Inspired by the t-shirt inventory. I replied to the thread but I don’t particularly care about other peoples’ t-shirt collections so I haven’t gone back to look at it again. When encountering a poll thread:
If interested in the topic do you tend to:
Reply and revisit
Reply and not revisit
Don’t reply but revisit
Don’t reply, don’t revisit
If not particularly interested in the topic, do you tend to:
If interested, I’ll definitely reply and revisit. If not interested, I’ll reply, but probably not revisit, and I’ll probably ultimately unsubscribe from the thread. There’s middle ground there, however.
For example, in this particular thread, if I find that people are not only replying to the poll, but also elaborating on their reasoning and such, then I’ll probably return often to see what folks have to say.
If, on the other hand, people come in and just say, “If interested, #1, if not interested, #2,” then I don’t really care. The exception to that would be if it’s the type of poll that is trying to determine people’s feelings based on age/sex/location, in which case the results may actually be interesting on their own.
My settings are such that I automatically subscribe to any thread I post in, so if I participate I always check back to see what’s been added since my post. I figure it’s only polite, and every now and then I even have a comment on a subsequent post – sometimes someone has even commented on mine. Eventually I’ll tire of the subject, though, and will unsubscribe.
Every now and then I’ll subscribe to a poll thread without posting in it, but it’s rare for me to come across a poll that I’m very interested in despite having nothing to contribute.
If I have nothing to contribute and I’m not particularly interested, I skip it.