# READ & THINK before posting! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 24, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748 "2003-07-24T22:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/21 "2003-07-25T01:45:23Z")
What is this think-ing you speak of? ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/22 "2003-07-25T01:46:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fuel \* > \*\*“Failed to… avoid using profanity” = “Fuel used profanity”. And then I asked you to cite where I used profanity and you said you never said that. Uh, ok?! \*\* And again, you either completely fail to understand what has been laboriously explained to you over and over, or you’re deliberately misrepresenting me. Fuel accused Apos of not having read, meditated upon, and accepted the Bible. Fuel was criticised for this, because he has no way of knowing whether Apos has read the Bible or not. Fuel then switched to Terl mode and delcared that Apos had not accepted the Bible, and therefore he had not read, meditated upon, _and_ accepted the Bible. He then posted at length about how it was so horrible that people didn’t READ & THINK before replying to his post. Various people pointed out that the real problem is that Fuel phrased his comment carelessly, and that any normal person would interpret his comment to mean that Apos had neither read, meditated upon, _nor_ accepted the Bible. Fuel still didn’t buy it. I decided to write a post using the same sentence structure Fuel did. I said that he had failed to address many of the arguments that were presented, avoid using profanity, and act in a mature fashion overall. The punchline being, of course, that even though Fuel _had_ avoided using profanity, he had not addressed the arguments, avoided profanity, _and_ behaved maturely. Naturally, Fuel fell for it, because any sane human being knows that “you haven’t done A, B, and C” means that you’ve done one of them, not that you’ve done some but not others. Fuel, however, claims that I “messed up the whoosh.” He seems to weasel on exactly what was wrong with my post. IIRC he admitted at one point that he had indeed screwed up his post to Apos, but he still placed the blame on everyone else. Right now he’s settled on the “it was a double negative” argument, and never mind that I knew full well that I was using a double negative, and that the double negative is obviously irrelevant. Mind you, all these admonitions to post carefully are coming from a guy who quoted a cite directly from a bibliography, complete with the book’s title condensed into an acronym. And no, it didn’t occur to him that we wouldn’t know what the acronym stood for. And no, even when we asked, he still didn’t tell us what it stood for. ---
**Author:** ![lightingtool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@lightingtool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lightingtool)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/23 "2003-07-25T01:46:24Z")
I find it very strange that **Fuel** would say this: > [@](#): > > So many people on this board read a post and don’t even stop to think about anything before submitting a reply. It is ridiculous and embarrassing. So many assumptions, no benefit of the doubt, no intellectual consideration, no empathising, no figuring the best way to interpret someone’s post… just a month or so after [this train-wreck](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=191128&perpage=50&pagenumber=1), where he (in MHO) acted like the posters s/he is attempting to pit. Just to clarify, I do apologize again (and to **Fuel** this time) for the tone of my initial post in that thread. Hopefully you’ll agree that I behaved myself following that post. Also, have you noticed that the threadid# is 200,000 for this very thread? Pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/24 "2003-07-25T01:48:21Z")
Arg- “done none of them,” not “done one of them.” Mind you, Fuel’s behavior wouldn’t be nearly so problematic if he didn’t constantly crow about what idiots we are. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/25 "2003-07-25T01:53:58Z")
From lightingtool’s thread: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Fuel_\*\* > Well, here is my thinking behind the scene: 85 mph is fast and is easily breaking the law. However, that is still a reasonable speed to drive, albeit at the extreme edge of “reasonable”. Any faster and my midset goes like this: “Buddy, if you are going to blatantly disobey the speed limit so much as to pass me when I am excessively breaking the speed limit, we are both outlaws and I nor you have any kind of duty to follow any kind of laws that make me have to go out of my way to make you more comfortable. You have lost my respect as a fellow motorist and you are on your own, deal with it and go around me.” > > I _occasionally_ drive 90-95 in a 70 and I don’t expect any courtesy from anyone else when I am doing something that blatantly excessive. > > As far as what the law says, it’s not a very functional law so I don’t feel compelled to follow it in this certain situation. > > Basically, at 85 I feel I am going just slow enough to rightly disrespect anyone going faster than me and just fast enough to forget trying to keep getting into the right lane after every single car, IMO. If I am pacing the car next to me for too long (let’s say a full minute), oh well, at least I am keeping the maniac behind me from going 90+ for a minute… I might save a life or two by doing that! \*\* Gads… he really _is_ Adrian Mole! ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/26 "2003-07-25T02:05:09Z")
Okay, so I spoke too soon. > [@](#): > > \*\* > If you stopped to think about the topic rather than my slightly cocky delivery, you would realize what I am saying is at least somewhat reasonable on a certain higher level of thinking. \*\* I mean, is it just me? This sounds perfectly like Adrian Mole to me! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/27 "2003-07-25T02:09:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ben \* > \*\*Gads… he really _is_ Adrian Mole! \*\* I prefer chicken mole myself. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/28 "2003-07-25T02:26:50Z")
shhhh… The chicken mole, while small and blind, is very elusive. We hunt it at night, on the marshy shores of Lake Havasou. … ---
**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/29 "2003-07-25T02:40:31Z")
**Ben** , fact is you stirred up some sort of bizarre concoction of disorganization and misunderstanding in that post. I made an honest mistake and then you try to get back at me with some fouled up “whoosh”. Dude, I gotta say that this dumb little situation you created with your “pseudo-whoosh” is laughingly pathetic. I am done with this elementary school argument. And you should be too, you are spending way too much energy on this argument… give yourself a break bud. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/30 "2003-07-25T02:51:45Z")
Lisa: …it is better to close one’s mouth and be thought a fool, then open it and remove all doubt. Homer’s Brain: What does that mean? You better say something or they’ll think you’re stupid! Homer: Takes one to know one! Homer’s Brain: SWISH! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/31 "2003-07-25T02:55:21Z")
**Fuel** , give it up, dude. **Ben** used a sentence structure that was precisely analogous to your own. He didn’t “screw it up,” it just sailed over your head despite several attempts by a variety of posters to hold your hand and walk you through it. You can’t really be this thick, can you? ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/32 "2003-07-25T03:28:34Z")
He’s coming across that way. \*reads, thinks, then posts anyway& ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/33 "2003-07-25T05:04:02Z")
**Fuel** , get off the pedant train, willya? It’s not taking you where you want to go. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/34 "2003-07-25T06:36:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fuel \* > \*\*[snip] I am done with this elementary school argument. And you should be too, you are spending way too much energy on this argument… give yourself a break bud. \*\* Ah yes, but now he’s done with the argument. He creates this thread, posts a few things and then realizes that the person described in the OP is him. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/35 "2003-07-25T09:58:47Z")
> [@](#): > > So many people on this board read a post and don’t even stop to think about… Let me be the first to mention [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=195241). ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/36 "2003-07-25T11:35:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ben \* > \*\*It seems that Adrian Mole is back to his tongue-clucking about how failures of communication are always the other guy’s fault. > \*\* Oooh, nice reference, Ben. Is it me, or does that series remind you of Confederacy of Dunces? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/37 "2003-07-25T11:47:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fuel \* > \*\* just double-friggin’ click! \*\* No wonder you’re having problems - you only need to click once. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748/38 "2003-07-25T12:06:20Z")
Sorry. I hit the “J’accuse!” button by mistake. Curse You Windows XP!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/read-think-before-posting/190748.md?page=1)