Is it OK to post a lengthy follow-up to your own thread?

October 31, 2001 12:38 AM

Is it OK to post a lengthy follow-up to your own thread?
posted by andrew cooke to etiquette/policy at 12:38 AM (9 comments total)

I started a thread yesterday that only got a few replies, one of which was about whether the software I had linked to was still popular. I contacted the orignal programmer and got a very detailed reply that I could either forward to the person who replied on the thread, or post. I'd prefer to post as someone may have been interested but not said anything (it wasn't really a discussiony link anyway), but I've already replied to the thread a couple of times and it's looking a bit like sad ol' me pushing something that no-one cares about... Another thing I could do is post it somewhere else and link to it in that thread.

Comments? Just stop whining and post?
posted by andrew cooke at 12:44 AM on October 31, 2001

Just stop whining and post. :)

Seriously, I don't see the harm here. If it's true that no one is interested, then at worst you're wasting your time, but I can't see how you'd possibly be causing any problems for anyone else. I'd say go ahead and do it.
posted by webmutant at 1:07 AM on October 31, 2001

Post it, definitely. I was one of the people who were interested but didn't comment. This happens a lot. The number of replies isn't a reliable guide to the interest generated by a post. Sometimes there's nothing to say except "Thanks" - specially if you're technically out of your league as far as the link is concerned and find nothing useful or amusing to add.
Besides, reviving old Lazarus-like threads counts as a good deed in Meta-Heaven. ;-)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:08 AM on October 31, 2001

Which thread are you talking about, anyways? Is it that anti-SUV thing?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:14 AM on October 31, 2001

Andrew, for crissake post already. You gotta know I'm interested, and if I am wrong about SAOL, then by all means enlighten me. Post, post, post. If you feel self-conscious, lead off with appropriate disclaimer. Feel free to frame your post as a reluctant effort to re-educate that idiot Opus Dark - anything to oil the submit button.
posted by Opus Dark at 2:45 AM on October 31, 2001

OK, thanks. Will do.
posted by andrew cooke at 2:45 AM on October 31, 2001

i think you too are the same people.
posted by clavdivs at 5:43 AM on October 31, 2001

If everyone who was slightly interested, or at least interested enough to read a follow-up posted in the thread then the server would die a horrible death. I wonder that % of active users post more than twice a week and how many unregistered users read MeFi. I would bet a few posters and lots of lurkers.
posted by skallas at 6:07 AM on October 31, 2001

There's something about the term lurker that bothers me. I don't so much lurk as I do gaze from a respectable distance and occassionally launch textual tirades and specious spoutings of secular observations.

I bookmark threads I have interest in and while I don't always comment in them, I do enjoy when people add followup information. I've gathered a vast collection of Mefi links in this manner.
posted by john at 8:30 AM on October 31, 2001