but will catch up (natch – just had to get something in before it was forgotten) later. And the ones who apologize for it or that much more wonderful. Angels even.
Those are exceptions. Also, in a Cafe thread, if you are talking about something like sharing what your favorite movie is or what movie you’ve seen the most, and you post w/o reading the whole thing and a bunch of others happened to have Star Wars too, so be it, no problem.
Nope, that’s right on the mark. Unless of course they’re requoting the title and making a joke about it, that’s okay.
Oh my god… go to the thread I link to in my OP; someone new just posted to it (post #22), and he FLESHES OUT AN IDEA THAT WAS SAID SUCCINTLY IN POST NUMBER EIGHT AS IF HE WAS THE FIRST!
Can we name this tendency after me, in honor of the thread I started that is serving as a petri dish for it?
I’m guilty as Hell. I have no excuse, I guess. I’ve always been a skimmer. If I promise to flog myself in an unpleasurable way, will that help toward making recompense?
This happened in a thread where someone was bitching about Starbucks recently to me.
Someone mentioned the Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks and twice I posted the exact location (even a map) of the damn things, and there was at least one more poster who said something like “I think it’s in Texas.” Argh.
It’s not like they had to repeat these facts b/c I was being stubborn against them, it’s that later posters either responded to my OP w/o checking to see if others had already said the same thing; also, certain posters responded w/o bothering to understand what I had said in my OP in the first place.
But I definitely appreciate you pitting these sort of actions so I can tag along and, for once, say “me too!”