# Thread Killers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577 "2003-12-07T18:04:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Foolonthehill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Foolonthehill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foolonthehill)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/1 "2003-12-07T18:04:21Z")
I’m not speaking of trolls, rants or deliberate attempts to stop a thread. But in the course of “normal” thread response, what are the odds your post will end the thread? What would be a high percentage of Thread Killers? In the last 6 months I have posted on 58 threads, and 9 of them stopped with my post. This works out to 15%, (appox.), of the threads ending when I post. Is this a high or low percent? If no one posts to this, have I killed my own thread? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/2 "2003-12-07T18:51:19Z")
I don’t _think_ so. ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/3 "2003-12-07T19:28:07Z")
It’s happened to me a few times. In a case like that I always try to think of it as having the last word 😛 FB ---
**Author:** ![Nvme77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Nvme77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nvme77)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/4 "2003-12-07T19:30:57Z")
It happens to me. I feel like I walked in on a conversation and after saying something, everyone has turned around and walked out the room, or maybe pretended they didn’t hear me. ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/5 "2003-12-07T19:40:04Z")
Are you kidding me?! I’m starting to get a freaking complex about killing threads. I did it twice yesterday alone! [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=227607) and (heavy sigh) [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=227457) ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/6 "2003-12-07T19:40:05Z")
I did a search on my user name one time and noticed that I was the last poster on 5 out of 7 threads! I’m usually not _that_ deadly, but my lethality qotient is a lot higher than yours. ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/7 "2003-12-07T20:11:33Z")
Threads I begin never seem to take seed. The only one I’ve ever had more than 4 or 5 reponses to was a GQ that I had to kill because my question was answered quickly. The shame… ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/8 "2003-12-07T20:46:36Z")
I’ve killed a few. I look upon it as my finishing post being so blindingly brilliant that others are afraid to make themselves look mediocre in comparison. Or. They fell asleep reading it. V ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/9 "2003-12-07T20:49:06Z")
Infrequently follow up on posts, so don’t really know. Probably have killed some. I know I started some with zero posts by others. So what! ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/10 "2003-12-07T21:06:15Z")
I’ve started a thread that got two responses from other people (and one was from bibliophage, who left a message saying that he had moved the thread to IMHO from GQ). I thought, “Well, OK, the thread title was ‘WiFi Card’, so maybe it was just that the title sucked.” So I started a thread called something to the effect of “What WiFi card should I get?” and got _no_ responses. Sheesh. I don’t follow up that often on threads I post to, so I don’t really know how guilty I am of threadicide, although I’ve probably killed a couple. ---
**Author:** ![Gmork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Gmork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gmork)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/11 "2003-12-08T00:30:48Z")
I’m almost afraid to post this, lest it kill this thread… ---
**Author:** ![lurksfromwork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@lurksfromwork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurksfromwork)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/12 "2003-12-08T01:34:30Z")
What? me kill thread? Thats unpossilble!! ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/13 "2003-12-08T01:45:58Z")
Very high. I often kill threads. 25 statues of Hitler… Made of sugar. ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/14 "2003-12-08T02:04:45Z")
> [@](#): > > This works out to 15%, (appox.), of the threads ending when I post. > Is this a high or low percent? You could take a random sample of dead threads and calculate the average length of the threads, and the odds of your ending a thread would be one divided by that number. Or you could just average the number of posts in the 58 threads you counted; if it is 6.66… (1/0.15), then you are perfectly average. If it is higher, it means you have a higher tendency to kill threads; if lower, the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/15 "2003-12-08T02:17:06Z")
Of course, if you’re using the former method, you would have to skip the threads with zero replies. You could use a similar method to determine the odds your thread will get zero responses: count the number of threads in a sample of dead threads, and then divide that by the total number of threads. ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/16 "2003-12-08T02:43:47Z")
That should be, “count the number of threads _with zero responses_ in a sample of dead threads, and then divide that by the total number of threads.” No more posts. I promise. ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/17 "2003-12-08T04:45:54Z")
Ah, they’re 1920s-style “death posts.” ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/18 "2003-12-08T17:54:04Z")
I’ve lost count on the number of threads I’ve killed. Any experienced doper, no matter how profound he or she may be, will have a few thread-kills under his belt. When it happens to me it makes me feel like I showed up late for the party and everyone’s getting ready to leave. And then I’ve had a few threads I’ve started that never got any responses in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Foolonthehill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Foolonthehill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foolonthehill)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/19 "2003-12-08T18:50:37Z")
I am glad to note that I am not the only one that feels like the ‘geek-in-the-corner.’ ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577/20 "2003-12-08T21:39:13Z")
Maybe we should start a “thread killers” support group. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-killers/217577.md?page=2)