Am I the only one who comments in dead threads?

June 17, 2005 12:02 PM

Am I the only one who comments in dead threads? I'm not an insecure troll, but they seem to die so quickly, and it's a little frustrating, especially if you're responding to someone/something and they've moved on. E-mailing the person to let them know you've responded to them is of course one answer, but seems silly if it's not that important, and is often not an option anyway. Are there any alternatives I'm not considering, outside of getting over it? I feel like there could be a pony here, but can't think of what it could possibly be...
posted by hellbient to Etiquette/Policy at 12:02 PM (38 comments total)

just for the record, i'm not talking about something that's a couple of weeks old, I'm talking a couple of hours since the last comment, or maybe more than halfway down the front page - and *poof*, deserted.
posted by hellbient at 12:06 PM on June 17, 2005

Live in the now man... live in the now.
posted by Necker at 12:07 PM on June 17, 2005

Oh sure, I do that too, but I generally don't worry about if folks see my comment or not.
posted by Specklet at 12:18 PM on June 17, 2005

Y'know, for people who sort by recent comments, those threads aren't necessarily dead. And if they are dead, your comments bring them back.
posted by COBRA! at 12:27 PM on June 17, 2005

yeah, sometimes i'll read a thread at work but don't have time to do a thoughtful comment until i get home, or the next day or so, but i'll still jump in and make a post...sometimes others will revisit if it's a topic of particular interest...but sometimes it's about the exercise of thinking something through for a while and expressing a point of view...also, it's kinda cool to have something out there that maybe nobody else will read...it's like a public secret...
posted by troybob at 1:08 PM on June 17, 2005

...and sometimes it's cool also to make posts in a topic you know is going to be deleted from the front page at any moment, as you can go all out and be as ridiculous as you want to be!
posted by troybob at 1:17 PM on June 17, 2005

there are so many threads that end with me speaking to an empty room. I used to only be able to read MeFi late at night when all the good threads were already over and done with.
posted by shmegegge at 1:44 PM on June 17, 2005

Isn't there some aspect of necrophilia in posting comments to a dead thread?

I post in a thread if I feel like it whether its active or not. Especially if the last comment before is a trollish one.
posted by fenriq at 1:47 PM on June 17, 2005

So COBRA! - how does one "sort by recent comments"? I am unaware of this feature.
posted by dbmcd at 2:29 PM on June 17, 2005

I return to maybe 1 blue thread in 20 in which I leave a comment. So, anyone responding to me, your words are landing on deaf ears. Is that kind of the opposite of a troll? heheh
posted by mischief at 2:30 PM on June 17, 2005

So COBRA! - how does one "sort by recent comments"? I am unaware of this feature.

There's a pull-down in the upper right, just above the textads.
posted by COBRA! at 2:34 PM on June 17, 2005

well, in face-to-face conversation you have some people who enjoy and give and take, and others who just want to say their view and be gone...so it's not unusual...i have a problem of not always reading through particularly long threads, and will later find on closer examination that my groundbreaking insights are a rehash--even worse when i note that someone has said it more succinctly or elegantly--though sometimes someone will restate what i say, so it all balances out i guess...

...sometimes i'll spend like 30 minutes (intermittently, between tasks) constructing a carefully worded post and then just decide to delete it...i guess going back to earlier days when i wish i had done so...
posted by troybob at 2:39 PM on June 17, 2005

The MetaFilter community simply doesn't have the attention span for prolonged discussion outside of flames and gossip. If you've got something informative to offer, post anyway. You may not get a reply, but your archived response might help someone else.
posted by cribcage at 2:43 PM on June 17, 2005

...sometimes i'll spend like 30 minutes (intermittently, between tasks) constructing a carefully worded post and then just decide to delete it...
that's me too, troybob...sometimes I hit "preview" so much that by the time I'm ready to "post", it's already been said. no wonder i comment in dead threads. I suck at the interwebs.
posted by hellbient at 3:12 PM on June 17, 2005

I'm frequently the last post in a thread. I'd be interested in seeing statistics on how often certain people make the last post.
posted by grouse at 3:48 PM on June 17, 2005

plep is the master conductor of dead thread swish. But I can't find IT.
posted by peacay at 4:04 AM on June 18, 2005

So, who is going to get last post in this thread?
posted by mischief at 6:50 AM on June 18, 2005

I return to maybe 1 blue thread in 20 in which I leave a comment. So, anyone responding to me, your words are landing on deaf ears. Is that kind of the opposite of a troll? heheh

That is being passive aggressive. ;-P
posted by mlis at 9:31 AM on June 18, 2005

Me too, hellbient. Sometimes I feel like I am a thread-killer. "I am become Death, destroyer of threads." Or I give up on posting that incisive analysis of whatever the FPP was about because it's been a day or two since anyone posted and hey, no one's going to see it...
posted by ubersturm at 12:21 PM on June 18, 2005

D'oh! This isn't looking good...
posted by ubersturm at 5:26 PM on June 18, 2005

ubersturm and grouse, I thought thread killer was my unique purview. I am more than willing to share the honor.
Like shmegegge and troybob, I don't always have the luxury of keeping up with mefi in real time, and am often reading later in the night or catching up on the weekend. Usually conversation is over at that point, but if I have something to add or I just want to thank the poster (particularly on a low commented thread) then I comment anyway. The sound of one hand clapping.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:10 PM on June 18, 2005

No, I am a thread-killer! Madam, I am newer here so much more suspect.... Many a times, I felt actually the door slap my butt.
posted by carmina at 3:13 PM on June 19, 2005

Wow, I thought it was just me - I often find that I comment in a thread and nobody ever comes back. I thought it was my breath or something.
posted by dg at 4:29 PM on June 19, 2005

So, how long before the inevitable 'race for the last post' contest in this thread?
posted by darukaru at 7:54 PM on June 19, 2005

Oh, it's started, bitches.
posted by NickDouglas at 9:07 PM on June 19, 2005

it's like the adrenalin rush of an eBay auction without paying!
Who will be the lamest amongst our little subterranean group of necro-threaders?

Dorky idea of the day:
a thread killer meetup...only those who've posted here...

yeah.
posted by hellbient at 12:56 PM on June 20, 2005

Meet you there....
posted by carmina at 8:15 PM on June 20, 2005

I'm the lamest! I am!
posted by NickDouglas at 9:47 PM on June 20, 2005

Aw. I don't want to win any more.
posted by NickDouglas at 8:40 PM on June 21, 2005

NickDouglas - you ain't lame!
you ain't nothing!
posted by hellbient at 5:40 AM on June 22, 2005

Well, if there's a club, maybe I'll start posting late instead of skipping it altogether...
posted by jaysus chris at 8:57 PM on June 22, 2005

Thought you could beat me, eh?
posted by NickDouglas at 5:52 PM on June 23, 2005

yoohoo ... where is everybody?
posted by madamjujujive at 10:34 AM on June 26, 2005

Don't get too comfortable there Madam.
posted by mlis at 7:34 PM on June 27, 2005

zombie thread...looking for braaaiiins...
posted by hellbient at 1:10 PM on July 2, 2005

*tidies the pace up. settles in*
posted by madamjujujive at 9:50 PM on July 12, 2005

duh - it is my typing that needs tidying more than the "place."
posted by madamjujujive at 11:58 AM on July 13, 2005

madamjjj - of course, given you posted roughly 10 days after the previous post, "pace" works as well...
posted by birdsquared at 7:01 PM on July 16, 2005