When you see a subject line with a question are you even bothering to read the whole post? Or are you jumping straight to answering the question?

Eta: the reason I ask is it seems a lot of people do not read the whole thing. Just curious if is widespread..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2012 01:16PM by fidget.

I didn't see a question, did you put it in the main text?

Lmao!

I usually read every post. The exceptions would be if it's very long, or has a long article attached to it. I don't always have the time to read 1/2 hour long posts.

Unless the author decided to abjure punctuation or paragraph breaks. In those cases I move on immediately.

Of the threads I'm interested in reading, I pour through the responses before I decide to post or not.

I always read the whole post (unless it's a novella) if it's a topic I'm interested in. And sometimes I comment on one specific item, or on a point made in a reply.

Ron Burr

Mia, toto, and I took that to mean, do you read every post within the thread, and yes I do, and am bemused by those who don't.

Others responding here took it as answering a post within a thread,by not even reading that post, let alone the thread.

One flaw I have is when I'm reading the thread, I don't always read the subline of each post, and sometimes that's where the meat is.

I usually read the entire post along with the responses already given. However my own response may not necessarily be what the OP is looking for.

You'll get your answer to that by posting something, then after a few people have responded, respond to one of them to make a clarification. You clarification will show that your view/thoughts have morphed and therefore the original question does not reflect your current thinking.

You'll find that quite a few people on any type of forum don't bother to read all the comments to see how the conversation has evolved.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable responding to a post unless I've read the whole thing, including the replies. I don't want to make myself look silly :)

I read the whole thing first then respond if I think I have something relevant or interesting to say. Sometimes I don't understand and try to respond anyways to learn something new.

It depends on how much time I've got, I guess.

If I didn't have the time or interest to read the whole thing, I wouldn't have the time or interest to respond, either. So yeah, if I respond it generally means I've read the whole thing, unless there was a response posted while I was typing.

I usually read the whole OP if I'm going to respond but if I'm in a big hurry, I don't read every response. Sometimes I'll stop reading half-way through the OP if it turns out to not be something I can answer or isn't that interesting. If I have time, I'll read all the responses but if I see people arguing - or certain posters arguing, I'll drop the subject all together.

I usually assume that a question in the subject line is done intentionally by the author to emphasize a request for it to be answered.

That's what I assumed in your "point of life" post today Fidget. But now that I re-read your post it seems like your main intention was to just share your insight and maybe hear a reaction to it. Either way, thanks for sharing. You put your thoughts very nicely.

But I'll admit I often partially skim long posts with many lengthy paragraphs and then respond to the question in the subject line if there is one.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2012 06:34PM by Brian M.

I won't comment on a post if I haven't read it through. Hint to posters: please break for paragraphs and put a space between them. It's so much easier for the reader to absorb the text in organized chunks.

I read the original post but not always the replies.

42

Sometimes I like the question as asked and not as it turns out to be in the expanded post -- so I answer the subject line (as it were) although I generally read and acknowledge the expanded question.

Sometimes I think other people have answered the question well and either give those answers my approval or respond to a point someone else makes.

Sometimes I have strong feelings about the post and will post my response and then go back and read what everyone else says.

I do generally read the entire original post before commenting on anything, though.