How Do You React When Few Members Respond to Your Thread?

Phoenix32890 wrote:

I also become miffed when I respond with what I consider an intellectually acute remark, and the conversation goes on without anyone even acknowledging what I have said. It is as if I were invisible.

Acquiunk Wrote:
I thought I was the only one sucking my thumb over that ! I've really felt deflated at times when I've posted on a thread and the conversation just flows on as if I hadn't posted at all. A2K should offer free invisibility cloaks/security blankets for the more sensitive souls of this forum.

I have that same feeling.

I don't know what makes a thread work while others (including many of mine) wither and die quickly. Lola's Coffeehouse just goes on and on and Letty's WA2K Radio seems to be a hit. Some of it may be due to the poster (I've been many places, nimh, but never to your city. When I see your name on a story, I will read it because I know and appreciate your writing).
I think it is important, when opening a thread, to leave room for people to run with it. Someone started one recently asking for predictions for 2005.
That could have been interesting, perhaps, but the poster got too specific: what entertainment couple will get divorced next year. I don't know, don't care and therefore lost interest in the thread.

I'm not sure how to feel as of yet.
I'm just about getting the hang of things around here at A2K and I'm still a bit intimidated and therefore reluctant in starting new threads. Just to be on the safe side I've been mostly posting to the already existent threads and trying to fit in. However, when I do open up a thread, it is basically about a specific question I have, and that's just limited.

In the other hand, I am quickly learning that the number of views and posting replies received says a lot about the A2Ker's "social status". Kind of like in high school with the quarterback, the popular cheerleader, the intellectual crowd and the geeks and all...

how do you delete a thread that failed? can anyone explain for me - I can't work out how

Only works if there are no responses, Vivien

If there are none, you should still have the "delete" option in the right hand upper corner of your post.

You can still do something even if there are responses. I vaguely remember a thread where there were a few responses. Obviously, the writer of the thread was embarrassed about something she had written, so she edited the thread to the point of incomprehensibility.

I came onto this thread AFTER the edit, so I was faced with posts that referred to something that no longer existed.

I dont think its actually got to do with popularity or something, more like ... familiarity. You know, there's guys out there whom you've seen posting for a year, two years or even four (gasp). So you know kinda exactly what to expect. You see the name "Slappy" or "Kicky" or "ebeth" or "dlowan" or "Craven" or "Frank Apisa" or whatever, and you know pretty much spot-on what kind of thread or post you're gonna find when you click. So instantly, you can think, do I feel like that? Yes? OK, click.

Whereas with the newer members, you dont quite have this instant recognition thing yet, so its more like, well if youre gonna be hanging about anyway you might as well explore, but if youre just dipping in for a mo', youre more likely to quickly seek out the stuff that you know is pretty much what youre looking for right this moment. You know? More laziness than eagerness to 'be with the group'.

nimh- I agree. And it can work the other way. There are certain posters, with whom I would rather not interact. When I see their threads, I automatically pass them by.

On the other hand, a newbie is "tabula rasa". I am usually curious as to see how a new member develops, so I will often respond.

I read the ones I think will either feed my head or massage my funny bone. Like others here, I have had that dreaded sense that I have killed a thread with a comment (Excuse me while I try to lift this enormous ego up onto my desk... ungh.... there. My, my, it is big, isn't it?) and I have gone back to certain threads to see if someone, anyone, has made an additional, life saving, post.

I do go to the unanswered threads often to see if I can add-on and when headed for the political threads I try to remind myself that I'm supposed to be enjoying myself while I am wasting my time here.

Joe (not a lick of work done yet today) Nation

Joe- I never consider A2K wasting my time. At best, it can be great intellectual stimulation. At the least, it is time taken away from having to listen to my friends talk about their operations!

I enjoy going through the original poetry or prose. If they are too long, however, I find them difficult to follow sometimes.

Actually, I find that I have learned quite a bit on some deep threads. I enjoy looking through the art but I tend to stay away from politics.

Letty- I am more inclined towards the relationships and medical threads. When I am feeling particularly masochistic, I will take a dip in a political thread!

Hee! Hee!. Well, phoenix, we all have our M&M moments.

I enjoy Mr. Wizard's comments in both film and art. There are many folks here, newbies included, that need encouragement, I think. One thing that I am trying to do is to learn more about other countries.

Ug
that is one thing I hate about a thread... mine or not.. is how quickly some of them turn into bashing threads. it sounds like a kindergarden class.
If everyone kept your mindset on this forum I think it would probally help ALOT of threads to thrive. There are some that I would acutally love to participate in, but ( and everyone knows the handfull of posters I am talking about ) everytime they are around.. I just back out . Im not here for a fight and I am not here to be bashed because of my diffrent beliefs ...... > singing< GIRLS JUST WANNNNA HAAAVE FUUUUUUUUN.... OOOOHHHH GIRLS JUST WANNA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE
FUNNNNNNNNNN

:-)

shewolfnm- I agree. I am way beyond the stage where I need to argue with people. I want to share thoughts, not fight about them.

Funny, I was thinking about something. Remember where I wrote where sometimes I thought that I was "the kiss of death" on a thread? Well, a couple of days ago, I was on a thread where people were spoiling for a fight. I think that I responded very calmly, and even handedly. And then the thread died.

Was it possible that what the people on the thread desired was a fight, and I defused it, thereby depriving those people of the confrontive reaction that they wanted in the first place?

Possibly...
Very likely I would say.
I have done that before.. and wouldnt you know.
The next post I made, that handfull were bashing me like I was a stick in thier beehive.
>sigh<

Yes, for some, a point must be more of a punch in order to be satisfying.

The ones that get me going, meaning going out of the thread, are the ones who parse minutiae in order to support some broader point. When confronted about the unreasonableness they have presented, they merely present it again ad nauseum. Finally, your fingers are just too tired to continue, to say nothing about your brain.

that is called circular logic. Starts no where... gets no where.. proves nothing, just keeps a convo going.
I can specify wich group uses that to its end...
But I dont need to go there... ;-)




I was thinking I should change my quote to say
"In a thread.. I AM the kiss of death"

One thing that drove me crazy was the Swift Boat Threads... It seemed like they were everywhere... I couldn't understand what the point was but they got a TON of responses...

"His troops liked him and back him up."

"His commanders don't like him and don't back him up"

"Yeah well His troops like him."

"But the other guys don't"

"but his troops do"

"but the commanders don't"


It went on for days and weeks like this... blah blah blah...

jpinMilwaukee- I think that in many of the political threads, the participants are guilty of intellectual masturbation. IMO, many people, on all sides of the political spectrum, believe that if they shout enough, and keep saying the same things, as nauseum, people will begin to listen to their views.

It's sorta like "the big lie". Say something long enough, and forcefully enough, and people will begin to believe you!