I noticed in the Jackson Family Drama thread that a couple of folks came by just to let us know that they do not care about the Jackson Family or their drama one iota. This is far from unique and I’ve even seen it from posters that I know to be smart, entertaining and generally benevolent folks.
This is not a pitting (unless the mods make it so) as I’m not ear-scratchingly annoyed by this behavior or anything, I just wonder what the internal process is that occurs to create posts like this?
As an example, I care not one bit about Dr. Who. I’ve never seen the series and while I’m sure it’s brilliant, it isn’t currently on my to-watch list. As a result, I do not read Dr. Who threads because I can’t imagine what I’d get out of them and I’m quite certain I cannot add to the conversation, being completely unfamiliar with the content.
So my question is, if you are someone who does/has done this–what compels you into the thread in the first place? Do you generally think it’s about something else entirely and, upon figuring it out, decide that you aren’t interested? Is it a subtle reproach of folks who are interested in the subject matter? A desire to join the conversation but lack of knowledge about the subject? Is it something else entirely?
Need answer whenever.
Side note: I’ve seen this behavior IRL but it’s usually done with the intent to derail the current conversation to a new subject altogether i.e. “Aw, I don’t really like football–but hey, did you see that Celtics game last Sunday?” which seems like a weird tack for a topic-specific thread.
I’ve been guilty of this on occasion, though I typically restrain myself from hitting the post button. Generally it’s a topic that annoys the hell out of me, enough to make me rant or bitch about it. Maybe I’m sick of hearing about it, maybe I just don’t like the title’s face. Usually I don’t actually post it, though.
Well I don’t think that particular example (of the Jackson estate drama) is a particularly good one for the point you’re making because I think it makes perfect sense for people to question the use of discussing what amounts to a branch from the huge tree of the cult of celebrity. So when people are saying that particular issue doesn’t matter in the broader sense, I’m inclined to agree entirely. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t (necessarily) talk about it, but that it’s as valuable a point to make that it’s useless to talk about. So when you relate that to Dr. Who, for example, that doesn’t seem to work for me because it follows an artistic genre. Not caring about a genre and not caring about the cult of celebrity are two very different things, I would think.
So I’d have to say that it depends on the issue. I think more people should probably be talking about how it doesn’t matter, but that’s just me. And when you make something like that public conversation, I figure someone has the right to say it’s a meaningless one.
I threadshit once a long time ago and was warned, well not an official warning just a “cut it out.”
I wanted so badly to post “who fucking cares” in the Jackson family thread but contained myself. I went into the thread thinking there might have been some really whacko, over-the-top, koo koo for coco puffs stuff going on, but basically it was about them fighting over money. So, although the title was promising, the thread was mundane, to me anyway.
Sure, if the topic under discussion is, “Is the Jackson family newsworthy?” or “Let’s talk about whether the Jackson family’s fame is warranted” or whatever. But if the topic is something that the Jacksons are currently in the news for, and you come in just to announce that you think the whole topic is stupid and you don’t understand why anyone even talks about it, that’s threadshitting. Nobody likes a threadshitter.
So if 10 people want to talk about a subject and 50 think it’s meaningless, it’s okay with you for the 50 people to each post once or twice about how meaningless it is?
If that’s not okay, then where’s the cutoff? 40 nay-sayers is okay? 10? One?
Well I think that’s the nature of public conversation, but even on forums that weren’t so heavily moderated I’ve never seen it come down to that. I think, in general, if you’re willing to post something to begin with it should at least have something to do with the topic other than to say you don’t care. I think it’s great if people think it’s meaningless and have something to say about why. In my eyes, that’s still part of the same conversation. To come into a thread and say “who cares?” is, yes, different and it is, yes, useless. But to that same extent, it’s also useless to come into a thread to say “I agree and have nothing else to say” or something equal to that. I don’t think contrary opinions need new threads simply because they are contrary. Two conversations (or three or ten) can happen in a long thread.
The OP linked to the referenced thread in which people were doing this. If they’re trolling, then we’re calling them trolls, and we’re not supposed to do that.
If they’re threadshitting, we’re supposed to report the posts to a mod, and we’re not doing that, either.
Plus, the thread title itself is misleading. We’re not talking about people who “accidentally fall into a thread.” We’re talking about people who intentionally post a non-helpful comment indicating something that has nothing to do with the actual discussion.
Actually, I think Tad makes a lot of sense. The purpose for stating that you do not care might be that you are truthfully annoyed that others do care for whatever reason. I think that is a more internal “Ermahgerd, why are people still discussing this around me?!” than a purposeful admonishment to others for their interest in the specific topic. Makes sense.
No, I think it’s the latter. It’s an expression of contempt for the people who are talking about the subject. The purpose, when you strip away the pretext, is to tell people that they are stupid and they are interested in the wrong things because they are stupid.
If it helps, I actually do not think these folks are intentionally trolling, I just wasn’t sure WHY these types of posts occur. Shoot, like I said–I actually truly like some posters who do this, although maybe not for those specific contributions.
They didn’t need reporting for threadshitting, the mod was already on top of that like white on rice.
I just wanted to know, you know, why it happens. For example, I sometimes post, “This.” to various posts/comments on the Internet. Saying “this” doesn’t really bring anything to the conversation, but I do it because I want to be a part of the conversation and show my support, even though I don’t have anything valuable to add, content-wise.
Many people roll their eyes at “This.” posts and that’s cool, I can understand why they would.
I was strictly looking for the motivation behind the behavior.
I think it depends on the forum, really, and I give my fellow posters the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re at least trying to say something on-topic. People in the more formal fora are going to get asked for cites; people in the pure discussion forums are going to be asked their opinions; people in IMHO, MPSIMS and the Pit are going to be mocked to whatever degree is appropriate.