I’ve noticed that once a thread gets onto page 3 or 4 it tends to die pretty quickly thereafter. Each of the forums has a different time curve, but that’s another issue.
So if I post to a thread on page 3, sure I’ll bump it onto page 1, but most SDMB regulars have already seen it before and have said their peice to the degree they care to, so now they’ll ignore it. And so it sinks like a stone into oblivion with my post as the last word.
OTOH, if the thread is on page 1 and I post, I’m virtually guaranteed to not be the final poster.
Neither of the above scenarios is 100% true 100% of the time, but it does seem to be a tendency that might explain why some folks are better thread killers than others.
I actually like killing a thread in GQ – I feel like I answered so completely there is nothing left to add.
The feelings already expressed about thread killing apply to me in GD, IMHO and CS though. It really leaves you feeling like a dork from the hicks who pushed in and blurted out something inappropriate in a conversation of a small circle of Manhattan literati or at a meeting of Algonquin Round Table “Gosh yew folks sure are smart, but as my old Pap used to say …”
I will look back anxiously at this thread until someone posts after me – this one has more a musical chairs feel to it than normal.
It’s best when you think of threads like conversations at a party. Killing a thread is akin to being the guy who says “yeah, I fucked a dog once” in the middle of a conversation about leash laws, followed by nothing but awkward silence while people avoid eye contact and drift off to another conversational group.